I
thought it was cute that my review phone arrived without a manual inside the
box. It seemed a little strange, but then, it made sense. The idea is to test
out the device without any preconceived notions of capabilities – albeit – the
device did arrive after I had already done research on it.
My
Huawei P20 [not P20 PRO like I was anticipating], arrived in Midnight Blue. At
first glance, you worry if it’ll match everything in your wardrobe, but you
soon realise your wardrobe is the one to be concerned as the Huawei P20 is
perfect as is and requires no complementary accompaniment.
ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE – EMUI 8.1
The
AI systems currently in place in smartphones might not be clever enough to
predict your emotional integrity when faced with work-related stress, however,
it is smart enough to help you function like a smarter human being than you
might actually be in real life. The Huawei P20 comes preinstalled with EMUI
8.1, its operating system (OS), which according to the interwebs, is based on
Android 8.1. According to me, it means it’s smarter than my P10, meaning I’m
likely to get more done, smarter + quicker + with much more ease.
Preferences,
functionality and specifications differ per user: For me, a smart phone means I
can spend the whole day on the go on a single charge. And on this single
charge, a few things need to happen seamlessly. WORK – I need to be able to
send and receive emails on the best network coverage possible; my document
downloads should be quick and editing them needs to be a breeze; I blog – so I
had better have access to editing tools that allow me to write, edit and upload
blog posts while in transit; and quite frankly, photography for social media
updates – I need to capture high-quality, high resolution images without a fuss
and upload almost immediately.
PLAY
– I love music, therefore, I want to listen to it all the time while I go
through my day. Part of my work requires I watch videos for tutorials, industry
talks and debates for writing opinion pieces and stream content for review.
This means I need playback and streaming functionality that competes with and
exceeds my natural abilities. The P20 does just that. On a single supercharge
[which takes approximately just under an hour – that’s less than 60 minutes]
the Huawei P20 gets me through a full day of playing while working. A dope
feature is the ‘Power saving mode’ option and ‘Ultra power saving mode’. When I
found myself in a battery pickle before reaching home, I simply selected one of
the two for extended work time on the phone. Yes, it comes with certain
compromises, yet, it’s still a blessing when you can switch from 1 hour left to
6 hours with a single click on a slider.
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| Nifty face recognition as a security feature... |
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| Smarter battery power usage... |
By
the way, for those of you with privacy issues – the Huawei P20 comes with Face
Recognition – so now you don’t have to worry about someone snipping off your
thumb to access your top secret baking recipes.
PHOTOGRAPHIC
INSIGHT – AI Photography
For
the photography lovers this phone is going to be the bomb! Apart from just the
heightened experience from the screen’s resolution and size, the phone’s camera
packs much more intelligence than its predecessors. Consider it a camera with a
built-in professional photographer inside it – waiting to make sure every snap
you take looks as good, if not better, than a train photographer’s eye.
If
you’re like me, the ‘Pro’ mode on the camera is to be left for those who
actually understand how to set ISO, shutter and aperture. I don’t, so I don’t
bother. Instead, I rely on the other modes and the camera’s ‘Photo’/’Standard’
mode to select the correct presets I require for what I’m capturing. And that’s
exactly what it does and did. The Leica Dual-camera’s AI reads your subjects
and adjusts accordingly: whether you’re taking an image of the landscape, a
close up of flowers, a portrait of a friend indoors or outside, the camera’s
mind is constantly at work and can identify hundreds of scenarios in over 15
categories.
Some
of my favourite experiences with the camera were with photographing food +
nature + portraits. I’m a creature of screenshots, as well, and was super
stoked when I realised the quality of the phone’s screenshots was just as
impeccable as that of the camera. Anyway, I digress. There has been a craze
with portrait photography where we find a lot of people after the bokeh effect
in their images. Something incredibly awesome – I think anyways – is the bokeh
treatment in portrait mode on the P20. Regardless of the distance between you
and your subject, the effect takes place.
Unlike
with the iPhone, where you have to be standing at a certain cm distance from
the subject for it to work, with the Huawei P20 you literally point and shoot
and voila[!] your subject gets an instant professional photography update.
Nature takes on a life of its own, with colours being naturally enhanced, way before
editing. The camera seems to soak in all the light in its vision – even in low
light scenarios. This, I know, because I have never seen colour pop so much as
it does in the P20’s ‘Night’ mode. The richness adds a technicolour luxury to
visuals.
Too
little time was spent with the P20. In fact, if that’s what it has in store for
users, I think I’m switching it up to the Huawei P20 PRO on my wish list. If
you’re an Android phone lover and are a fanatic when it comes to photography –
this or the P20 PRO – is the phone for you!
#Technology
#HuaweiP20 #Fashion #Accessory
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