[Closed] Huawei P20 pro

I've had two hauweis and neither has worked properly with GPS apps like Strava...lots of straight lines at 2000mph. To be fair my last one was a p8 but friends with newer versions have all complained about the GPS being crap. Seems to be a common problem with them according to Google.

Never had GPS issues with my P10 lite. Nor has my missus with hers.

Am interested in P20 as well, supposed to have great camera? But I would be switching form iPhone to android which looks a complete ball ache?

I have a p20 pro, it's really good,the camera is really really good.

I can't comment on the GPS side of things as I haven't used it,but I'm guessing if it has any issues it's because it has a quite aggressive battery conservation features which freeze apps it thinks are not being used. I suspect if you put Strava on the 'do not put to sleep' list it would work just fine.

Battery life is excellent, I have no complaints really.

I am using my late wife's one after my Samsung galaxy s7 broke the other week. Only a few weeks use but will try my best.

She got it for the camera, which I have to say is amazing. Much more detail, better colours and even took really good pics of the tour of Britain as they came hurtling past. Using it is a breeze. The only thing I have changed is the keyboard. I have installed SwiftKey on it like i did on my s7. I find this keyboard easier to use and can customise it too.

Sound quality is really good on the little speakers. Through headphones, amazing. Bluetooth sometimes struggles to find things the first time which is a small issue i have. Keep pressing the search button and it will find it. No problems with the connection once it is paired though.

It's a bit bigger than my s7 which I quite like, but not too big to fit in my pocket. I use a spigen armor case on it and a tempered glass protector, both fit really well and gives all round protection.

Haven't used the GPS yet so can't comment on that. I use it for phone calls, photos, messaging, updating my blog, browsing and STW of course. All apps work fine and no problem installing them.

Think I have covered everything. If you have more specific questions please ask and I will answer if I can. Hope this helps

Thanks

Are those the phones that report back to China?

Jonno101 - swapped to this originally from her iPhone. Asks you at setup do you want a fresh install or copy over from a different phone. If you do this, it asks you to install an app on the iPhone, scan the qr code on it and does the rest for you.

Only difficulty she found was getting used to an android system, which took about a week to fully get used to. Other than that, no problems really.

I’ve had two hauweis and neither has worked properly with GPS apps like Strava…lots of straight lines at 2000mph.

They probably have the power saving mode set on for this App.

This happened to me.

You need to disable it in the settings somewhere. I forget where unfortunately.

Will it fit in the pocket of a pair of Geordie Jeans?

Thanks folks(particularly gnusmas).My difficulty will be moving all my stuff from a Windows phone across to this.No idea how you go about synching the two different OS types.My Windows phone also uses a micro sim which won't work in the P20 pro.Apart from that the pro sounds a great phone.

Drj,I think you mean Teesside jeans.

I went from a Lumia 640 to my P10, basically the synch process is beaming the contacts and address book over in the usual way then start from scratch. Whatsapp is a no-go as it's not multi-platform (yours will be saving to OneDrive whilst on Android it's to Google Drive) and, er, that's the only app I can think of that you could get on Windows anyway.

I found one in a rock pool last weekend!  Not waterproof lol.

swapped to this originally from her iPhone. Asks you at setup do you want a fresh install or copy over from a different phone.

Thanks Gnusmas et al. So if I switch and update contacts / diary on my Mac, will it automatically update on phone?

I have one. Stunning camera. Two day battery life. Face and fingerprint recognition very fast. Main disadvantage is that it’s made by Huawei and their implementation of Android is terrible. They also allow network operators to delay security updates, so it’s not been patched since June in the UK despite being a flagship.

Wouldn’t have another. Pixel 2 XL offers broadly equivalent camera but few of the disadvantages.

Wouldn’t have another. Pixel 2 XL offers broadly equivalent camera but few of the disadvantages

I wanted to get a phone with a good camera, and looked at a lot of example review photos taken with the P20. The landscape shots looked fantastic, but the portrait mode applies the "beauty mode" favoured by the Asian market, and the results were bizarre; people just looked whitened and Botoxed! Have a close look at the portrait comparison with the iPhone here:

http://uk.businessinsider.com/shootout-iphone-x-camera-vs-huawei-p20-pro-2018-6/#the-iphone-x-comes-into-its-own-for-portrait-photography-though-and-it-beats-the-huawei-hands-down-4

I believe you can bypass this and shoot in RAW, but if you do that, I'm not sure if you can still get the depth of field processing to blur the portrait backgrounds. I don't know if this has been fixed now, but from the examples I looked at, it looked like a world leading camera hobbled by strange software.

In the end I bought a used Pixel 2, and I think the camera is excellent for all types of photography and conditions. Thoroughly recommended.

Beauty mode is just a 'filter' that can be disabled, or at least that's how it works on my P9.

That's what I expected, but there seems to be some disagreement about whether you can truly disable it or not:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Huawei/comments/96ejpu/will_turning_off_ai_on_the_p20_pro_camera_disable/

I wanted to use my phone for portraits, so the examples I saw, and the discussion about the photography AI put me off a bit.

I'd never buy anything Huawei again after experiencing the crappy quality of their smart watch.

Strava problem as mentioned above is sorted by going into the power management section of the settings and changing it from "automatic" to "manual" management. You'll then just get a notification saying it's guzzling battery but it won't switch it off after a few KM.

The beauty-mode has an icon at the top to switch it off totally or you can adjust how much it affects your image.

I went from iPhone to Android and use Smoothsync to sync my calendars and Contacts from my MobileMe/iCloud account into Google and vice-versa. Smoothsync costs a couple of quid, my Wife changed to android more recently and I found a free app that does the same thing but I can't remember what it's called now...

Sorting Strava (or similar) GPS issue:

Settings > Apps & notifications > Apps > Strava > Battery > Launch > Manage Manually > Run in Background (slide on)

Are those the phones that report back to China?

Only if you believe Donald. Huawei also supply BT and most of Europe's landline infrastructure as well so it doesn't really matter what you send online they'll be getting it. 😀

Oh, and at the the risk of soundling like a Huawei fanboy, if you get an HDMI to USB-C cable when you plug in a P20-pro you can either mirror the screen on your TV/Monitor or have it display like a PC desktop. Was quite handy on hols abroad for Tv/Radio and the like.

I’d never buy anything Huawei again after experiencing the crappy quality of their smart watch.

I must admit, I’m tainted by this.   I currently have a Moto G5S and and currently deciding whether to upgrade.  My choice was previously a Moto G6 be default, but I’m looking closer at the discounted Honor 9 for photo ability.

Then again, I am not a photographer so....

Are those the phones that report back to China?

Yeah 'cos other Google phones don't track you, and Apple are dead against that kind of thing too...... It's a mobile phone dude, every time you turn it on they can locate you.

I'm quite keen on one of these, I take a lot of photos with my phone and low light/ high contrast are the areas it's not so good.  but it's £650, maybe £550 over 24 months?  Tricky to justify when that's more than I'd spend on a proper camera.  I'd need a case, because I'm really good/bad at dropping phones, and it's pretty big already.  Out on the bike is when I'd use it the most, and my smaller A5 is nearly too big for the pocket in my riding shorts.

Edit - cheapest deal is £340 total over the £22 Sim only deal I've got at the moment.  not so bad.  Still puts me £340 further away from an LX100ii, though!

They come with a case and a screen protector already fitted.

It's not the sturdiest of case but it seems to do the job

Night shot. You can get cracking photos from short shutter speeds, or do the 4 second long exposure thing.  I find daytime shots a bit over-sharpened, but still acceptable.  Much fun to be had with the separate monochrome sensor.