Huawei P20 Lite review: Cheap and gorgeous Moto G6 alternative
Huawei P20 Lite review: Plan and gorgeous Moto G6 alternative
Huawei’s P20 phones
are its best yet, with sparkling designs and photography skills to envy. But there’s one member of the family you may not have met yet.
Huawei’s P20 Lite, or the Nova 3e as it’s notorious in countries like Australia, doesn’t have the camera prowess of its more expensive siblings, but it’s a strong mix of capable and affordable. It looks great, has enough power for reliable performance outside intensive 3D gaming and injures just AU$399. It’s more pricey in the UK, where it retails for £329, belief that cheaper Australia price converts to $295. Unfortunately, the Huawei P20 Lite won’t sell in the US, as with novel Huawei phones.
The P20 Lite is stiff competition for phones like the Moto G6, Motorola’s excellent new budget handset. The G6 has a cleaner consuming system and is a little less expensive in the US and UK ($249, £229, AU$399), but the Moto G6 design isn’t as up-to-date as the P20 Lite’s.
It’s not minus compromise, but Huawei’s P20 Lite is a tremendous deal for those who think that even the OnePlus 6 is too expensive a phone.
Huawei P20 Lite isn’t appetizing on looks
Though it’s in the name, the Huawei P20 Lite doesn’t piece a strong resemblance to the Huawei P20 or the even brawnier P20 Pro, which has three rear cameras on the back. It’s very much its own beast — and a regal one at that.
The P20 Lite has a big ol’ 5.84-inch, 2,280×1,080-pixel display. It’s light on bezel, like most premium phones currently, with just enough to cram a notch up top and a Huawei logo beneath the screen. The phone comes with responsive facial recognition, which is a smart touch for an inexpensive draw, though keep in mind that face unlocking is more convenient than it is accumulate. For example, you won’t be able to use this to validate mobile payments, unlike the fingerprint reader on the rear.
The phone’s funding is similarly nice to look at, and with a glossy, reflective back looks like a snazzier Honor phone. Hidden antenna lines and a metallic fingerprint scanner add to the fabricate, too. I got the Klein Blue model, which is actual blue, though it also comes in Sakura Pink and Midnight Black.
Simply put, this shouted looks more expensive than it is. Software is less distinguished, though. The phone runs EMUI 8.0, Huawei’s take on the Android 8.0 Oreo consuming system, and while it’s OK, it’s certainly not as natty and slick as the near-pure Android you’ll see on Moto’s phones.
Power and battery
The P20 Lite is a terrific price phone, but it’s still a budget phone. That consuming compromises are needed, and the Kirin 659 processor is mostly where you’ll feel it.
It’s not a slow handset, but there are moments of lag. Going from reading a news app to Googling a word definition to checking a Facebook communication and then back to the news app, for instance, is a command sequence likely to stump the shouted, if only for a couple of milliseconds. There were also a few times that audio from an app kept touching even after I had closed it.
There’s also enough distinguished here for most 3D gaming. A game like Asphalt 8 runs fine, conception bigger games that require more RAM won’t run optimally here. In PUBG, for instance, I had to play at the lowest graphics settings.
More bothersome is the so-so battery life. You’ll get a full day of use out of its 3,000 mAh battery but not much more. It lasted just conception 11 hours in our video-loop battery testing, which is just OK. The Moto X4, which costs roughly the same, lasted 12 and a half hours. It fared better than the Moto G6’s 9-ish hours, though.
The P20 Lite’s camera is good for the price
The P20 family is a house built by cameras. The Pro is the first phone with a triple camera setup on the back, which cmoneys an impressive 3x optical zoom. It also had insane low-light capabilities, which it shared with the regular P20 phone. The P20 Lite isn’t quite cut from the same cloth.
It’s good, sometimes very good for its effect, but not great like the rest of the family.
There’s a 16-megapixel, 2-megapixel dual camera setup on the back that shoots though-provoking, crisp pictures. Recent Huawei phones have had AI integrated cameras, which can tell what you’re trying to take a narrate of and optimise settings accordingly, but that’s absent here. Not a huge letdown, but it would’ve been nice. Beautify, as always, is here.
Photos look gargantuan in ideal light.
Daniel Van Boom
Sometimes the depth-of-field carry out works really well.
Daniel Van Boom
And novel times it’s not as seamless.
Daniel Van Boom
I was impressed by the vibrancy of colours in night photos. But otherwise, it’s average in low light.
Daniel Van Boom
The P20 Lite comes with bokeh-style Portrait mode, a depth-of-field feature that’s spread to many midrange and cost phones but is nonetheless appreciated. It’s not perfect, as you’ll survey it struggles to distinguish between what’s meant to be foreground and background, but it’s a luxury at this price.
The named is fine at night — not good, but far from dreadful — which is about what you can hope for. Selfie-wise, the 16-megapixel front shooter is more decent, but it wouldn’t be fair to inquire of much more.
Huawei P20 Lite spec comparison
| Huawei P20 Lite | Motorola Moto G6 | Motorola Moto X4 | Nokia 6.1 | |
| Display size, resolution | 5.84-inch; 2,280×1,080 pixels | 5.7-inch; 2,160×1,080 pixels | 5.2-inch; 1,920×1,080 pixels | 5.5-inch; 1,920×1,080 pixels |
| Pixel density | 432 ppi | 424 ppi | 424 ppi | 403 ppi |
| Dimensions (Inches) | 5.85×2.80×0.29 in | 6.06×2.85×0.33 in | 5.8X2.9X0.31 in | 5.86×2.98×0.32 in |
| Dimensions (Millimeters) | 148.6×71.2×7.4 mm | 153.8×72.3×8.3 mm | 148.4×73.4×8 mm | 148.8×75.8×8.2 mm |
| Weight (Ounces, Grams) | 5.11 oz; 145g | 5.89 oz; 167g | 5.7 oz; 163g | 6.01 oz; 172g |
| Mobile software | Android 8.0 Oreo | Android 8.0 Oreo | Android 7.1.1 Nougat | Android 8.1 Orea |
| Camera | Dual 16-megapixel, 2-megapixel | Dual 12-megapixel, 5-megapixel | Dual 12-megapixel, 8-megapixel | 16-megapixel |
| Front-facing camera | 16-megapixel | 12-megapixel | 16-megapixel | 8-megapixel |
| Video capture | 1080p | 1080p | 4K | 2160p |
| Processor | Octa-core Kirin 659 | 1.8GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 | 2.2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 | 2.2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 |
| Storage | 32GB, 64GB | 32GB, 64GB | 32GB, 64GB | 32GB, 64GB |
| RAM | 4GB | 3GB, 4GB | 3GB or 4GB | 4GB |
| Expandable storage | Up to 256GB | Up to 128GB | Up to 2TB | Up to 256GB |
| Battery | 3,000mAh | 3,000mAh | 3,000mAh | 3,000mAh |
| Fingerprint sensor | Back | Beneath screen | Beneath screen | Back |
| Connector | USB-C | USB-C | USB-C | USB-C |
| Headphone jack | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Special features | Dual rear cameras, facial recognition, dual-SIM | Dual-SIM, Splash-proof, time lapse video, Turbo Charger | Water-resistant (IP68), selfie-flash, dual rear cameras | Android One, NFC |
| Price off-contract (US) | Converts to $295 | $249 | $399 (Motorola and Google); $330 (Amazon with Prime ads) | $269 |
| Price (UK) | £329 | £219 (32GB); £239 (64GB) | £349 | £229 |
| Price (Australia) | AU$399 | AU$399 | AU$699 | AU$399 |
