7 months with the Huawei P20 Pro: the idyll that never ends

Summary

Performance Software Design

Camera Autonomy Conclusion Comments

Available at

688 €

Following my test, I took the Huawei P20 Pro for a long time in order to observe it age over time and give you a more complete verdict. Race results? This phone is the best I have used so far.

The Huawei P20 Pro. Passed through my hands during our complete test of the phone, it left me with a very good impression confirmed by a very good rating.

Despite everything, we know the Chinese manufacturer and its EMUI interface: it is not uncommon for the recipe to spoil after a few months of use. This is why I took it for a long-term test, so that I could report the slightest problem occurring in the long run. Here are my observations after using it for the past 7 months as my primary phone.

For a notch that fades away

The Huawei P20 Pro was among the first generations of Android phones to incorporate a notch. When it was released, it was therefore naturally a point on which many readers were not happy, and to which we paid particular attention.

The trend changed within a few months in the market, with the glut of notches forcing a rapid adaptation to this new aesthetic. Meanwhile, the Huawei P20 Pro hasn't changed and is still the one with one of the smallest notches available on Android (if you don't count solutions like the Essential Phone). In use, I hardly even notice it as it disappears, without even having configured the phone to hide it.

The notch fades away so quickly from the look

Above all, I never got tired of the phone. If the aesthetics of the OnePlus 5T ended up being nothing to me, the device blending into the crowd, the blue back and the curves of the P20 Pro continue to seduce me... when I can see them under the mountain of fingerprints picked up by the back glass. Its rounded edges are still just as pleasant, and the P20 Pro still as comfortable as on the first day: a real treat to use.

There is a downside, however: the placement of the fingerprint reader. I use it to navigate the interface, wanting to free up the screen as much as possible, and it must be admitted that it is a little too small to do so with the comfort that is suitable for such repeated use. I am, and have never been, for the fingerprint reader on the front, and even when I got used to it, I often see myself hoping that it would have been on the back even 7 months later.

Before regulatory cleaning

This is the only slightly frustrating design concern I had during this experience. Conversely, its screen always delights me so much to watch my videos quietly in my bed. Only one thing would be missing to make it all that much better: front speakers.

As it stands, those two speaker grilles at the bottom of the phone are still so easily clogged naturally in landscape mode, and I still find myself having to cup the Huawei P20 Pro in my hands to redirect the sound. The sound coming out of the monitor speaker is not loud enough to suit. A common "problem" that I encounter with all smartphones using this layout, which does not correspond to my use.

This little crack that taunts me

Ah, yes: I cracked the glass of my screen by missing my pocket and dropping the phone directly towards the corner of my dining table. A fragile phone? Hard to say, since my test copy (renewed following a theft) clearly knew other hands than me and was not in top form from the start.

Also, it's probably the smartphone I've dropped the most in my life (I broke my personal record for clumsiness), and it only got away with this one breakage and a few scratches on the back only visible in bright light (and some of which were already there when picking it up).

EMUI remains to be improved

When I tested, the Huawei P20 Pro had Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.1 and the March security patch. Seven months later, it has Android 8.1 Oreo, with EMUI 8.1, and the August security patch. Despite everything, it still experienced 3 to 4 updates over this time, the first of which fixed the few small software bugs encountered initially and another added GPU Turbo. Not an exemplary follow-up, but still responsive enough not to be pointed out as a defect.

Like all smartphones I have ever owned, I immediately affixed the launcher closest to smartphones developed by Google. Google Now Launcher is no longer the Pixel Launcher that I trust now. What find an experience closer to the stock, and overcome the recurring problem of EMUI: its design.

EMUI still looks as old-fashioned to me as it did on day one, and the theme store doesn't help fix that. At least we can put an icon pack to find the majority of the stock, but the customization of the notification bar made by the manufacturer still seems thick and coarse to me. This also led me to force myself to limit myself to 5 system shortcuts, to be sure that the pane never fully unfolds.

Despite this purely aesthetic aspect, I must admit that I also like the interface for the many options it offers. However superfluous they may seem at first sight, I happened to activate some of them after many months, such as those related to facial recognition. It is extremely enjoyable to be able to just lift your phone and unlock it automatically without any support, which is very useful to me when I park the Huawei P20 Pro in a dock. Everything seems possible depending on the type of use, but some features sometimes come in our way when we have not deactivated them.

There remains an annoying bug that has never found a solution during these 7 months: since the implementation of the GDPR, my phone tells me through a notification appearing every day that I have to update my account Cloud Huawei... which I never created. In support, the notification does not lead to anything and never disappears. A ridiculous detail, but still a bit surprising for such a high-end smartphone.

No 7nm, no problem

The Huawei P20 Pro is equipped with the Kirin 970 and 6 GB of RAM, a configuration that has become much more accessible in the meantime. It could even seem a little pale compared to the Snapdragon 845 and Apple A12 Bionic of this world, since less powerful on the benchmarks and today very widespread.

Despite everything, it has never failed me over this period which still saw the release of PUBG Mobile, but also Fortnite, two relatively demanding games for the mobile space. The latter more precisely, surely the most resource-consuming mobile game in the world, runs very well on the Huawei P20 Pro.

In 7 months, I have therefore never experienced a use where I felt the limits of the telephone. Natural for a high-end smartphone, you might say, but with such news... it was not necessarily guaranteed.

My Huawei P20 Pro also experienced a scorching summer, a period during which many smartphones heat up at the slightest opportunity, suffocated by the ambient air. However, it hasn't changed that much and has remained at a perfectly decent temperature, no hotter to the touch than the other devices around me. For having known the Snapdragon 810, I can tell you that it was a big change.

There is only one context where my Huawei P20 Pro knows the heat: intensive use of GPS in a place (sadly, my room) where receiving Wi-Fi like 4G requires any device to play circus jugglers. However, it remains well dissipated over the entire surface of the phone, preventing deterioration of the grip. Out of these very particular (and extreme) conditions, I never had to complain about the SoC.

Me, photographer

The Huawei P20 Pro's triple photo sensor was obviously its biggest argument. I gave it 10/10 when it was released, and am happy to report that I still consider this rating deserved 7 months later: if the Galaxy Note 9 takes very beautiful photos, I subjectively prefer the processing and the freedom offered by the P20 Pro.

Changing phones is often having to reluctantly get used to a new interface and new features. Here, however, the Huawei P20 Pro has only positively influenced my uses, to the point of modifying my expectations for a future device. Through its versatility and its always excellent results regardless of the shooting conditions, the Huawei P20 Pro has given rise in me to instincts of a Sunday photographer that I did not know existed until then.

I have never taken so many photos since the Huawei P20 Pro was in my pocket. It is a fact. It must be said that being more of a night owl than the average, it is rare that a smartphone can follow me in my wanderings. This is perhaps the most important point for me: my photos have finally become... pretty, or at least quite simply usable, thanks to what the triple photo sensor brings.

However, I think I got used to the automatic processing of artificial intelligence, which I already highlighted in my test. After the first shock, it must be said that there were few moments when I deactivated it. Although the final rendering is close to an Instagram filter, I also can't deny that... I like, 99% of the time, the rendering that the Huawei P20 Pro gives me. In the end, there are only two points on which "I don't agree with her" (yes, I argue with the AI ​​at home): her rendering of the skies, which are always too blue, and of the plants, always too green. A little deactivation, and all is well.

Purely as a journalist, the Huawei P20 Pro is also the best camera I could ask for. Its easily accessible and lossless x3 and x5 zooms are a pure blessing when you have to react very quickly to a presentation. My livetweeting comfort has never been greater. Be careful though, it is also in this kind of context that the AI ​​played tricks on me the most, trying to scan a document when I was just taking a picture during a conference, with a slide that was a little too white.

Everything is not totally perfect then. But the Huawei P20 Pro has done so much positively for my use that I very easily forgive its flaws: it's the simplest camera, the most fun too, and with the best processing that I've ever used. . I really love it.

May I die if I weaken

With its 4000 mAh battery, the Huawei P20 Pro impressed on our personalized Viser test, but also in use. Unfortunately, it is also often on this point and through manufacturer updates that smartphones tend to weaken over time.

Nay for Huawei's latest model, quite the contrary. It is one of those smartphones that makes you forget the very concept of running out of batteries. To give you an idea, I always let it charge overnight and unplug it around 8:30. I'm writing these lines at 4:34 p.m., and it still has 89% battery despite my repeated use over the day.

More generally still, I have never left to join my friends after work, around 7:00/30, without less than 75% battery at the very minimum... and this without recharging it during the day of course. I end my days hanging out in bed for an hour or two on Twitter and YouTube, and usually plug in my smartphone when it has between 30 and 40 percent battery left.

All of this is in a setting where I take photos all evening, use Google Maps to find my way around a Paris that is still just as nebulous for me, and experience the metro with my Bluetooth headphones and Play Music playing my favorite sounds while I mechanically refreshed my Twitter feed. When it's not about having to go home by Uber at the end of the evening, of course.

In short, from my most frantic pace to my quietest days, I never had to worry about my phone's battery life. And when that's the case, like when I forget to plug in my smartphone in the evening, for example, I only have to plug it in thirty minutes before leaving to be sure I have enough juice to continue my wanderings.

If I can't point out an example where the Huawei P20 Pro gave me a scare, it's simply because it doesn't exist. Despite the parties, despite the trips, despite the fairs, the livetweets, the game sessions, I simply never managed to get out of breath.

An idyll that lasts

The Huawei P20 Pro made a strong impression when it was released. Seven months later, this successful first impression is enhanced by a real personal crush on this device.

EMUI is still so old-fashioned, the placement of the fingerprint reader was perhaps not so relevant in the end, but here it is: when it comes to the only two negative points that you can really remove from a long-term test, that in itself is very telling.

The Huawei P20 Pro is a phone that has managed to positively influence my use of a smartphone, even though it remains very basic in absolute terms. He made me want to be a Sunday photographer like never before, and to do this he became my best companion on a daily basis.

We have seen how the Chinese manufacturer has made a big splash with its triple photo sensor on the market, simply because its competitors have it or are about to copy it. I can at least report that in use, we feel it and continue to feel it: without ever running out of steam, the Huawei P20 Pro highlights use at a rate that it knows how to maintain. It is a real pleasure to use on a daily basis, which its meager flaws never manage to weaken.