yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] xxaarraa:
Good discussion in this thread so far. Very nice comparison by the gentleman who compared it to a DSLR. That post alone shows why I don't bother with DSLRs. If you have to pixel peep to tell the slightest difference between a phone camera photo and a DSLR photo, I'd much rather carry a small phone in my pocket (which I carry anyway) than a 3 lb albatross around my neck with separate backpack for lenses, wipes and other kit.

Anyway, my impression comparing the P20P to my other phones (V30, Note 8, Pixel 2 XL) is that its main lens photos are comparable. Every phone has its strengths and weaknesses, overall, the P20P produces very comparable phots to the other ones. That's disappointing in itself since the others are 12-16 mp sensors. This tells me that there is a lot of ground to be covered and more improvements coming in the coming months with firmware updates to the P20P to take full advantage of the hardware. I personally cannot wait for the gcam port to come out. Google's post processing is far and above better than anyone else's and I have not used the OEM camera app on the V30 once since the gcam ports became available.

Also, we should use the camera to its strengths. The P20P has better natural bokeh than almost any other phone camera. So shoot close ups and portraits more. It has a great monochrome lens. So shoot black and white more. It has really good zoom. So shoot zoomed in photos more.

Use every camera where it shines, instead of stripping away advantages and comparing main lens to main lens.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] pawau:
but doesn't it bother you that the p20P camera does what it wants, not what you want - even with AI off? Because for me, this is a major issue. Colors being waaay off. It may improve some photos but when you photograph something naturally vivid, the effect is horrible. And it seems to apply some HDR-ish effect to some pictures with no control over it, too. My previous camera smartphone was LG G4, and it presented very decent quality (not to mention superior camera interface). I knew that interface will be a bit off in huawei, but I expected some improvement over LG G4. So far, I am dissapointed.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] xxaarraa:
I have not observed what you are talking about. I leave AI turned off and have not seen the phone apply inconsistent post processing like you are describing. That sounds weird.

G4?! Geez. You are jumping at least 3 generations of smartphone photography if you are going from a G4 to a P20P. Yeah LG's manual controls are still best in the business, however, the G4 is way way behind the times. P20P is an upgrade in every sense of the word.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] jaimeletelierhay:
Absolutely in agreement with this. Colours are wayyyyyyyy oversaturated. Especially skintones!
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] bk227865:
I have the same "auto" HDR probllem .

In some situations with strong contrasts (shooting indoors with a bright window in the background for example) the phone suddenly decides to do HDR . There is no warning of this happening, and i can't turn it off. In circumstances like that i have to check each picture to see if "it" happend or not.

The effect is also way more pronounced then activating HDR manually.

On the other hand , manual HDR seems to have almost no effect VS the 10MP default photo mode (pixel binning).
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] starbase64:
[MENTION=318956]bk227865[/MENTION]

i use night mode for high dynamic range situations
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] sherif2222222:
Right sir :good:

the camera hardware seems good but this is not enough if software is that bad ..

pics are not bad but color management is really not good

and regarding front cam, the beauty effect (even it`s disabled) is an ugly feature that need to be removed + the annoying washed out colors
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] neflictus:
Man, Huawei, you devil you!

You fooled me with your devious marketing.

I sold an s8 plus, switched to an iPhone 8 plus for 3 weeks and jumped on board with Huawei after killing myself with ios.

Stupid little old me bought the hype and really thought the camera was good.

Couldn't possible go any lower than Huawei P20 Pro.

The pictures are awful. There is obviously something wrong with the software or hardware.

My wife's old S7 takes better photos.

The best description for the Huawei camera: Chinese photo app with stupid effects.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] kabirjedi:
[MENTION=2488941]cluj[/MENTION]

Post few full size night s7 pics pls! thanks!
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] starbase64:
[MENTION=5482702]neflictus[/MENTION]

my nokia 3210 takes also much better photos!!!!
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] dannejanne:
G4, V10 and V20 has the best image quality of any phones ever made even compared to newer ones. The details are insane and easily beats the P20 Pro in many conditions. It's the closest to DSLR experience you get on a phone. I still have my V10 laying at home. I miss it's camera quality but the P20 Pro has other things like night shot to compensate. However I still hold the V10 my king of photography. More natural looking photos also. I've actually made a comparison with both phones in each hand a little while ago. P20 does better sometimes the V10 other times. For straight image quality though the V10 wins pretty much all of the time. The Huawei should be able to do better because of the bigger sensor. But it just saves Huaweis bad processing instead of making it great.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] photoxd:
I had the G5, and it was a great phone. What I like about P20 Pro is that it can do shutter priority. G5's manual mode does not have that, and once manually set the shutter speed in G5, everything else needed to be manually set as well (ISO, EV etc.)
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] leoni1980:
I've been testing the Nokia 8 with Pixel APK against the P20 Pro in auto and even that takes better photos than the Huawei in most scenarios. It's pretty deflating and makes me question trusting reviewers' opinions of Huawei going forward. It's deeply annoying how glowing the early reviews were - as if this phone was going to change cameras on phones for good. As it turns out the phone is basically a one-trick pony with its night mode, and takes decent pictures if you faff about with manual settings. As it stands though the £175 Nokia 8 I bought a few days ago takes sharper images with better dynamic range for most snapshots.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] erazer007:
Just did a detailed camera review of the P20 Pro camera

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v27sFiqNdH0[/YOUTUBE]
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] freddyttt:
love what this camera can do:)
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] firecall:
Came here to say the same thing! I've been googling for similar experiences. The IT guy at work insisted we get two if these as the cameras were the best. We wanted iPhones in the marketing department.

I read a few reviews as well - I can only assume the review phones have different software or the reviews are being paid. Because the images are unusable for us. They are so soft and lack any detail. Colour balance is way off with out oeocessing. Images are soft and pink basically.

Some reviews suggested that P20 Pro was better than an iPhone X or 8 and showed examples. I'm calling BS on those reviews. Even the iPhone 7 is sharper and resolves more details.

Is the image processing software on this phone? Anything we can do?
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] photoxd:
Not sure about iphone as I never owned one, but I think the camera is comparable to the g5 I owned in some situations and better in others after learning only using the photo auto mode for zoomed photos. But it is definitely not consistent as the G5. G5 is considered a great phone camera, but I would expect the p20 pro to be much better. At least so far I don't feel it is worse. It is definitely more flexible.

What interests me is that I often read that images are soft from p20 pro. I thought it was over sharpened sometimes instead! Can we have an image whIch is too soft and too sharp at the same time, or is it difference in preference that something sharpened to one can be too soft to another?
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Arun77gupta:
Clicks from Indian p20 pro

[IMG="randome click from car window"]https://flic.kr/p/26jUVwZ[/IMG]

[IMG="london"]https://flic.kr/p/24WQdx7[/IMG]
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Sparebanken:
The pro raw setting produces some truly remarkable images at times if you like to manually process the images afterwards, but it can be somewhat limited since there is no option to zoom. Photo mode on the other hand is almost unusable because of all the random post processing going on from time to time, it can generate breathtaking results, but I would much rather prefer consistency instead of a lottery.

Are there any news if Huawei are planning to add the option to toggle settings such as sharpening? I feel like this really could be a great camera phone with just a few small changes.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] stargate1000:
This was taken in pro mode, you can get some truly striking images with this phone. Had the iPhone x, was good but I get better images out of the P20 pro on most occasions.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Latoc:
Just shoot in 40 mpx and be done with the sharpening madness. My advice to everyone.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Magnus3D:
Maybe it's just me but it looks like the sharpening is slightly toned down in the 128 firmware release. It also seems to handle exposure better than before even in challenging situations.

/ Magnus
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] argh9:
I find the front camera to be much much better after the recent updates, I actually like it now! Both in portrait and photo mode!
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] vodovodo:
It became much better with updates but still not up there with others except in night mood and zoom.

That is what I said when it first released and I bought it. It's a big hype driven by untrusted reviewers and I got accused of being Samsung fanboy and actually one member wished I would die before saying anything else bad about this toy... Lol

Waiting for u12+ witch with no doubt will be the new king of photography

Look at this

[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/CCo62HABnQM[/YOUTUBE]
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Killer007TV:
Sorry to spam the thread, but can anyone else confirm the decrease of devastating post-processing in .the 128 update?
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] elgene:
Hi everyone. I took a chance to record night time sample video with stabilization. It is from Štefánik Trail 2018 (140km long running competition).

https://youtu.be/9aYV6W42OcU
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] thevenej:
Hi.

I hate the colorimetry of this phone, oversaturated, overcrisp.

I could not see yet big changes with .128.

When IA is activated and detect grenery, it is really not natural.

I put, all filter (embellishment to 0) especially for portrait picture.

I finally do not use IA mode, for all this reason.

Else the lens and sensor is nice, if HUAWEI could offer something more natural it would become a nice smartphone.

I still prefer the shoot done with my old note 3 or my iphone 7 regarding the rendering but of course those one do not have the great definition that the P20 pro can offer.

I really enjoy the Aperture Mode, creating magic picture with nice bokeh. The good thing is that it is possible to refocus after and this feature is great !

JP
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Hobartwash:
I just got this device, and like many people have said, the front facing camera is overexposed and terrible. Are folks certain this is a SW issue and not a hardware problem? (I'm on .120 still) I'm debating returning the device if its all devices, or exchanging it if its a HW defect on only certain devices.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Killer007TV:
So basically the best solution is to use the stock Huawei camera for special occasions (zooming, night mode, need for color-pop AI shot) and a third party camera for "normal" shots.

Thank you for an informative and useful post :)
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] argh9:
I think it is software related since you can see the "original" front camera if you just point it so you only can see some of your face. As soon as it recognises a face/eyes it automatically turns on brightness, smoothness etc.

I'm no expert tho, anyone with some input?
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] :
I'm still trying to decide whether to pony up what I consider is a huge amount of money for the P20 phone. Principally I want the best camera available. But the consensus is that I would need to operate with multiple camera apps to overcome the limitations of the Huawei stock app. Not very encouraging.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] worldsoutro:
Knowing Huawei they will fix it in the p30 and have users upgrade for the fix
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] rowihel2012:
Actually i had s9 plus

Now p20 pro

The cameta is better in p2p pro in low light and at night

But something wrong with image process sometimes produce aggressive sharpnesd with the night mode and auto

We need software to update this problem

But with pro mode

No aggressive sharpness at all
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Latoc:
If only the pro mode could be set to default...

I screw up a lot of shots because of this when I have to snap the phone out of my pocket and shoot in a instant to get the moment. No time to switch to pro mode.

And then comes the dreaded "sharpening picture" crap...
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Carmamir:
I've returned the phone mainly because of very bad picture quality. Lacks of details, lacks of sharpness, looks like out of focus in 90% of a time (I've tried to make a picture of a flower for 5 minutes).

Took the SGS9+ and got superior quality in every way (however I feel that as a phone H20 Pro is much better, battery life, signal strength, how easy was to unlock it)
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] leoni1980:
I have also now sold my P20 Pro. Bit gutting that the resale price of these has dropped so much. Only got £400 for mine after postage.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] neflictus:
Did Huawei fix the software issues plaguing the camera ?

Are photos usable after the last update?

Should I buy a Huawei P20 Pro for my son or go another route ?

(I owned the phone but sold it because I wasn't satisfied with the camera - in fact I was badly disappointed considering all the marketing) - mine didn't receive any software updates.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Slash8915:
I just got the P20 Pro on Monday and came from a Pixel 2 XL. My phone is one build 128 and the camera so far is awesome. The night mode is unbelievable in super low light. Miles above anything my Pixel could do.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] neflictus:
Well. I had the phone and photo quality was lacking to say the least.

I was wondering if anything improved with software updates.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Slash8915:
It seems that after firmware ver. 110, the camera improved significantly.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Archer Casio:
I have no problems with the rear camera. Handheld nightshot, 5x hybrid zoom and the 1080p stabilization are all exceptional.

However, the front camera experience ruined everything for me. I just recently emailed Huawei Customer support about this. They said they would forward my concern to the development team for future updates yada yada yada.

Overall, the P20 pro is an excellent phone (Speed, responsiveness, UI, battery and display). However, I think I will have to buy a secondary phone for selfies/groufies. (Don't judge, I love taking groufies!) I think Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is the best out there 2017-2018 in terms of front camera performance!
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] neflictus:
I was already on 110. Photos were horrid.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] all the pugs:
Well. The camera itself is really cool. The software processing however is still... let's say... a matter of taste. The oily/watercolour-smudges are still a problem. I try to use pro mode, that doesn't suffer from the artefacts that much. HDR and Nightmode is really horrible in my personal opinion. Yes, night mode takes photos that are otherwise impossible with smartphones, but they are really smoothed to death and lack so much detail. I'm on .128. My biggest wish is that Huawei reduces the noise reduction and post sharpening. Then the P20 Pro would be perfect (for me).
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] thevenej:
Agreed !
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] rowihel2012:
Agreed
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] JadranB:
Here is changelog for .132 firmware, for now only available for Chinese CLT-AL00, CLT-AL01, CLT-TL00, CLT-TL01. I guess we will see it soon for our phones. It mentions changes in camera post-processing
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] all the pugs:
Let's see :)

The thing is that camera post processing can also be a matter of "taste" and taste varies between different cultures. The overly smooth and overexposed look we westerners are critisizing the front camera for? It could match the taste of east asian customers instead who may love it. So if the firmware states that it "improves" details and sharpness, the question is: for whose taste will it be optimised? ;)

Also, the camera AI... while most Europeans would agree that the results are too oversaturated and "pop" too much, and sharpness and corner darkening is too exaggerated, it may be exactly the look that east asian customers want to have. So as Huawei is a Chinese brand, they will most likely satisfy their own customer base first. Which I can totally understand, but may weird out us other folks with different taste. If they let their users adjust the post processing according their own taste, that would be fantastic. So you can smooth and pop and sparkle just as much as you want to ;)
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Archer Casio:
The update is only for the rear camera! How disappointing :(
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] BLKSNAKER:
What about the camera in Android 9.. Is it better?

Enviado desde mi CLT-L29 mediante Tapatalk
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] t.kijas:
4D predictive focusing now works, but postprocessing is still quite aggressive.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] kaka1981:
Could anyone let me know which one is better mate 20 or p20 pro in terms of camera and pic quality.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] samson09:
I also thinking to change my note 9 to simple mate 20. Anyone has compared the pictures from both?

Wysłane z mojego SM-N960F przy użyciu Tapatalka
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] grizzlyspid86:
I dont know how the Note 9 perform, but these are taken from my vanilla Mate 20.

Its using a Sony IMX 380 camera sensor, same as vanilla P20, which a 1/2.3 inch size, resulting at 1.6 micron pixel size. In terms of hardware, it is even better than Pixel 3, which is using Sony IMX 362, a 1/2.55 inch size, resulting at 1.4 micron pixel size. On my observation, Mate 20 series camera software algorithm are much more better & mature than the overprocessed P20 series has. And the video recording now has good stability EIS in both FHD & 4k. I dont know wether P20 series have improve or not in EMUI 9.

P20 pro & Mate 20 Pro using Sony IMX 600 though. Both are using big 1/1.7 inch sensor, resulting at 1.12 micron pixel at 40mp resolution. But using the pixel binning on 10mp resolution, it is resulting at 2.24 micron pixel size.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] kaka1981:
Hi,

Could you please help me. I wanted to know which would be better mate 20 or ps20 pro. What I have heard is p20 screen and the camera is better..

My earlier phone Oneplus just died yesterday as screen became unresponsive so have to buy something quicky. Would appreciate inputs
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] grizzlyspid86:
Well, depends on your needs....what current oneplus u are using?
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] kaka1981:
I am using Oneplus 5T but its more than an year now. Last week its screen became unresponsive and I tried to reset the OS etc but it looks like hardware issue. So I am planning to buy a new phone instead now. I have been using One plus since past 4-5 yrs and now planning to try out something else.

My main needs are good camera, fast UI/phone and good battery.

I looked at p20, mate 20, mate 20 pro and they look good so wanted to know which one is better. Mate 20 pro seems to be the most expensive, not sure if its worth spending so much. Again I have to check if any of these work fine and dont give issues as I am in USA and have to pick something from ebay.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] grizzlyspid86:
Base on your needs, yes both Mate 20 & P20 Pro are the best choice for camera, battery & fast fluid experience. However, if u coming from Oneplus, Oxygen OS are definitely the better UI i've ever experience (even more than stock). EMUI is a bit limited customized UI, but its not that bad. (Feels stuck like using IOS on Android, no unlock bootloader).

If u dont gaming at all, i suggest u take the P20 Pro as it got the better screen & camera in terms of hardware (but lack ultra wide angle lens). But on the camera software side, Mate 20 processing are much better & mature. But i dont know if P20 Pro on the latest EMUI 9 software improve like Mate 20 or not (less overprocessed & excellent video recording stability), so u have to figure that out first. Battery are excellent on both phones. As for future proofing, the Kirin 980 in Mate 20 are better for the next 2-3 years usage & will get better future updates as its a newer device.

And if u can wait for another 2 month, P30 series will launch, definitely will be better than both Mate 20 & P20 Pro.

I wont pick Mate 20 Pro lol, as dont want to take the risk about green tint screen issue, plus u can save more money.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] kaka1981:
Thank for your details info.

Not sure when p30 would be launch.

I am in USA so not sure how good Huawei would here as there are some issues I have been reading around.

Have to read more on this before I jump onto anything.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Rajaasim1980:
was camera improved after update to pie … I sold my p20 pro and got pixel 2 xl because of camera and software but everything else was better on p20 pro
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] exodus394:
Yes it was. And even before,if you disabled AI,you could control the camera very well...the quality is above most phones,I'd never downgrade to a pixel 2xl
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] Rajaasim1980:
It was annoying to turn off Al everytime you take photo as there was no option to disable it permanently and most annoying was picture of people/ kids which was looking so artificial and cartoonish even with AL was off...

Rest it was brilliant for taking photos of landscape/building etc , night shots etc

But i take plenty pics and videos of children which was worse in p20 pro as compare to samsung and pixel 2 otherwise i like everything else( memory, battery, design )on p20 pro
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] exodus394:
Well,there was a Master AI option and still is,if you turn that off,AI does nothing,you don't have to disable the auto selected mode every time,and the pictures are not processed the same. But the quality in all modes is better in my opinion.

Edit: Oh,and btw: if you only disabled the auto selected mode by AI,and did not turned off Master AI option,the photos were still processed by AI,that's why you had the impression of "cartoonish photos",because of the processing. But now they improved this even with AI on...and if you disable Master AI,the photos are even better than before,with same option turned off.
[Huawei P20 Pro Real Life Review] XDARoni:
Photo quality on the P20 Pro is really good. Use professional mode and shoot in RAW. Then edit your photos in lightroom. You can get really great shots on this phone.