If the Huawei P20 Pro and Huawei P20 Pro were intended to compete and rub shoulders with the high-end top dogs, then the Huawei P20 Lite was made to dominate the midrange smartphone category. Despite the more affordable price range of the Huawei P20 Lite, it comes through with a few high end features found on its bigger siblings.
With no further ado, let’s get down to it!
The Huawei P20 Lite has an edge to edge display of 5.84 inches on an LTPS TFT with little or no bezels on the sides. Although it does not have the punch and contrast of the AMOLED displays, it still has accuracy and sharpness. The Huawei P20 Lite being able to sport a 5.84 inch notched display despite its size, is quite impressive and gives it an equally impressive aspect ratio of 19:9.
The Huawei P20 Lite did not go the direction of high end Android smartphones in recent times with regards to a QHD resolution. It instead comes with a screen resolution of 1080 by 2240 which is more than sufficient for a large number of tasks.
Still on the Huawei P20 Lite’s notched display a lot of Android applications including games are not quite optimized for the notched display. Especially when compared to how iOS applications make use of the notched display on Apple’s devices. Youtube for example when used on full screen, sports black borders on either side.
Due to the Huawei P20 Lite being a LTPS TFT display and not an AMOLED display, it merely shows black on the left and right sides of the notch if a user decides to hide it via the option menu. On the AMOLED display of the Huawei P20 Pro, the notch disappears when you hide it via the options menu.
One benefit of the notch however, is that the camera sensors in the notch help the device read its user’s face when unlocking the device. Its face unlock feature is quite accurate and works fast too even in dark or dimly lit conditions.
In the battery department the Huawei P20 Lite comes with a 3000mAh battery and a fast charge feature that can boost up to 40 percent in 30 minutes. With the 3000mAh battery on the Huawei P20 Lite users can get up to a full day of use and even well into the second day on light usage. Average or slightly heavy use will see the device last until bedtime before needing a charge.
It also performs quite well during consistent video playback on full screen brightness and very decent during 3D gaming.
The Huawei P20 Lite also comes with a variety of optimization tools that help users cut back the excesses of applications which use a lot of power, and maximize the device. You can use a combination of lowering the brightness of the screen and using any of the two modes for saving power.
This is a rather decent battery life by today’s standards.
In the camera department the Huawei P20 Lite comes with a 16 Megapixel with an aperture of f2.2 and a 2 megapixel dual main camera set up with HDR, Panorama, and LED Flash, and a 16 Megapixel with an aperture of f/2.0 and 24 Megapixel with an aperture of f/2.0 dual front camera set up.
Although the Huawei P20 Lite does not have the AI camera mode of its siblings, it still comes with optimal settings.
The 2 Megapixel camera on the back boosts the main 16 Megapixel camera by providing more depth information. Especially for the included aperture mode.
Speaking of aperture, the wide aperture mode allows users adjust the level of bokeh effect on their photos after they have been captured. The level can be adjusted between f/0.95 and f/16. Colours might appear to be artificially enhanced in close up photos, but that should not necessarily be a deal breaker.
The HDR mode is quite impressive as it effectively balances out harsh shade and light, doing so when it is completely necessary. While launching the camera on the Huawei P20 Lite takes longer than it would on flagship smartphones, taking pictures is a very fast affair with no shutter lag.
It has a Pro mode that allows users fine tune each individual setting, and a dedicated AR lens mode. Borrowing a page from Snapchat and Instagram this AR lens mode allows users to playful facial effects on their faces. Effects and filters like kitten ears, bunny ears, love heart cheeks, etc.
When it comes to taking a picture in indoor low light conditions you would get a lot of noise, poorer focus and an instruction from the device asking you to hold your phone still as it tries to sharpen the picture.
The Huawei P20 has a Watermark mode that basically stamps every picture with the time it was captured and the location, in an eye pleasing font. It also has a document scan mode that locates and aligns texts for fast record keeping almost instantaneously.
To get the best out of its 16 Megapixel camera ensure that you reduce or ignore the beauty setting. This is because it tends to over smoothen ones skin.
The Huawei P20 Lite runs on Google’s Android 8.0 Operating System (OS) and EMUI which is Huawei’s very own User Interface (UI) skin.
The EMUI 8.0 is lag free and quite smooth with a pull down notification screen and menu that does not quite abandon Google’s set up. It is also easy to understand, and very customizable.
With the EMUI 8.0 the standard Google Android application drawer is absent, making look quite similar to Apple’s iOS. The application drawer can however be activated by the user if they prefer it.
Borrowing from Apple’s iOS the EMUI 8.0 has a universal search function. This function, can be accessed by simply dragging down with your finger from the middle of the home screen. With this, users can search for anything from messages, applications, calendar entries, and contacts.
The EMUI comes with a considerable amount of bloatware though. From stock applications like Health, Video, Calendar, Music, to numerous tools, a number of these applications end up being unnecessary and no where close to the quality provided by Google’s own applications.
You can however access the Google Play Store, if you are ever looking for alternatives to the pre-installed applications that come with the device. Users can also fine-tune how their virtual command keys operate and look, making it much easier users who may have switched from a smartphone by another brand.
On the audio side of life the Huawei P20 Lite has just one speaker which is clear enough, but does not have bass meaning you should expect a rather treble heavy output. It also comes with the legendary 3.5mm headphone jack which should be perfect for audiophiles.
Storage wise, it packs a decent internal storage of 64 GB with a memory card slot that is expandable to up to 256GB.
The Huawei P20 Lite has a Kirin 659 CPU, a 4GB RAM, an accelerometer sensor, a compass sensor, a proximity sensor and a gyro sensor. It also supports WIFI, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, NFC FM radio, and USB Type-C 2.0 and USB On The Go.
It comes Midnight Black, Sakura Pink, and Klein Blue.
Although the Huawei P20 Lite is very formidable device depending on your preference, it might have a few shortcomings or limitations.
That aside any device with Lite attached to is name is intended to give you the best possible without breaking your pocket. As a result of that, expecting the same features attainable in the much more expensive high end big dogs, might be expecting too much.
Due to the recent sanctions on Huawei, its future using Google’s Android Operating System (OS) is still somewhat uncertain so you should know this, before choosing this or any Huawei device. Google has however pledged to continue to provide support for all Huawei smartphones currently on the market and running on the Android Operating System (OS).
As at the time this article was compiled on the 11th of November 2020, the price of the Huawei P20 Lite stood at 45,000 Kenyan Shillings. You can check out this device on Jumia via this link:
Buy Now on Jumia Kenya
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