The Huawei Mate 20 (and possibly a Pro version) will be announced at a flashy launch event in London next month, but ahead of that Huawei’s gone and launched the P20 Lite that’ll go on sale on 5 October with a very competitive price tag of R9,000.
Huawei’s new mid-ranger boasts a 6.3in FullView notched screen with a resolution of 2340×1080 pixels and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It also has a 3,750mAh battery cell, which should last you the whole working day… and a bit of the Netflixing night.
Four on the floor
Buyers can look forward to four cameras — two on the rear and two in the front. This makes it one of the first sub-R10k devices that features two selfie cameras. Samsung’s recently announced Galaxy A7 also has four cameras (and a wallet-friendly price tag), but it’s opted to stick three of them on the back.
These selfie cameras combine a 24MP sensor and a 2MP sensor, and offer built-in AI capabilities. The AI should enhance your facial features through portrait lighting effects, but can also recognise eight categories, including skies, plants, flowers, beach shots, stage shots and night shots, and will optimise the picture settings to match the scene.
It seems Huawei has picked up on the Animoji/Memoji and AR Emoji trend, and the front-facing camera on the Mate 20 Lite now features something called Qmoji, that mirrors your facial expression and maps it to one of seven animated characters.
Bringing up the rear
Around the back, the Mate 20 Lite has a 20MP sensor, combined with a 2MP sensor… so the close readers among you might have noticed the rear sensors are smaller than the front ones. Selfie anyone?
The rear camera also has HDR Pro functionality, that will give you a preview with real-time effects as well as allow for good low-light shots. It features AI-bokeh effects, AI-assisted composition and slow-motion video at up to 480fps.
It seems the battle of the sub-R10k smartphones is heating up, and we couldn’t be happier. Considering what the new iPhones are set to cost, it’s good to have alternative options.