While many smartphone fans will take a quick look at a device’s spec sheet to see which processor it’s running, that’s not a phone’s whole story. In the case of Huawei’s Mate 20 Pro and the new Kirin 980 processor, a bunch of high performance cores are only one factor. With AI on board, processor cores are a show of muscle next to the smarts that can make it work that much better. And, in the new Mate 20 Pro, there’s plenty of muscle and smarts to deliver a fantastic experience.
The Mate 20 Pro is the first Android smartphone to offer a chipset built on a 7nm process. That tighter design allows more performance in a smaller space — one square centimeter fitting 6.9 billion transistors in this case. That gave the Kirin 980 inside the Mate 20 Pro a performance boost of 20 percent and an efficiency boost of 40 percent compared to its already impressive predecessor, the Kirin 970. And, from a graphical standpoint, the Kirin 980’s upgraded GPU improves things by even bigger leaps with a 46% boost to performance and a 178% boost to efficiency.
With less space taken by the main cores of the processor, Huawei was able to focus more on the star of the show: two Neural Processing Units (NPUs), for the revolutionary dual-NPU powering some of the Mate 20 Pro’s most impressive features. Compared to the Kirin 970 chipset, the dual-NPU more than doubles the performance of the AI processing over the Kirin 970 in object recognition, which lays the foundation for what the Mate 20 Pro can do.
Triple the cameras and double the smarts
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro features the Leica Triple Camera system, which combines multiple cameras, including a Ultra Wide Angle lens, to give the platform unrivaled photographic versatility in the smartphone space. And, making the experience smooth and easy to use is the Dual-NPU.
Huawei has implemented AI in so many parts of the Mate 20 Pro’s camera that you’ll have an easy time taking great photos and videos. A big part of that is the Mate 20 Pro’s ability to recognize what it’s looking at.
Aim the cameras at an object, and the Dual-NPU will quickly try to identify the object and scenario. The HiVision feature can help you recognize products and search for them at online retailers. Meanwhile, other tools in the photo and video can get you shooting footage like a pro.
The Mate 20 Pro AI can recognize 4,500 images per minute, and has the ability to recognize 5,000 different objects and 1,500 different scenarios across 25 categories. And, when it recognizes a photo subject and scenario, it will act to help you get the best photo. It can manage the colors, lighting, and high dynamic range. The AI 4D predictive focus can even help you snap a clear photo of difficult subjects, like moving people.
The smarts don’t stop with still photos either. Huawei has done even more to make its AI work with video, so you can shoot cinematic masterpieces on the Mate 20 Pro.
From the start of recording, the AI Director can help you with composition, framing everything in the shot intelligently. As you record, it can assist with focus so your subject isn’t blurry, and the AI Image Stabilization will help keep your recording from being shaky even if your hands are. If you want to go for a more dramatic feel, you can use the AI Cinema Mode to apply filters that adjust hue, saturation, and brightness. You even have the option to use selective desaturation, giving color only to the subjects you want.
And, even if you’re not big into video, Huawei’s Spotlight Reel can help you turn out fun highlights by automatically editing together 10-second clips from other clips with a shared theme, perhaps recognizing multiple videos shot at a loved one’s birthday party and combining them into an instantly shareable montage.
With all the power the new Dual-NPU offers the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, you may have a hard time taking pictures and videos that aren’t worth sharing. And, thanks to the performance and efficiency of the new Kirin 980, you’ll have a quick and easy time doing it.
