Leaps and Bounds

Thanks to its commitment to research and development, Huawei continues to raise the bar on smartphone technology.

W ith 10 per cent or more of its annual revenue funnelled back to research and development, it is no wonder that Chinese tech giant Huawei has been making big strides in the smartphone world. The numbers are testament to this. In the second quarter of this year, Huawei sold a staggering 49.8 million phones, and now holds the spot as the world’s second largest seller of smartphones after Samsung. And its latest launch is set to be a conversation piece.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is a beautiful piece of engineering that’s designed – and, possibly, destined – to overshadow the competition. The phone is armed with the new Kirin 980 chipset, which, according to speed tests on GSM Arena, could well be faster than the A12 Bionic that powers Apple’s new stable of phones, making the Mate 20 Pro the fastest phone on the planet for now.

The Mate 20 Pro boasts both form and function. It comes with a sleek 6.39-inch curved Oled display with minimal bezels for maximum screen estate. It has a huge 4,200 mAh battery, the largest in the market so far, that supercharges from zero to 70 per cent in 30 minutes with a 40W charger. And the Mate 20 Pro’s wireless charging system is able to reverse-charge compatible accessories and any smartphone that supports this type of battery repowering.

Huawei has also kept both avid and casual photographers in mind while designing the Mate 20 Pro. The phone features an f2.0 front camera and an AI-powered triple-camera system on the back, which includes an 40MP ultra wide-angle Leica lens with an f1.8 aperture for excellent low-light performance ( pictured). The superior AI not only keeps subjects in focus and in frame, it also pulls information from the Internet about subjects in the photo.

All these boundary-pushing capabilities are reason enough to impress, but the kicker is the price. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro comes with a recommended retail price of $1,348.