Huawei P20 Pro Vs iPhone 8 Plus: Is The Triple Camera Worth It?

Huawei P20 Pro, the first smartphone with a triple camera is by far one of the best premium smartphones. It caught a lot of attention with its DxO Mark rating of 109; the highest among any smartphones & proved to be the best smartphone for mobile photography. On the other hand, the iPhone 8 Plus is the 2^nd best flagship from Apple after the iPhone X. However, iPhone 8 Plus rocks same chipset and same camera setup as the iPhone X. So, how does it stack up against the best Android flagship of 2018? Let’s find out!

Huawei P20 Pro Vs iPhone 8 Plus

Specs

The Huawei P20 Pro takes an early lead in the specs department, partly due to its triple camera setup and larger battery. It also has more internal storage out of the box; 128GB compared to iPhone 8 Plus’s 64GB. Both of the phones come with IP67 rated water resistance; so you can relax if your device drops a meter deep in the water.

There’s a stereo speaker on both the P20 Pro and iPhone 8 Plus. However, the speaker is slightly better on the 8 Plus.

Build & Design

Moving on to the build and design, with the P20 pro you get a metal frame with a glass panel on the front and back. Looks and feels very premium. I absolutely love the twilight version but the blue color also looks fantastic. With the 8 Plus, you are getting a glass panel on the front and back with an aluminum frame and it looks equally good. P20 Pro has a notch at the top but it’s a smaller notch and you will get used to it in 2-3 days. On the other side, the 8 Plus doesn’t feature any notch but it has huge & ugly bezels on top and bottom. The design of the 8 plus is really ugly and even with a huge body, it has a smaller screen than the p20 pro.

iPhone 8 Plus looks like a brick; a huge ugly phone. Whereas, the P20 Pro with its sleek and slender design/ build is one of the best-looking smartphones in the market right now. Also, it’s very hard to handle the 8 Plus due to its large footprint. P20 pro looks much more appealing and it’s much easier to handle.

Verdict: Huawei P20 Pro

Display

Huawei’s P20 Pro comes with AMOLED screen measuring 6.1-inches with a screen resolution of Full HD+ (1080 x 2240) and 18.7:9 ratio. iPhone has avoided jumping to Quad HD for the last couple of years and it continues to do so, with the iPhone 8 Plus offering Full HD at 1920 x 1080.

The iPhone 8 Plus misses out on OLED as it has a smaller 5.5-inch IPS panel. iPhone 8 Plus comes with its trademark true tone display feature. Similarly, you can change between Vivid, Normal, Warm, and Cold profile on the P20 Pro.

Both of these displays are really good. P20 Pro offers more vibrant colors whereas the iPhone 8 Plus offers more natural color. Therefore, this will come down to your personal preference. However, during my brief usage, I noticed that P20 Pro’s display looks sharper than the iPhone 8 Plus. Meaning, the texts look slightly sharper on the P20 Pro. I loved the display on both of these phones but I prefer the sharper profile of the P20 Pro.

Verdict: Draw

Performance, Battery Life, and Charging

The P20 Pro has Huawei’s own Kirin 970 Processor. It is the first mobile processor with a dedicated NPU (Neural Processing Unit). Huawei’s camera is backed up by the NPU for artificial intelligence (A.I) tasks. Also, the P20 Pro is equipped with 6GB RAM.

The iPhone 8 Plus comes with the latest A11 Bionic chipset and it is backed up by 3GB of RAM.

Benchmarks test show a slightly more power at play for the iPhone 8 Plus, but it’s not enough to suggest that iPhone 8 Plus is superior – not when the everyday performance is super smooth on both of the devices. P20 Pro offers 6GB and iPhone 8 Plus offers 3GB of RAM to keep things going smoothly no matter what you throw at it: games, apps, and multitasking. Yes, the A11 bionic processor is a powerful chipset but you won’t find contrasting differences between the iPhone 8 Plus and the P20 Pro during real-life usage.

Moving into battery life, the P20 Pro has a beefier 4,000 mAh compared to the 2,691 mAh battery of the iPhone 8 Plus. P20 Pro and iPhone 8 Plus both have an excellent battery life. However, iPhone 8 Plus cannot compete against the p20 pro. In our battery drain test, P20 Pro was able to last more than 5 hours whereas the iPhone 8 Plus managed to last only 4 hours. Thus, P20 Pro is the king amongst the flagships right now when it comes to battery life. With the P20 Pro, you will be able to make it last more than a day but it will be hard to do so with the 8 Plus.

Both of these phones support fast charging but Apple doesn’t include a fast charger with the box. You’ll need to buy the fast charger separately to enjoy the fast charging. On the contrary, Huawei includes a super-fast charger in the box. Happy Charging!

Verdict: Huawei P20 Pro

Camera

With the Huawei P20 Pro, we are getting a triple camera setup with an f1.8 aperture 40MP RGB sensor, f/1.6 20MP Monochrome Sensor, and a f/2.4 8MP telephoto lens. And among these three sensors only the telephoto lens is optically stabilized, whereas the two remaining sensor use AI stabilization.

Now on to the iPhone 8 plus we have a dual camera setup with an f1.8 12MP Wide-Angle sensor and an f2.8 12MP telephoto lens that allows 2x optical zoom. Only the Wide angle lens is optically stabilized whereas there’s no stabilization on that 2nd telephoto lens.

iPhone 8 Plus cannot really compete with the Huawei P20 Pro when it comes to the camera department. The 40 MP RGB sensor on the P20 helps to capture awesome details and the 5x hybrid zoom is really impressive. P20 Pro is the best camera among smartphones right now and I’ve been impressed with its real-life performance. P20 Pro tries to capture lifelike pictures and thus, it offers natural colors. However, if you want to capture pictures with more popping colors, Huawei lets you do that by switching to Vivid and Smooth color mode on the Camera settings. But you’re stuck with the same color profile option on the iPhone 8 Plus, generally its bright and has vibrant colors – but not as good as the P20 Pro. Also, iPhone 8 doesn’t have the same level of detail as the P20 Pro and sometimes it tends to overexpose the picture.

Now, let’s talk about that crispy zoom option on the P20 Pro. You’ll get 3x optical zoom and 5x digital zoom on the P20 Pro. The details are well preserved and noise is well under control in 3x optical zoom and 5x digital zoom is also equally convincing. This provides the users with more room to play with the P20 Pro’s camera. You do have the zoom option on the iPhone 8 Plus but it cannot match the pedigree of P20 Pro.

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In low light conditions, P20 Pro is miles ahead of the iPhone 8 Plus. Though the 8 Plus has improved camera, the low light prowess of the P20 Pro is exceptional. P20 Pro manages to keep the noise level really low and provides nice details to the images even under the low light situation. More than that it handles highlights really well in night conditions. The 8 Plus cannot match the details of P20 Pro and the noise level makes the image less appealing. Another exceptional low light feature of the P20 Pro is its night mode. This mode exposes the lens for 4 seconds and balances out the shadows with the lights to a sensible degree – a mode no other competitor can match. This mode is kind of an HDR mode for night shots; it’ll provide you with more details and balanced exposure.

Onto the portrait mode, there’s not much to differentiate between the P20 Pro and the iPhone 8 Plus. Both of these phones perform really well. But, the P20 Pro’s edge detection is slightly better than the iPhone 8 Plus. You’ll get more consistent blur on the edges of the subject with the P20 Pro. This doesn’t mean that the 8 Plus is bad but the P20 Pro does the job really well. Also, the P20 Pro maintains more detail of the subject than the 8 Plus. Overall, Huawei P20 Pro is the best camera smartphone out there and iPhone 8 Plus is obviously behind it.

However, things look better for the iPhone 8 Plus when it comes to front camera and videos. We have the 4k option on both of these devices but you do not get the 4k 60fps option on the p20 pro and also there’s no stabilization option on 4k. Whereas you get 4k 60fps option on the 8 Plus with stabilization. There’s slow-mo option on both of the devices but you get 960fps option on the p20 pro which is not available on the 8 Plus. iPhone 8 Plus only offers 240fps slow motion feature. P20 Pro wins the Slow Mo round! Photos from the front camera look better on the iPhone 8 Plus. But there’s a minor difference between these two; many won’t even notice the difference.

Verdict: Huawei P20 Pro

Software and Updates

P20 Pro rocks a latest Android 8.1 Oreo, with Huawei’s EMUI 8.1 UI on top. Whereas, the iPhone comes with the iOS on top of Android 8.1 Oreo. iPhone fans will obviously prefer the iOS but Huawei’s EMUI has some neat features. And recently, Huawei has been really active when it comes to updates. Android vs iOS is the matter of personal preference.

Huawei has an inbuilt pedometer that counts the daily steps; it’s really useful for the health freaks. Furthermore, you get Huawei Health if you want to step up your health game.

A standout feature that I really like about the P20 Pro is their battery saving mode. There are two intensity levels and with the Ultra power saving mode, you can really make it last longer. And, with the option to darken the interface colors, P20 Pro really outshines in battery optimization. We do get a power saving mode on the 8 Plus but it’s not as emphasized as it is on the P20 Pro.

Talking about unique features there are plenty of to play within Huawei P20 Pro than the 8 Plus. Most of them are useful and you’ll appreciate that it’s available.

Let’s not get into the “Android vs iOS” debate, both of them have their shortcomings. It’s all about your preference.

Price

Currently, the 64GB variant of the iPhone 8 Plus is available for NRs. 1,12000 and the base variant (128GB) of P20 Pro is available for NRs. 99,900. If we compare these prices with international prices then the P20 pro has better pricing than the 8 Plus. iPhones are always overpriced in Nepal. For the current price, P20 Pro is a way better choice than the 8 Plus – period.

Verdict: Huawei P20 Pro

Overall Winner: Huawei P20 Pro

The iPhone 8 Plus is definitely a good phone. In some areas, it can go head to head with the P20 Pro but P20 Pro crushes its competitors with the triple camera setup, bigger battery, and super-fast charging. Furthermore, you’re getting a bigger display with a smaller footprint on the P20 Pro. Also, iPhones are ridiculously priced in Nepal. The pricing of the P20 Pro is way better than the iPhone 8 Plus. So, I would definitely go for the P20 Pro than the iPhone 8 Plus. Yes! the triple camera is definitely worth it.

What do you think about both of these devices? Which one would be your pick? Let us know in the comments below!