Huawei P20 Pro vs Galaxy S9 Plus: Supersized showdown
Chinese manufacturer Huawei announced the Huawei P20 Pro, the most high-end smartphone in its flagship Huawei P20 range, at a dedicated event in Paris, France on March 27. But how does the handset compare to its rival supersized counterpart, the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus? Let’s find out.
Huawei P20 Pro vs Galaxy S9 Plus Design: What’s the difference?
The Huawei P20 Pro sports a near-identical design to the standard Huawei P20, so if you’ve already read our Huawei P20 vs Galaxy S9 comparison, it should come as no surprise to hear that the Huawei P20 Pro isn’t too dissimilar to the Galaxy S9 Plus from a cosmetic perspective, with both touting a durable metal-and-glass design.
Huawei P20 Pro
There are some differences, though. The Huawei P20 Pro, for example, has a ‘notched’ 6.1-inch near-edge-to-edge screen with a small lip at the bottom, whereas the Galaxy S9 Plus has an equal amount of dead space at the top and bottom of its 6.2-inch Infinity Display. The former also has a front-mounted fingerprint scanner, while the latter has a rear.
But the biggest contrast once again comes in the form of the camera setup.
The Huawei P20 Pro is the first smartphone on the market to offer a tri-camera (40MP + 20MP + 8MP), complete with AI for automatic frame-by-frame optimization – something that even the most experienced mobile photographer is bound to find useful. The Galaxy S9 Plus, for comparison, has a dual-camera (12MP + 12MP).
Galaxy S9 Plus
Samsung’s offering does have something going for it, though: its camera has a user-adjustable aperture, but as Max Parker, our resident Mobile & Tablets Editor, noted in our comprehensive review, it’s not something that most users will find themselves taking advantage of as it requires them to disable the Auto shooting mode.
Huawei P20 Pro vs Galaxy S9 Plus Specs: Which is more powerful?
The Huawei P20 Pro is also more attractive than the Galaxy S9 on paper. It features an in-house Kirin 970 CPU, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage, whereas the Galaxy S9 features Samsung’s Exynos 9810 CPU in Europe and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 in North America, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage.
Huawei P20 Pro
And the Huawei P20 Pro also takes the win in the camera department. Building on what I said earlier, the tri-camera, which was developed in partnership with German optics firm Leica, takes advantage of Pixel Fusion Technology – a technique that merges four pixels into one in order to deliver unrivalled low-light images.
Both the Huawei P20 Pro and Galaxy S9 Plus are on par on the software front – shipping running a modified build of Oreo, the latest flavour of Google’s mobile OS. It comes pre-loaded with a slew of neat features, like support for Picture-in-Picture (PiP) and notification channels, adaptive icons and circular emoji.
Galaxy S9 Plus
Here’s a full breakdown of the internal differences between the Huawei P20 Pro and Galaxy S9 Plus:
| Huawei P20 Pro | Galaxy S9 Plus | |
| Battery | 4000mAh (Huawei Super Charge) | 3500mAh (Adaptive Fast Charging) |
| Camera (Front) | 24MP | 8MP |
| Camera (Rear) | 40MP + 20MP + 8MP | 12MP + 12MP |
| Display | 6.1-inch FullView FHD+ | 6.2-inch Infinity Display QHD |
| Processor | Kirin 970 | Exynos 9810/Snapdragon 845 |
| Storage | 128GB (expandable via microSD) | 64/128/256GB (expandable via microSD) |
| RAM | 6GB | 6GB |
Huawei P20 Pro vs Galaxy S9 Plus Summary: What’s the difference?
Design: The Galaxy S9 Pro is the again champ here with its symmetrical near-edge-to-edge Infinity Display and IP67 waterproof rating. The Huawei P20 Pro features a notch like the iPhone X, something that most find to be a bit of an eyesore. Both handsets, however, sport a metal-and-glass build, and have wireless and fast-charging capabilities.
Specs: The Huawei P20 Pro also comes out on top here with its 128GB of internal storage out of the box and fantastic Leica-engineered tri-camera setup, making it a more attractive option for customers who consume a lot of media on their smartphone and like to have a camera that can rival some mid-range DSLRs in their pocket.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
