Huawei explains the difference between the P and Mate series

On the evening of March 27, Huawei released its flagship P20 and P20 Pro in Paris, France. The phones feature extraordinary photo-taking capabilities. The P20 Pro has a tri-lens camera set comprised of 40 MP (RGB, f/1.8 aperture), 20 MP (monochrome, f/1.6 aperture), and 8 MP (telephoto, f/2.4 aperture) cameras. The triple Leica cameras support autofocus (laser focus, deep focus, phase focus and contrast focus). The P20 Pro boasts a record high DxOMark score of 109 points, scoring 114 for photo and 98 for video.

DxOMark

The Huawei P20 Pro scored 11 points higher than the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, and also much higher than the Samsung S9+ (99 points) and the Apple iPhone X (97 points).

Despite such a powerful camera system, the P20 is still very thin and aesthetically designed. How did Huawei make it? And what is the difference between the P series and the Mate series?

Gang He, president of Huawei’s mobile phone product line, answered these questions.

According to He, Huawei had been widely recognized for the thinness of its products from the P1 to P6 phones. At the beginning of 2017, Huawei held a technical conference to discuss plans for a breakthrough on the next generation of the P series. Huawei wished to have a near-professional camera on its smartphones. At the time, there were two major problems: 1. Poor quality photos in dark light. 2. Distant objects appear unclear in photos.

To solve the dark light problem, the P20 cameras use larger pixels and a bigger CMOS. To solve the unclear distant objects problem, Huawei adopted 3x optical zoom and 5x hybrid zoom.

However, the thicker camera lens on the P20 protrudes from the phone body. The P20 is a balance of body thickness, lens design and photography quality.

Huawei Mate10 Pro
Huawei P20 Pro

Excellent design sense and photography is the “DNA” of the P series. According to He, this DNA distinguishes the P series from the Mate series.

The target audience for P and Mate series are somewhat different. The Mate series focuses on pixels and processors, and tends to be ahead of other phones on having the latest processor. The P series targets those who are more concerned about the design sense, new colors and photo-taking capabilities.

He also said that the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro met the company’s expectations. Feedback from the channel providers, partners and consumers were positive, so Huawei thinks the overall product satisfies the market.

This article originally appeared in ifeng and was translated by Pandaily.