Hey all.
So some of you may have seen my posts in some of the threads on here re the P20 Pro.
I've had a Pro since launch day and have loved it, however I have personally found the size to be just a little too large for me.
For a guy, I have pretty small hands so bigger phones are often not my first choice.
I could use the Pro and I was used to the size, but I also have an iPhone X which I think is almost the perfect size, so going between the 2 was often quite jarring due to the extra width of the P20 Pro.
Anyway, I've been looking into both models of the P20 since launch and have been intrigued with the number of reviews that have praised the P20's camera and said it's just as good as the Pro's in day to day shots.
Knowing that the slightly smaller hardware would be more beneficial to me, I decided to pick a normal P20 up today see how it stacked up in comparison to the Pro.
I picked the Midnight Blue for my regular P20. I have the black Pro, and don't really like the colour of it at all. Personal preference of course, but it's pretty boring.
As soon as I got it out of the box I loved the feel and size of the P20. Absolutely amazing for my smaller hands. I'd say near perfect for me!
The slightly narrower screen and CM or so off the length really makes huge difference. Side by side they don't really look massively different in terms of size but the feel is incredible.
The screen has gone from an OLED in the Pro to an LCD in the regular. Side by side, there's hardly any difference. I think the OLED looks slightly richer but the LCD is very good indeed. Also, the lowest brightness of the regular P20's LCD is actually really dim - Samsung levels of dim (this is a good thing). The Pro never got anywhere near dim enough for bedtime reading for my tastes. I've lost count of how many times I've been lay in bed on the Pro and gone to lower the brightness down only to see it's already at rock bottom.
In contrast though, the reg P20's max brightness doesn't reach that of the Pro. So the Pro will have an advantage in sunlight / bright day conditions.
There is only 4gb of ram in the reg P20, compared to the 6gb in the Pro. So far I haven't noticed much difference, and don't think I really will unless I was to put them side by side and start doing timings of how fast one of them loaded a YouTube video.
. Which I won't be doing!
There is absolutely no benefit to that 2gb of extra ram that I can see so far.
Camera. Well this has been interesting early on. This was the biggest test really, as if the Pro was that much better then I'd have stuck with it. However, I've taken a number of shots today and I've strangely found that the regular P20 doesn't seem to sharpen the photos quite so much. And this is without any AI interfering which can often do strange things to these phones photos. When compared directly on screen, it seems the P20 takes the ever so slightly more pleasing photo than the Pro.
I even asked my partner, who knows nothing about phones or which one is which and of the 3 random pics I took, he picked the regular P20's photos over the Pro's as the better one each time.
Some random things. The camera interface of the Pro is different to that of the P20. So the P20 has the classic Huawei leather back look behind the camera shutter. The shutter button is also made to look like it's made of silver. I like the look, but the Pro just has a plain black background and the shutter button is just white.
Not sure which I prefer, but odd that they're both different.
The Google Photos issue I was having on my Pro (it lagged when swiping between photos and opening / closing photos etc) is not present on my regular P20. No idea why, but there we have it!
I've seen a lot of people say that they were interested in the reg P20, but had Mate 10's and a lot of the advice given to people was to not bother with a P20. I personally disagree. The Mate 10 is obviously a great phone, but the P20 is not to be sniffed at.
Clearly the camera in the P20 is not just the same thing they put in the Mate 10.
The triple lens has its benefits, sure. The zoom being the biggest thing. It's incredible getting that level of quality at 5 x zoom. Even 3x is amazing. However, if that's all there is over the reg P20 then the P20 should be considered for those interested.
I know 40 megapixels is an option on the Pro, and if you're really into your photography then you could get some good stuff from that mode. But I found 40mp mode to be disappointing as photos often lacked good dynamic range and were dark in places most of the time.
I've just tested night mode and the results were interesting.
The top pic is the P20 PRO, the bottom is the regular P20.
I personally like the look of the regular P20 photo more.
PRO
REGULAR P20
These were shot at the exact same time just as day light was all but gone. I just find the reg P20 has truer colours and is more pleasing straight out of the camera. I'm pretty astonished at the results.
I wanted to create this thread to just give people food for thought if they didn't fancy stretching to the £799 for the Pro, and felt like they weren't getting as good a deal with the smaller, cheaper P20.
Not the case at all.
This regular P20 looks to be a keeper for me!
If anyone wants any other comparisons or has any questions let me know.
So some of you may have seen my posts in some of the threads on here re the P20 Pro.
I've had a Pro since launch day and have loved it, however I have personally found the size to be just a little too large for me.
For a guy, I have pretty small hands so bigger phones are often not my first choice.
I could use the Pro and I was used to the size, but I also have an iPhone X which I think is almost the perfect size, so going between the 2 was often quite jarring due to the extra width of the P20 Pro.
Anyway, I've been looking into both models of the P20 since launch and have been intrigued with the number of reviews that have praised the P20's camera and said it's just as good as the Pro's in day to day shots.
Knowing that the slightly smaller hardware would be more beneficial to me, I decided to pick a normal P20 up today see how it stacked up in comparison to the Pro.
I picked the Midnight Blue for my regular P20. I have the black Pro, and don't really like the colour of it at all. Personal preference of course, but it's pretty boring.
As soon as I got it out of the box I loved the feel and size of the P20. Absolutely amazing for my smaller hands. I'd say near perfect for me!
The slightly narrower screen and CM or so off the length really makes huge difference. Side by side they don't really look massively different in terms of size but the feel is incredible.
The screen has gone from an OLED in the Pro to an LCD in the regular. Side by side, there's hardly any difference. I think the OLED looks slightly richer but the LCD is very good indeed. Also, the lowest brightness of the regular P20's LCD is actually really dim - Samsung levels of dim (this is a good thing). The Pro never got anywhere near dim enough for bedtime reading for my tastes. I've lost count of how many times I've been lay in bed on the Pro and gone to lower the brightness down only to see it's already at rock bottom.
In contrast though, the reg P20's max brightness doesn't reach that of the Pro. So the Pro will have an advantage in sunlight / bright day conditions.
There is only 4gb of ram in the reg P20, compared to the 6gb in the Pro. So far I haven't noticed much difference, and don't think I really will unless I was to put them side by side and start doing timings of how fast one of them loaded a YouTube video.
. Which I won't be doing!There is absolutely no benefit to that 2gb of extra ram that I can see so far.
Camera. Well this has been interesting early on. This was the biggest test really, as if the Pro was that much better then I'd have stuck with it. However, I've taken a number of shots today and I've strangely found that the regular P20 doesn't seem to sharpen the photos quite so much. And this is without any AI interfering which can often do strange things to these phones photos. When compared directly on screen, it seems the P20 takes the ever so slightly more pleasing photo than the Pro.
I even asked my partner, who knows nothing about phones or which one is which and of the 3 random pics I took, he picked the regular P20's photos over the Pro's as the better one each time.
Some random things. The camera interface of the Pro is different to that of the P20. So the P20 has the classic Huawei leather back look behind the camera shutter. The shutter button is also made to look like it's made of silver. I like the look, but the Pro just has a plain black background and the shutter button is just white.
Not sure which I prefer, but odd that they're both different.
The Google Photos issue I was having on my Pro (it lagged when swiping between photos and opening / closing photos etc) is not present on my regular P20. No idea why, but there we have it!
I've seen a lot of people say that they were interested in the reg P20, but had Mate 10's and a lot of the advice given to people was to not bother with a P20. I personally disagree. The Mate 10 is obviously a great phone, but the P20 is not to be sniffed at.
Clearly the camera in the P20 is not just the same thing they put in the Mate 10.
The triple lens has its benefits, sure. The zoom being the biggest thing. It's incredible getting that level of quality at 5 x zoom. Even 3x is amazing. However, if that's all there is over the reg P20 then the P20 should be considered for those interested.
I know 40 megapixels is an option on the Pro, and if you're really into your photography then you could get some good stuff from that mode. But I found 40mp mode to be disappointing as photos often lacked good dynamic range and were dark in places most of the time.
I've just tested night mode and the results were interesting.
The top pic is the P20 PRO, the bottom is the regular P20.
I personally like the look of the regular P20 photo more.
PRO
REGULAR P20
These were shot at the exact same time just as day light was all but gone. I just find the reg P20 has truer colours and is more pleasing straight out of the camera. I'm pretty astonished at the results.
I wanted to create this thread to just give people food for thought if they didn't fancy stretching to the £799 for the Pro, and felt like they weren't getting as good a deal with the smaller, cheaper P20.
Not the case at all.
This regular P20 looks to be a keeper for me!
If anyone wants any other comparisons or has any questions let me know.
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