Mate 20 Lite Vs Mate 8

TechRadar Verdict

The Huawei Mate twenty Lite is a handsome phablet with an attractive and all-encompassing display and some impressive dual-camera tricks. However, its performance is only alright, and in that location are some tantalizing alternatives for similar or even less money.

Pros

+
Nice sleek design
+
Potent six.3-inch screen
+
Decent AI-enhanced photographic camera

Cons

-
AI photographic camera feels a petty contemporary
-
Chipset a chip of a drawback
-
Yous can get more than for less

Update: Afterwards Google suspended Huawei'southward futurity access to Android Play Shop (opens in new tab) and security updates, in that location are serious question marks over the future of Huawei and Accolade phones.

While Google and Huawei have promised to back up phones currently on the marketplace, it'due south not articulate how long they'll receive Android updates or access to the Google Play Store, which would severely curtail their usefulness compared to the competition.

We can await the forthcoming Huawei Mate twenty Pro to essentially be the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 to the Huawei P20 Pro'southward Samsung Galaxy S9. Information technology will be an iterative flagship phablet upgrade.

At the opposite end of the range, the Huawei Mate xx Lite sits just a screen notch higher up the Huawei P20 Low-cal. That latter phone was an attempt to supply a stylish flagship form cistron at a mid-range price, and the Mate 20 Lite follows adapt.

For £379 (around $500, AU$665, though with no word on a launch in the US or Commonwealth of australia), you're getting a sleek phone with a 6.3-inch display and a suite of AI-enhanced dual-photographic camera tricks.

But does it follow its brother by slipping up on the performance and value stakes, or has Huawei managed to back up those good looks with some serious musculus?

AI camera

AI-powered dual-lens rear camera
Dual-lens photographic camera on the forepart also
Iffy AR effects

Huawei'due south big push with the Mate 20 Lite is the fact that it'southward an "AI powered smartphone" similar the full-fatty Huawei P20 and Huawei P20 Pro, just with a significantly lower cost tag.

Earlier you commencement imagining a adjacent-level Alexa-like assistant attending to your every whim, the company's modest AI push mainly operates in conjunction with the camera. We'll become into the nitty-gritty of camera performance in the relevant section, but the AI enhancements are worth focusing on upward front end.

Opening the photographic camera app and pointing at a subject, the Huawei Mate twenty Low-cal will read the scene and adjust to the appropriate setting automatically. If it's an overcast twenty-four hour period, it volition decipher this and inform you that it has made the necessary changes. The same applies if you're indoors, or taking a photo of your domestic dog.

Information technology'due south tempting to dismiss this is a simple extension of what digital cameras have been doing for years with their automobile settings, adjusting your shots according to surrounding conditions. Merely the style Huawei's arrangement actively reads your environment is pretty impressive. Information technology'due south not merely a case of responding to some vague light levels.

Another photographic feature that stands out here is the Huawei Mate xx Low-cal's front-facing cameras. They're unusually pumped-upwardly, to the tune of a super-abrupt 24MP sensor and a 2MP secondary lens for depth information. This is the kind of thing you expect to see on the rear of a phone, not the forepart.

These cameras are put to full use in AR camera manner. Essentially, this is Huawei's response to Apple's Animoji - little animated heads that respond to your facial movements.

Where Apple'southward approach is largely successful, with the various cartoon heads tracking your facial movements accurately in real time, these are a bit of a mess. There'south a noticeable caste of lag, so when you record animated messages they don't sync upwards, while the level of accurateness in the facial mapping simply isn't up to scratch.

Add together in some largely charmless caput designs (the default chameleon beingness the worst offender), and it all amounts to a throw-abroad gimmick you lot're unlikely to use much - if at all.

There's also a portrait effect that lets you adjust the type of lighting on your face, if you fancy something a little moodier.

A more practical everyday use of those front-facing cameras is Huawei's face-unlock organisation. It's about certainly not equally secure as Apple'south Face ID, merely it is fast and accurate. If you're not a stickler for absolute security, it's a highly intuitive culling to fingerprint authentication when it comes to unlocking your phone.

Design

Sleek iPhone X-aping pattern
Big but easy to handle

Huawei has continued the blueprint approach information technology started with the P20 family unit, with generally pleasing results. The Mate 20 Lite follows the iPhone X way of thinking, with a curvy metal frame sandwiched betwixt twin glass surfaces.

Information technology's much bigger than the iPhone X, and is more than similar the new iPhone XS Max. Despite this it's surprisingly easy to wield and lug around.

That tin be put downwardly to a few reasons. One is the border-to-edge brandish, which removes a fair amount of the bezel for an 81% screen-to-body ratio. Information technology withal has a chin, but it's pretty inconspicuous.

Another reason the Huawei Mate 20 Low-cal is and so easy to handle is that it's both skinny and relatively calorie-free. It's merely 7.6mm thick, and while 172g makes information technology a fair bit heavier than the 145g Huawei P20 Lite, it doesn't really experience that fashion thanks to its greater surface area.

This is a telephone you might desire to put in a case, though. The screen edges are very exposed and prone to scuffing and chipping, as we discovered when the phone took the lightest of tumbles from literally a few inches off the ground during our photography process.

Of course, most modern phones accept a similarly delicate disposition these days, and we don't test every handset's hardiness in this way. But nosotros thought we'd note our experiences anyway.

The Mate xx Light's power and volume buttons are well positioned, though one of them could apply a little texture to differentiate it from the other. Nosotros have no qualms virtually the speedy fingerprint scanner'southward positioning on the back, though, and it'south besides nicely recessed to make it even easier to discover.

It'south practiced to encounter both NFC and a headphone jack present and accounted for, too. Neither should be worthy of a mention in this manner, but sadly both are these days.

Yous'd look USB-C in a phone costing more than £300/$400, and Huawei doesn't disappoint on that front either.

Display

Large and appealing 6.3-inch FHD+ screen
Notch tin can optionally exist hidden

We've mentioned the Huawei Mate twenty Light display's expansive dimensions, merely we oasis't touched upon its quality. And that turns out to be one of the more pleasing parts of the package.

This vi.3-inch IPS LCD is very easy on the eye, with vivid all the same reasonably authentic colors. It doesn't go eye-searingly bright, but it was plenty vivid plenty for outdoor usage in our feel.

A resolution of 1080 x 2340 might non sound like much in a 6.3-inch brandish, but nosotros didn't notice ourselves noticing singled-out pixels at any point.

Put information technology this mode: we moved direct from a Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium with its 4K HDR display, and it didn't feel like a massively obvious step downwards. Allow'south be clear that it was a big step down by any belittling metric, but in practical twenty-four hour period to day use this screen is more than than up to the task.

Role of that is down to the fact that the Mate 20 Low-cal's display dominates the front of the phone, with a stretched out 19.five:9 aspect ratio. Video content and apps still don't really make employ of this longer course factor, but games will generally make full out if you select the appropriate option when you start start them up.

If not, the display volition round off quite pleasingly below the notch. Thanks to the sheer size of the screen this doesn't feel as restrictive as it does on smaller phones (including the iPhone XS).

Of grade, if you opt to hide the notch permanently in the settings menu, you lot'll get that slightly off-black dissimilarity either side. That'southward inevitable with a not-OLED brandish such as this, where you lot just tin't get the same deep blacks.