Introduction
Mate 20 Lite is a somewhat weaker device from the new Huawei’s Mate 20 series. Rest of the series, the Mate 20 and the Mate 20 Pro are expected to be unveiled later this month. This device received a new HiSilicon mid-range chipset, the Kirin 710. The display is a bit bigger compared to P20 Lite, and there are also some improvements in the camera section as well.
The front and the back of this phone are both made of glass which is prone to shattering and scratching, but on the other hand it looks great and feels excellent in hand. Edges are made of aluminum, and the phone is sadly not waterproof. Build quality is almost perfect, design-wise, the phone is gorgeous, especially in this Sapphire Blue color version. On the glass back, light makes really amazing effects which only supplement the premium feel of the phone.
Inside the factory box, next to the phone we get user manuals, a SIM tray tool, headphones, quick charging adapter, USB Type-C charging and data transfer cable as well as a protective foil which is a very nice addition.
Let’s jump into a little more details and see what this device has to offer.
Video review
Unboxing
Display
On its front panel, the new Mate 20 Lite has a big 6.3” 1080p FullHD IPS LCD display. This is, to say the least, a very big phone, but thanks to the 19.5:9 aspect ratio display, it sits in the hand quite nicely. On top of the front panel there is quite a wide notch that can be hidden in display options.
This LCD display’s brightness is quite good even on direct sunlight, all contents are clearly visible, and when it comes to color options we can choose either somewhat colder of warmer tones.
Hardware and OS
As we’ve said at the beginning, this phone has a Kirin 710 AI chipset built on a 12nm process. Paired with the chipset we have 64GB of internal storage memory together with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM.
It is a very comfortable experience using this phone as everything works quite well. High demanding games maintain stable 30 – 60 fps framerate on medium settings, however in some games, such as PUBG Mobile, some glitches are noticeable on rendered objects, and we believe that the issue here is with the still unsupported and new chipset. On the synthetic AnTuTu benchmark the phone scored 140000 points which is more than just a decent score for a mid-ranger.
We compared this phone to the Xiaomi Mi A2, and frankly we weren’t very satisfied how the Mate 20 Lite performed. It didn’t retain opened applications in RAM as the A2 did, which is bad news since both devices have 4GB of RAM.
This phones main speaker is quite loud, however low tones are not that well reproduced.
Out of the box this phone comes with Android 8.1 Oreo preinstalled over which there is the EMUI 8.2 user interface. There you can find a lot of customization options, themes, antivirus, as well as a facial mapping unlock system.
Camera
On its back, the Mate 20 Lite has a double camera setup the main of which is a 20 megapixel sensor while the other one is a 2 megapixel sensor that serves to get depth of field information. This system is exactly the same as it was on previous Huawei’s Lite devices. When it comes to the selfie camera, it is also double camera setup with a 24 megapixel sensor as the main and a 2 megapixel sensor as the secondary one. This phone is equipped with AI technology which can recognize scenes in 22 different photo categories. Photo parameters and colors are automatically adapted to the scene photographed. In the camera interface there are the AR Qmoji emoticons that turn your face in one of available characters.
When it comes to the quality of photos, when the AI mode is turned on we get incredible photos with well saturated colors, however, when we zoom in we can see quite a lot of noise that, honestly, shouldn’t bother you if you use the photos for social media purposes. The portrait mode does a good job separating subjects, but sometimes it’s too rough which makes the edges easily visible.
Videos are recorded in 1080p resolution at 60 fps, but they are not stabilized at all. If you want your videos stabilized, you’ll have to capture them in 30 fps. Recordings look very nice with a good level of details and not oversaturated colors as in the AI photo mode.
When it comes to the selfie camera, you can’t really notice too much difference compared to the main shooter. The portrait mode is present here as well, and it also does a great job.
Connectivity
This phone comes in several available versions, and our SNE–LX1 version has a hybrid SIM card slot that can store either two nano-SIM cards or one nano-SIM and one microSD storage expansion card, that supports expansions up to 256GB. On the bottom there is the good old 3.5mm headphone port, and NFC is also supported. The LTE Cat.12 modem is here and it enables download speeds up to 600 Mbps and upload speeds up to 150 Mbps. This phone uses a Type-C cable for charging and data transfer.
Supported wireless connectivity options:
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual band with Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot
- Bluetooth v4.2 with A2DP and LE support
- GPS wuth A-GPS, GLONASS and BDS support
- NFC only on SNE-LX1 version
Supported network bands:
- 2G GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
- 3G WCDMA: 850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz
- 4G LTE: 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2600 MHz
Battery
The Mate 20 Lite received a big upgrade in terms of battery. This phone has a 3750 mAh battery that supports fast charging. Taking into account the battery capacity, with the factory charger this phone gets around 33% charge in 30 minutes while it takes around 2 hours and 20 minutes for a full charge.
The new Kirin 710 is, as we’ve said, a 12nm chipset, which means that the phone won’t drain the battery too much. This device is more than capable of lasting a day or two of average use, with around 8 hours of Screen On time.
Final words
Huawei Mate 20 Lite is an excellent choice for users who primarily seek a device with a good design and nice cameras, however, there are also some cheaper options that bring similar performances on the table such as the Xiaomi Mi A2, Honor 10 or Nokia 7 Plus. This phone’s official price is around 400 euros, but you can get your hands on one for as low as 350 euros.
Xiaomi Mi A2 Full Specifications
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This review is brought to you in co-operation with MOBITECH Mobile SHOP!