It seems like just yesterday that iPhone users were threatening to abandon Instagram when the app was first made available for Android phones. Why were they whining so much? Because at the time, the cameras on Android phones were so terrible that they were painful to look at in your Instagram feed. Fast-forward to 2018 and things have changed quite a bit. Camera tech has improved dramatically across the board, and we have gotten to the point where most Android flagship phones can capture photos that are at least in the same league as Apple’s latest iPhones. Then you have a small number of elite camera phones from Android phone makers that arguably take even better photos than iPhones.
The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL aren’t without their fair share of problems, but there’s no denying that the camera on the latest Google phones is phenomenal. Well, it’s phenomenal when it actually saves photos. There’s an ongoing debate between iPhone users and Google fans over which smartphone has the best camera, and we doubt either side will ever concede. But guess what — there’s a new smartphone out there with a camera that is objectively better than either Apple’s iPhone XS or Google’s Pixel 3. In fact, the photos it captures are so good that it’s hard to believe they were actually shot on a smartphone. But now for the bad news: You can’t buy it from a wireless carriers in the United States.
Tech fans who follow the news undoubtedly already know which smartphone brand we’re talking about. That’s right, it’s Huawei, the second largest smartphone maker in the world by sales volume. Huawei surpassed Apple recently to take the number 2 spot behind Samsung, and that’s a pretty remarkable feat considering it doesn’t sell any of its smartphones in the US, which is of course one of the biggest smartphone markets in the world. Following pressure from the Trump administration, US wireless carriers and big box electronics retailers stopped carrying Huawei phones. Why? Because Huawei is a Chinese company and the White House is afraid it might try to use smartphones to spy.
Android fans in the US facepalm every time the company unleashes a new flagship phone because they’re always ahead of the pack when it comes to performance. The latest example of this is the fresh new Huawei Mate 20 Pro, which is the first commercially available Android phone to pack a 7nm processor like the iPhone XS. Of course, speed and power aren’t the only benefits of the Mate 20 Pro. Anyone who knows Huawei phones knows that the camera is where they really shine.
The new Mate 20 Pro features Huawei’s latest triple-lens rear camera along with all new camera software bundled with Huawei’s Android 9.0 Pie build. The Huawei P20 Pro’s triple-lens camera had been the best in the business, and now the Mate 20 Pro picks up right where the P20 Pro left off. But don’t take our word for it, checkout the photo samples shared by YouTuber Danny Winget:
I am blown away at these Portrait Mode and Aperture pictures from the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. Straight out of the camera. Wow. pic.twitter.com/E8qw68N9GI
— Danny Winget (@superscientific) November 1, 2018
Click through on the tweet to zoom in on the photos and you’ll see just how breathtaking this camera is. Look closely at the first photo in particular, the Portrait Mode shot of Winget’s daughter. Everything about that photo is incredible, but focus on the area near the bottom around her ankles. Look at how clear that water splash is! If we had shared that photo on its own and said it was captured by a $2,500 Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR camera, no one would have doubted us. It’s that good.
Sadly, as we mentioned, the Mate 20 Pro won’t be sold by any carriers in the US. You can snag one on Amazon if you want, but you’ll have to cough up some serious cash… though it’s actually still less than you’d pay for a top-of-the-line iPhone XS Max.
