HOW IT’S DONE
Pro by name, pro skill necessary to get inside...
Huawei P20 Pro
Huawei is angling for the high-end segment with its three-eyed raven P20 Pro. It has packed a ton of tech in here, what with three cameras, plus a 24MP selfie cam — all topped off by a notched display. Hate it or love it, we’re tearing it down.
MAJOR TECH SPECS
6.1-inch OLED touchscreen with 2,240 x 1,080 (408ppi) Octa-core Kirin 970 with Mali-G72 MP12 GPU and a dedicated NPU Triple-camera 40MP + 8MP + 20MP, f/1.6 and f/2.4 main camera unit ≠ by Leica 24 megapixel (no, that’s not a typo) f/2.0 selfie camera 128GB storage and 6GB RAM Android 8.1 Oreo≠
KEY FINDINGS
Huawei has opted to notch the display of the P20 around its camera and earpiece speaker. Compared to its predecessor, the P10, this new Huawei comes with some beefed-up dimensions: at 15.5 x 7.39 x 0.78cm ≠ and 180g in weight. It also boasts three cameras on the back. ≠ The 40MP and 8MP cameras work together to get a 3x optical zoom. ≠ ≠
The 20MP monochrome camera brings extra detail and sharpness. But enough about the outsides — ≠ in teardown land, it’s what’s inside that counts. Eliminating pesky pentalobes was a welcome move, ≠ but no screws at all? Time to try our luck with the trusty iSclack. To our surprise, the P20 Pro opens almost ≠ as easily as a flower in the spring sun. Almost. We’ve never had to use an opening pick on a flower. This teardown is really starting to bloom, look at all that techy nectar — uh, is this metaphor getting away from us? We go to remove the back cover and are foiled! No fingerprint scanner back here, and there’s still a cable primed to be ripped during opening — looks like Huawei opted to mount the laser autofocus sensor on the rear case to stack it over the cameras. We finally get our hands ≠ on some screws and make quick work of the NFC antenna and motherboard shield. Finally, we come to the brains of this operation — the motherboard — ≠ and wrestle it free from its various connectors. Huawei once again sticks to its usual motherboard design, opting for a wider battery and a smaller ‘ board than some other Android phones. The trio of cameras comes along for the ride, holding fast to the board, with the rear flash module in tow. The three rear cameras get by with just two connectors — the main camera and the monochrome camera share one port, while the telephoto camera ≠ gets the other all to itself. Usually, we don’t like barriers between us and necessary battery replacements, but we might make ≠ an exception for the modular charging port. That’ll be a painless replacement. Since we got this far without heat, we stay cool and attack the battery glue with some drops ≠ of magic. Wait just a tick — then, opening pick. As smartphone batteries go, this one’s a heavyweight — 4,000mAh at 3.82V, or 15.28Wh. Repairability Score: 4 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair). Many components are modular and can be replaced independently. Replacing the battery is possible, but at the expense of some time and effort. Double the risk of breakage with glass front and back. Replacing the screen requires going through at least two layers of adhesive and some disassembly.