Huawei P20 Pro and P20 Lite launched in India: Everything you need to know
China's biggest smartphone maker, Huawei, recently announced its photography-centric, P20, P20 Pro and P20 Lite smartphones at a glittering event in Paris. A little under a month from that date today, the company has decided to skip on the former and brought the latter two to India.
The Huawei P20 Pro and P20 Lite are two very different phones, targeting very different price segments and audience, yet they are bound together by the weight of expectation of changing Huawei's fortunes in the country.
The smartphone maker over the years has maintained its presence in India through its sub-brand, Honor, which has a strong line-up of budget and mid-segment devices in the country. However, Huawei is now looking to supplement them with these high-end premium and mid-segment devices under its own name to take on the growing might of the likes of Samsung which have gradually enhanced their presence in the country.
The two devices have been announced with price tags of Rs 64,999 and Rs 19,999 and will be Amazon exclusives. This is slightly lower than the international pricing of the devices which were first announced on March 27, 2018, for 899 euros (Rs 72,300 approximately) and 350 euros (Rs 30,000 approximately).
P20 Pro
The beefier of the two, the P20 Pro is definitely the star of the show and as such has been equipped with specs to make it an industry leader.
The phone comes flaunting a 6.1-inch (2240x1080) AMOLED display running at an 18:9 aspect ratio. Under the hood, it has the powerful Kirin 970 platform, 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM for smooth performance.
In terms of the cameras, the P20 Pro is an absolute beast. Huawei and Leica have collaborated here to build a truly unique camera system that features not two, but three lenses placed vertically. On paper, this makes it arguably the most powerful system seen on a flagship.
Of the three cameras, the first is a 20-megapixel monochrome camera, the second being a 40-megapixel colour lens and the third being an 8-megapixel telephoto lens. The 40-megapixel camera is what Huawei is focusing on as the phone's major selling point, even comparing it to DSLRs in its teaser videos. The particular lens features a huge 1/1.7” sensor, one that is much larger than any competing phone.
Both the 40-megapixel camera and the telephoto lens have optical image stabilisation. Huawei's flagship also has an improved laser autofocus system which now works up to 2.4m (twice as far as P10's Laser AF) and there's "4D autofocus" with motion prediction too.
The phone is also bringing with it AI-backed features such as artificial intelligence stabilisation or AIS, which works on object and scene recognition. AIS also comes into play during night shots with a Handheld Night Mode. The phone gets its juice from 4000mAh battery pack with Huawei SuperCharge.
P20 Lite
The second phone that Huawei is bringing to India may not be as awe-inspiring as the P20 Pro, however, it still is a device that could have a profound impact on the fortunes of the company going forward.
Though on paper, the P20 Lite is the entry level phone of the line-up, yet, the hardware it packs belies that notion. There's no denying it comes with a weaker spec sheet in comparison to the expensive Pro, but it shines within the price segment it has been announced in.
The design here is basic but elegant. At the back, the phone is made of glass which holds the phone’s fingerprint scanner and the rear camera. The glass back meets the phone's 5.84-inch LCD display in the front. The display runs at a resolution of 2240x1080 and 16:9 aspect ratio. There's also an iPhone style notch at the top.
The device's headphone jack, USB Type-C charging port and the speaker grille are all at the bottom of the phone.
Under the hood, the P20 Lite comes with a more than capable Kirin 659 processor paired with 64GB of storage and 4GB RAM which, to be honest, is slightly disappointing for the price. There is also a slot for expanding the phone's memory up to 256GB using a microSD card.
Apart from this, there is a vertically aligned dual camera set-up on the back, with a 16-megapixel primary sensor and a 2-megapixel secondary sensor. There's another 16-megapixel sensor at the front for clicking selfies. Powering the package is a 3000mAh battery.