LONDON -- Huawei engineers looked to luxury sports cars for inspiration when they designed the Mate 20 series, the Chinese giant's flagship that targets both power users and photography enthusiasts, its consumer business CEO Richard Yu said.

Shaped like the headlights of a road beast, the square module on the rear of the phone, easily identifies the Mate 20 series as Huawei phones.

It also houses the Leica-engineered camera system and approximates the shape of the Kirin 980 processor, which gives the phone its artificial intelligence smarts, from resource allocation down to the triple lenses.

Yu said during the Oct. 16 global launch in the British capital that the world's second largest smartphone maker was aiming for "exquisite design, ultimate performance and remarkable photography." We tested the Mate 20 Pro for a week to find out.

• Hands on review: Huawei's supercharged Mate 20 Pro
• Huawei unveils Mate 20 series, takes aim at Apple, Samsung

DESIGN

Huawei loves to stamp its design signature around the camera, while the rest of the phone can be mistaken for some other handset.

The square module is unlike any other, much like the vertically stacked shooters on the P20 series, the stripe highlight on the Mate 10 line's dual cameras and the black "visor" on the Nexus 6, P9 and P10 lines.

The notch on the top screen of the Mate 20 Pro has become common in phones across all price ranges since Apple adopted it for last year's iPhone X. Like the iPhone, the Mate 20 Pro screen cutout makes room for 3D face unlocking.

The curved sides of the screen make the Mate 20 Pro look like a Galaxy S9+, until it lights up to reveal the notch.

The curved screen, glass back and aluminum frame of the phone was designed to be perfectly symmetrical, Yu said. Despite its screen size at 6.4 inches, the Mate 20 Pro is easy to hold and more manageable to navigate with the thumb thanks to its 19.5 x 9 aspect ratio.

"The screen is big but in your hand, it feels small, more narrow," Yu said.

The screen is easily the biggest hardware upgrade to the Mate 20 Pro, finally in OLED and with quad HD resolution. It's the panel that the Mate line deserves -- bright, sharp and with colors that pop.

For the Mate 10 line of 2017, only the non-pro version was quad HD, but the panel was LCD, meaning blacks and reds were not as deep as on the OLED Mate 10 Pro. Despite, the "pro" moniker, its screen maxed out at full HD or a notch below quad HD.

A fingerprint sensor is also embedded in the screen of the Mate 20 Pro, which unlocks the screen with a slight press.

Huawei also launched in London the 6.53-inch Mate 20 and the 7.2-inch Mate 20 X, both with non-curved sides, a small "waterdrop" notch for the front-facing camera and rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv

Huawei launches the Mate 20 series at the ExCel Exhibition Center in London. ABS-CBN News

PERFORMANCE

Like Samsung and Apple, Huawei powers its phones with its own chip and the Kirin 980 on the Mate 20 series is the fastest of the bunch, according to the Shenzhen-based firm.

The Kirin 980 also has 2 neural processing units, double that of its predecessor, the Kirin 970, allowing for smarter AI. One useful application of this power is in the cameras, where it can shoot 2 scenes at ones, like an ultra-wide night shot.

As expected from a phone in its price range, the Mate 20 Pro is very fast, with no stuttering when switching between apps or streaming content.

It also ships with a lighter and more fluid version of Huawei's EMUI skin over Android 9 Pie.

While zippy, EMUI on the Mate 20 Pro sees Apple design cues and features clashing with Android. The system icons are still square, while all the rest from the Play Store are circular, like Google designed it to be.

The settings menu, while less cluttered, looks like iOS 12, down to the Huawei ID log in and profile picture at the top.

The 3D face unlock is fast, but it takes some getting used to to swipe up and go to the home screen. Swipe close to the bottom of the lock screen and the flashlight, recorder and calculator shortcuts appear instead of the home screen.

Chenglu Wang, president of Huawei consumer group's software engineering department, said EMUI 9 was built with security in mind. Users can set secure apps of their choice with face unlock, he said.

Swipe gestures to return to the home screen and switch between apps is a welcome addition. It's intuitive and frees up space occupied by virtual buttons in most versions of Android.

However, it is not as smooth as that on iOS and the haptic feedback, which tells the user that he or she swiped up correctly, is faint, compared to the more satisfying vibration on the iPhone.

The EMUI aesthetic may be aimed at Apple users who want to shift to Anrdoid via Huawei, Ben Wood, research chief of mobile industry consulting firm CCS Insight, said in a Reuters report.

Aside from the screen, another performance bump is the battery. The 4,250 mAh battery on the Mate 20 Pro is more than enough to power it through a day of browsing, streaming and typing. The phone easily got through a work day even with the screen set at quad HD.

Super charge was made faster, now at 40 watts. During one of our tests, the battery went to 95 percent at 6:44 a.m. from 69 percent at 6:26 a.m., a mere 18-minute interval.

The Mate 20 series can charge wirelessly, and in a first, can charge other phones wirelessly from from its back. Yu demonstrated this feature by charging an iPhone XS Max.

CAMERAS

Huawei kept its long-running partnership with German camera maker Leica for the Mate 20 Pro, but swapped the monochrome lens for an ultra-wide one.

The Mate 20 Pro has a 40 megapixel f/1.8 wide angle lens, a 20 megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide lens and a 8 megapixel 3x f/2.4 lens.

A quick side swipe from the bottom of the screen is all it takes to zoom in or capture the shot in wide angle. Its addictive and brings an entirely new dimension to landscape shots.

Huawei's AI-assisted night mode is also present, and can be used at the same time as wide angle.

The cameras AI smarts, Huawei said, can recognize the human form, and one mode allows the user to capture only its human subjects in color while the rest are in black and white.

Here are some test shots taken around London and Manila.

The Tower Bridge in London is captured from the Thames river using wide angle on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. ABS-CBN News

The Thames riverside strip in London is captured using night mode on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. ABS-CBN News

The facade of Gordon Ramsay's Heddon Street Kitchen in London is captured in this test shot using the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. ABS-CBN News

A plate pf roast pork and vegetables is captured using the AI-assisted cameras on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. ABS-CBN News

A light tower at a football field and the Manila night sky are shown in this test shot using the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. ABS-CBN News

Here is a time lapse video taken from the London Eye.

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv

A sample time lapse shot on board the London Eye using the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. ABS-CBN News

CONCLUSION

The Mate 20 Pro is easily Huawei's best phone yet, offering a sharp, big screen, revamped cameras with ultra wide angle capability, fast performance, AI smarts and a long-lasting battery that can charge other devices.

It's the refinement of Huawei's feature and design gambles from the early big screen Mate phones to the Leica-powered P9 series, all stamped with the square module at the back, its new design signature.

But it will be up against many premium devices offering comparable features. The iPhone XS offers improved HDR image processing, the Galaxy Note 9 has night capable shooters, a 4,000 mAh battery and arguably the best screen on a smartphone and the Google Pixel 3, which promises an even better camera than last year's Pixel 2, acclaimed as one of the best from 2017.

Cost may be a deciding factor. Huawei priced the Mate 20 Pro at 1,049 euros and the Mate 20 X at 899 euros, both with 6 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of storage.

The Mate 20 starts at 799 euros for 4 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of storage and 849 euros for 6 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of storage.

Huawei has yet to announce Philippine pricing, which is usually lower than the international price. Pre-orders are set to start soon.