The cooperation between Huawei and
Leica on smartphone cameras is entering the third round, and the two partners
are taking a huge step forward. For the
first time, the Huawei P20 Pro has three cameras and a sensor with up to 40-megapixel
resolution. All this is not just
gimmick, because the first camera test shows that the Huawei P20 Pro has the
potential to teach the competition the fear.
The advance lobes that the Huawei
P20 Pro got for its camera are impressive.
By far better results than any other smartphone attest the DxOMark
testers the new model, and at all levels.
Now you do not have to regard the word of DxOMark as carved in stone,
but it is a strong trump that the manufacturer can pull out of his sleeve.
Before we take care of the photos and videos
that the Huawei P20 Pro delivers in the camera test, first the technology. The three cameras from top to bottom: At the
top sits a camera with 12-megapixel sensor and a Telephoto focal length of 80
millimeters in the small picture equivalent, the aperture is f / 2.4. Below are two wide-angle modules: in the
middle sits a RGB sensor with 40 megapixel resolution and f / 1.8, at the
bottom a black and white sensor with 20 megapixels and f / 1.6. Between the lenses, the Huawei P20 Pro still
has an active laser autofocus with transmitter, receiver, and a flash with its
own color temperature sensor to adapt the flash to the ambient light.
Fast and easy to use
As complicated as the technology is, operating
the camera on the Huawei P20 Pro is as simple as it gets. The camera app is tidy and still has plenty
of features to offer. The speed of the
camera is also impressive. A quick start
from standby allows the P20 Pro to take a photo in just 0.3 seconds. In normal operation, the autofocus of the
Samsung Galaxy S9 is still a bit faster, but the P20 Pro will be too slow for
any user.
The picture quality in the
automatic mode, which the Huawei P20 Pro delivers in the camera test, is simply
impressive. No matter if much or little
light, the pictures are always razor-sharp, have lifelike colors and very
little picture noise. Unlike the Galaxy
S9, the noise reduction on the P20 Pro also does not cause details to blur, on
the contrary. The richness of detail is
outstanding.
Play in the portrait mode with the light
The portrait mode has been provided with new,
calculated lighting effects on the P20 Pro.
In addition, there is a ten-step beauty effect, which should
artificially brighten the pictures. In
addition, Huawei can now calculate a bokeh effect very well. The lighting effects but always make mistakes
that sometimes make the photos useless.
The beauty effect quickly becomes unnatural. The tip therefore: Instead of the portrait
mode rather take the aperture mode, the equally beautiful blur generated that
you can also change afterwards. Nevertheless,
you save yourself the dubious and gambling with the light effects. For portraits, the aperture mode is excellent;
the bokeh is on a par with the images Google Pixel 2 XL delivers.
The P20 Pro delivers a remarkable
performance in low-light situations. The
images have a tremendous amount of detail and with the HDR mode a dynamic range
that makes them seem almost unnatural in part.
By combining the data from the three different sensors, Huawei manages
to keep picture noise very low.
Slow shutter speeds without blurring
Impressive is that Huawei manages to make up
to eight seconds long shutter speeds out of hand without blurring. This can deliver impressive results that are
not possible with any other smartphone.
A small but forgettable downside:
If you zoom in deep into the photos, you realize that the software is
sharpening quite a bit. In the normal view,
this is not a problem.
Speaking of zoom:
The optical triple zoom is a
blessing, especially in portraits. If
you want to get things even closer, you can also use the five times hybrid
zoom, which uses the high-resolution 40-megapixel sensor. This works great for a smartphone even in bad
light. Especially at maximum zoom, the
electronic image stabilizer now and then takes a little longer to turn on, and
here and there, the automatic white balance is a bit off the mark.
The different image modes in the
camera app from Huawei work sometimes better, sometimes worse. The food mode is unnecessary, even on
scanners, watermarks or filters can be easily and gladly do without. The monochrome mode, in turn, is suitable for
friends of black and white photography.
Further modes are available for download.
Videos are better than any other Huawei smartphone
Also for video recordings that are befitting
in 4K, DxOMark has given the P20 Pro top marks - 98 points is more than any
other smartphone has reached. So quite
understandable, however, is not, because although the image quality is good for
videos, is now and then to see aliasing, color casts under artificial light
appear, and the purely electronic image stabilizer of the P20 Pro comparatively
quickly reaches its limits. Meanwhile,
the autofocus works just as well as the exposure setting, and the image noise
is quite low. Videos are so good and
better than any other Huawei smartphone, but there are manufacturers who can do
that a little better.
The Huawei P20 Pro offers three
different slow motion modes: 120, 240 or 960 fps. The handling is different. With 120 or 240 fps, you normally film a
video and later you can specify the area to be played in slow motion via a
slider. That can be the whole
video. At 960 fps, pressing the shutter
button starts a short video of half a second, which then expands to ten seconds
of super-slow motion. Of course, this is
finer in the presentation, but you have to be very careful to record exactly
what you want. The 240 fps mode is much
more useful in everyday life.
One thing to keep in mind: The
software, which plays an immense role in the camera of the Huawei P20 Pro, is
not yet final on our test device. It is
to be expected that one or two updates will be coming soon. That is a good thing, because the
pre-software has a few problems. At
irregular intervals, the camera app of the Huawei P20 Pro stops when you use
the zoom, very rarely it hung up in the test and had to be stopped
manually. Huawei has promised, among
other things for the image stabilizer for video recording, which is also
necessary. Changes to the general image
quality are still possible; we keep that in mind for you.
Conclusion: a huge leap forward
Even the first camera test after only two days
with the Huawei P20 Pro makes it clear that the famous "Game Changer"
could actually hide here, taking smartphone photography to a new level. Moreover, there is even more in it in the new
Leica camera, because with software updates, some things should be further
improved. In manual mode, the Huawei P20
Pro can be used to conjure up even better photos with a bit of training. We are very curious how the camera comparison
with the current top smartphones.
What do you think of the pictures that the
Huawei P20 Pro delivers?
