Initial impressions after a few days use....

[neil74]

So a few days in and I thought I would post my thoughts for anybody who is interested, Just a list of my positives and negatives, in no particular order……


+ Battery is very good, most bloat can be removed and even if it cannot Huawei’s management of background stuff seems very good (A Samsung feels like the wild west in comparison)

+ Love the feel of the phone, also love the twilight colour

+ Not sure if this is a positive or negative but it feels smaller than I was expecting. I think 6.4” includes the notch and is misleading

+ It is super-fast.

+ I genuinely do not mind EMUI at all, it has some nice features and is better IMO than Samsung and miles better than LGs software

+ Excellent camera(s)

+ I like the in screen FPS and it has been pretty reliable so far….

+ …but face unlock is faster and usually kicks in before I try the FPS

+ Launched on android pie (Looking at you Note 9 and LG V40!)



- FPS is slower than a traditional one and I do often miss one being on the back

- FPS or Face unlock do not work with my banking app. At least Lastpass works ok so I guess I should be grateful!

- Said it before but the AOD is as good as useless with no 3rd party app support. I have switched it off. Looks like they have not improved it all over the last year which is a real shame.

- No Bluetooth volume sync, I am getting used to this and luckily my headphones have a companion app so I can see the headphone volume, it is a faff though.

- No sign of nano-memory being available. I assumed it would be available pretty soon after launch but if it drags on too long it will become an issue for me as I was banking on picking one up.


Lastly did not mention this above but I am wondering how everyone has been getting on with the gestures too? I have mostly liked them but have today switched back to buttons. I had problems with the keyboard which I did not expect, I think that everything moving down the phone slightly with the removal of buttons messed with my muscle memory and I was experiencing constant typos, shame you cannot shift the keyboard up slightly, also think the app switcher could be slightly slicker and in truth I think the buttons are quicker. Interested how others have found this?


So, overall I am on the fence with the M20 pro but then I am ultra-picky I guess! The thing is 2 or 3 of those negatives are not insignificant ones at least for me, I knew about the AOD going in but not the others and the biometrics could be a long-term hassle if other providers do not deem the M20’s FPS/FaceID to be secure enough.

If I could return it I may have considered doing so, but Currys in the UK do not allow a used phone to be returned it seems so I will be sticking with it. Overall though all of the current crop of droids have their faults or limitations and I do think that the M20 pro is the probably the best compromise currently available, hopefully Huawei can address some of my beefs, not holding my breath though!

 

[Edders1964]

Nice review, couple of things, Santander's app works with the fps, have you tried making the keyboard bigger? If you go to the text settings and make it bigger then it enlarges the keyboard, worked for me with my yum yum fingers!
The only really annoying thing I've found is the hisearch thing when you pull down in the empty screen! Did you manage to get rid of this?

So a few days in and I thought I would post my thoughts for anybody who is interested, Just a list of my positives and negatives, in no particular order……


+ Battery is very good, most bloat can be removed and even if it cannot Huawei’s management of background stuff seems very good (A Samsung feels like the wild west in comparison)

+ Love the feel of the phone, also love the twilight colour

+ Not sure if this is a positive or negative but it feels smaller than I was expecting. I think 6.4” includes the notch and is misleading

+ It is super-fast.

+ I genuinely do not mind EMUI at all, it has some nice features and is better IMO than Samsung and miles better than LGs software

+ Excellent camera(s)

+ I like the in screen FPS and it has been pretty reliable so far….

+ …but face unlock is faster and usually kicks in before I try the FPS

+ Launched on android pie (Looking at you Note 9 and LG V40!)



- FPS is slower than a traditional one and I do often miss one being on the back

- FPS or Face unlock do not work with my banking app. At least Lastpass works ok so I guess I should be grateful!

- Said it before but the AOD is as good as useless with no 3rd party app support. I have switched it off. Looks like they have not improved it all over the last year which is a real shame.

- No Bluetooth volume sync, I am getting used to this and luckily my headphones have a companion app so I can see the headphone volume, it is a faff though.

- No sign of nano-memory being available. I assumed it would be available pretty soon after launch but if it drags on too long it will become an issue for me as I was banking on picking one up.


Lastly did not mention this above but I am wondering how everyone has been getting on with the gestures too? I have mostly liked them but have today switched back to buttons. I had problems with the keyboard which I did not expect, I think that everything moving down the phone slightly with the removal of buttons messed with my muscle memory and I was experiencing constant typos, shame you cannot shift the keyboard up slightly, also think the app switcher could be slightly slicker and in truth I think the buttons are quicker. Interested how others have found this?


So, overall I am on the fence with the M20 pro but then I am ultra-picky I guess! The thing is 2 or 3 of those negatives are not insignificant ones at least for me, I knew about the AOD going in but not the others and the biometrics could be a long-term hassle if other providers do not deem the M20’s FPS/FaceID to be secure enough.

If I could return it I may have considered doing so, but Currys in the UK do not allow a used phone to be returned it seems so I will be sticking with it. Overall though all of the current crop of droids have their faults or limitations and I do think that the M20 pro is the probably the best compromise currently available, hopefully Huawei can address some of my beefs, not holding my breath though!

Sent from my LYA-L09 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[neil74]

Not hit the hisearch issue yet but will keep an eye out.

It's not the keyboard size but more the position I think with gestures enabled the keyboard sits a good cm lower than normal. I use g board btw

 

[Zobbyb]

sort of related - but did you buy the phone online ? if so you should be able to return using the distance selling regulations.

 

[Aljean Thein]

There are a couple of good AOD apps in the playstore to use

 

[neil74]

There are a couple of good AOD apps in the playstore to use

I’ve tried glance plus but it’s not seamless enough and does carry quite a big battery hit too.

 

[neil74]

sort of related - but did you buy the phone online ? if so you should be able to return using the distance selling regulations.

I did order online but their returns policy says

‘You can examine the goods as you would in a shop but, to obtain a full refund, you must not start using them, install them or input any data/software.’

Honestly though as I said I’m not sure there is a better droid out there right now so I’m probably happy to keep it.

 

[matchtrader2000]

Completely agree with everything you say here, except for me, the camera was very, very disappointing. This was particularly evident when shooting indoors with people as my subjects. Pics were often blurry and washed out. For comparison, I did several shots with my wife's pixel 3 and in every single case the pixel came out better exposed, clearer and overall simply better (and in many case much better). This was very surprising to me. The phone is now returned with a Pixel 3 XL on the way.

So a few days in and I thought I would post my thoughts for anybody who is interested, Just a list of my positives and negatives, in no particular order……


+ Battery is very good, most bloat can be removed and even if it cannot Huawei’s management of background stuff seems very good (A Samsung feels like the wild west in comparison)

+ Love the feel of the phone, also love the twilight colour

+ Not sure if this is a positive or negative but it feels smaller than I was expecting. I think 6.4” includes the notch and is misleading

+ It is super-fast.

+ I genuinely do not mind EMUI at all, it has some nice features and is better IMO than Samsung and miles better than LGs software

+ Excellent camera(s)

+ I like the in screen FPS and it has been pretty reliable so far….

+ …but face unlock is faster and usually kicks in before I try the FPS

+ Launched on android pie (Looking at you Note 9 and LG V40!)



- FPS is slower than a traditional one and I do often miss one being on the back

- FPS or Face unlock do not work with my banking app. At least Lastpass works ok so I guess I should be grateful!

- Said it before but the AOD is as good as useless with no 3rd party app support. I have switched it off. Looks like they have not improved it all over the last year which is a real shame.

- No Bluetooth volume sync, I am getting used to this and luckily my headphones have a companion app so I can see the headphone volume, it is a faff though.

- No sign of nano-memory being available. I assumed it would be available pretty soon after launch but if it drags on too long it will become an issue for me as I was banking on picking one up.


Lastly did not mention this above but I am wondering how everyone has been getting on with the gestures too? I have mostly liked them but have today switched back to buttons. I had problems with the keyboard which I did not expect, I think that everything moving down the phone slightly with the removal of buttons messed with my muscle memory and I was experiencing constant typos, shame you cannot shift the keyboard up slightly, also think the app switcher could be slightly slicker and in truth I think the buttons are quicker. Interested how others have found this?


So, overall I am on the fence with the M20 pro but then I am ultra-picky I guess! The thing is 2 or 3 of those negatives are not insignificant ones at least for me, I knew about the AOD going in but not the others and the biometrics could be a long-term hassle if other providers do not deem the M20’s FPS/FaceID to be secure enough.

If I could return it I may have considered doing so, but Currys in the UK do not allow a used phone to be returned it seems so I will be sticking with it. Overall though all of the current crop of droids have their faults or limitations and I do think that the M20 pro is the probably the best compromise currently available, hopefully Huawei can address some of my beefs, not holding my breath though!

 

[neil74]

Mine developed the green screen issue so back it went. Got a Note 9.

I rarely use cases so that mark prone rear of the 3XL is a no-go for me, it would be a mess after a week.

 

[Tsepz_GP]

I did order online but their returns policy says

‘You can examine the goods as you would in a shop but, to obtain a full refund, you must not start using them, install them or input any data/software.’

Honestly though as I said I’m not sure there is a better droid out there right now so I’m probably happy to keep it.

Sucha shame you are having issues man, as you said, there isn't an Android that is better than this one overall.

Do they not allow exchange for another unit?

 

[neil74]

They did not have any available so I took a refund and purchased a note 9.

The mate is the better device but I find the note just more polished overall.