Each major Android device is preceded by weeks, if not months, of rumors that reveal pretty much everything there is to know about the smartphone. It happened for years with Google’s Nexus and Pixel phones or Samsung’s Galaxy S and Note series. It’s always happened with the OnePlus phones.
It’s pretty uncommon to see a new Android device launch in stores before its scheduled announcement. That’s exactly what happened with the Huawei P20 Lite, which is the cheapest version of Huawei’s next family of iPhone X-killing devices.
Huawei announced at MWC 2018 in late February that it’ll host a special press event on March 27th in Paris, France, where it’ll unveil the P20 series. Since then, we’ve gotten a steady stream of P20 rumors that told us Huawei is working on three P20 devices, including the P20 Lite, the regular P20, and the P20 Pro.
That doesn’t change the fact that it’s pretty strange to see the P20 Lite launch in stores before Huawei’s announcement.
The P20 Pro is the phone that will compete with the iPhone X and iPhone 8, whereas the P20 Lite is the significantly cheaper option. All phones, however, will have almost the same design, notch display included.
In a blog post, Italian-language Android World announces rather cheerfully that they have purchased the P20 Lite and you can do it too. In Italy, the phone is available from local electronics retailers, including MediaWorld, Unieuro, and Euronics. So it doesn’t look like it’s a mistake from just one store. And if it’s available in Italy, that means other countries may have also received it.
The phone sells for €369.99 unlocked if you were wondering. But the P20 and P20 Plus aren’t available yet.
The P20 Lite packs a 5.8-inch Full HD display with 2280 x 1080 resolution, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, 16-megapixel dual rear camera, 16-megapixel front-facing camera, 3,000 mAh battery and Android 8 Oreo with EUMI 8.0 on board. In other words, it’s exactly what we’ve been expecting.
AndroidWorld went ahead and did a quick video unboxing of the phone, and you can check it out below.
