Huawei’s Mate 20 Pro has captured plenty of attention since its launch and for a good reason: it’s an all-out phone packed with the latest technology, including Android’s most powerful chip, a 3D face recognition system and an exciting triple camera setup.

But what if you just can’t quite afford the Mate 20 Pro, a device priced at the highest end of the market? Huawei has something else for you that still has the same powerful processor and provides mostly the same experience with just a few compromises: enter the Huawei Mate 20.

The Mate 20 is actually a slightly bigger phone than the Pro. It features an edge-to-edge design with a tiny teardrop notch and the Kirin 980, the same chip as on the Pro; it skips on the AMOLED screen and instead uses an LCD display; it lacks the 3D face recognition and the in-screen fingerprint scanner; and it does not have the super fast 40-watt charging from the Pro.

So does it still deserve the Mate 20 name and is it a phone worth buying? Read on to find out, but first, here is…

What’s in the box:

• Huawei Mate 20 phone
• Huawei SuperCharge wall charger (up to 22.5 watts)
• USB-C to standard USB cable
• Headphones with in-line mic (3.5mm jack)
• Translucent silicone case
• SIM ejector tool
• User manual

Design

Bigger than the Mate 20 Pro, but still with a premium feel

Unlike the surprisingly easy to handle Mate 20 Pro, the regular Huawei Mate 20 is actually quite the big and bulky phone, on par with most other XL-sized flagship phones like the iPhone XS Max and Google Pixel 3 XL. This is mostly due to it being much wider, which makes the phone harder to operate with a single hand, but you also gain a bigger screen in exchange for that inconvenience.

Huawei offers a few different colors for the Mate 20: we have the new “midnight blue hyper optical” version, which has a back made of glass with a really peculiar, finely textured finish that sounds just like an old vinyl disc when you scratch it. This new finish is actually quite practical too: it is not such a fingerprint magnet as most other glass phones and is not as slippery in the hand. You also have Huawei’s signature midnight gradient color version and a pure black model.

Unlike the Mate 20 Pro, which features a futuristic in-screen fingerprint scanner, you have a traditional fingerprint reader on the Mate 20. It’s located on the back of the phone and is lightning-fast: a quick tap on the finger scanner and you are instantly transported to the phone’s home screen.

All physical buttons on the Mate 20 are on the right side of the phone: you have a power key and volume buttons right above it. The buttons are made of metal, just like the side of the phone, and feel clicky, with a good amount of travel.

The vast majority of Wear OS smartwatches follow a similar strategy. Most of them favor casual-looking designs that make them suitable to wear for different occasions. However, the Casio PRO TREK SMART WSD-F30 bucks the trend by favoring utility more than anything else. Casio’s PRO TREK line has a reputation to uphold, so it’ll be interesting to see how the WSD-F30 turns out!
In the box:

• Casio PRO TREK Smart WSD-F30
• Wall charger
• Proprietary charging cable
• Quick start guide and warranty information

Design and comfort

Utility – this is what Casio continues to distinguish its products with, evident in the unique style of its Wear OS smartwatches. The WSD-F30 doesn’t deviate from the sporty and rugged design language that Casio has established, improving on it subtly by being smaller in size. It may seem oversized to most people, but in reality, it is slightly less thick compared to Casio’s previous offering, the WSD-F20. Initially, we weren’t totally amused by the ruggedized design, but with each passing day, it slowly grew on us. 

As for the case itself, it’s comprised from this resin material that’s been coated to give it that rugged look and feel. Our particular unit is accented with the color orange, making it quite a standout characteristic for a smartwatch – more so when the majority flaunt monotone or reserved colors. Still, this accent combined with the rugged design, large screws, and the carbon fiber pattern of the wrist strap, definitely gives off that vibe that this smartwatch is meant to withstand some serious punishment!

And you know what? That’s exactly one of its biggest assets! The WSD-F30’s design meets MIL-STD-810G for protection from just about anything that life can throw at us, while also featuring 5-bar water resistance. That’s a significant step up over most smartwatches, just because it’ll survive submersion under water at up to 50 meters. Now, the drawback is that it doesn’t come with a heart rate sensor on its underside. We’re told that this omission was necessary to ensure that the WSD-F30 meets the MIL-STD-810G standards.

Display and Controls

The Casio WSD-F30 has a full-color OLED screen (left) and a high-visibility LCD layer on top of it (right)
A significant change that Casio decided to make for the WSD-F30 was swapping out its predecessor’s LCD display, replacing it instead with a sharper, more vibrant-looking 1.2-inch 390 x 390 OLED display. As expected, details are super crisp and it maintains its clarity at all viewing angles. However, the fun doesn’t end there just yet!

A unique quality about the WSD-F30 is that it features a dual-layer display, which is comprised out of that OLED panel we just mentioned and a monochrome LCD on top of it. Typically, smartwatch screens don’t handle direct sunlight all that great, but the monochrome LCD layer on the WSD-F30 has excellent visibility. The white details on the black background showing the time, date, and battery level, definitely provide strong contrast, making it far superior to other displays. What it shows in the LCD monochrome layer can vary depending on what mode the watch is in – something we’ll discuss later in the software section. 

When the main OLED display times out and the watch goes into standby, the monochrome LCD turns on automatically – only to switch back again to the OLED panel when we get back to interacting with the WSD-F30. There’s a way to leverage the OLED display solely by toggling on the “Always-on” setting in the display settings menu, so that the OLED panel is used in standby as opposed to the monochrome LCD one. And lastly, the display itself is recessed, so it doesn’t incur any scuffs or scratches if you lay it flat down.

Three physical buttons line the right side of the WSD-F30, all featuring textured surfaces to make them distinguishable. The top one accesses the map, the middle functions as the usual apps panel/back function with Wear OS, and the bottom one launches the tools portal where we can scroll through the compass, altimeter, barometer, sunrise/sunset times, and more. In the tools portal, we can long-press the tools button again to initiate the monochrome LCD display.

Xiaomi’s arrival on the US market is still a chimera in 2018, but its latest releases reveal that the large Chinese company is ready to tackle a much, much-broader global audience.
The fresh new Xiaomi Mi A2 is the perfect example of this – an affordable smartphone that seemingly embodies the perfect marriage between capable hardware and the intuitiveness of Google’s clean Android software.

Almost sounds too good to be true, but is there a catch? Join me as we untie this intricate knot!

Design

Let’s make one thing clear from the get-go: the Mi A2 is a well-designed phone. There are just a few things preventing it from being the new yardstick on the mid-range market.

Xiaomi has definitely gone a long way as far as design goes, and it looks as if this knowhow has successfully trickled down from the more premium lineups all the way down to the Mi A2. Its velvety-smooth metal body feels much sleeker in the hand than the intriguing price tag would otherwise suggest. Combined, both the clean, slim design and the smooth metal finish make for a device that’s a joy to hold and use. 

Look high and low but you won’t find a 3.5mm audio jack – it has been sacrificed to keep the footprint of the Mi A2 as thin as possible. At least a dongle is included in the box.

There is a fingerprint scanner at the rear of the phone, placed at a very convenient spot. Notable is the addition of a USB Type-C port on the device – Xiaomi’s affordable mid-rangers these days are usually donning an archaic microUSB port. There’s also an infrared blaster at the top of the phone also deserving a mention – this staple of most Xiaomi phones comes in very useful, but we will come back to that one later

Last year’s Honor 7X was an impressive outing combining trendy features with a competitive $200 price tag. Its successor, the Honor 8X, seeks out the natural progression of being better, stronger, and faster – while remaining faithful to its roots with its aggressive price point. In an era where flagships easily push the $1000 threshold, the $250 Honor 8X seems like a steal, but we’ll find out if its performance makes it a phone worth considering.
In the box:

• Honor 8X
• Wall Charger
• microUSB cable

Design

When you think about the price disparity between this and any flagship floating around, it’s remarkable that the Honor 8X looks oh-so slick with its glass-meets-metal construction – a complete change in direction from the Honor 7X’s all-aluminum trim. There’s a stylish appeal to the glass design, as it features a two-toned look with this neat-o shimmering effect as light bounces off the surface. Adding to that is the piercing red color of our unit which easily commands attention the moment it’s out and about. You wouldn’t believe that a low-cost phone could look this good!

What’s particularly nice about the phone is that it feels relatively easy to handle, despite the smooth glass surfaces. Surprisingly enough, it’s not slippery at all. And while its size can present some people with challenges, it helps that there’s a one-handed mode.

The Nokia 9 is probably the most anticipated smartphone in the brand’s Android era. The reason for that is only one: the unique rear camera setup that includes not three, not even four, but five cameras! But a phone is more than just a camera, so let’s start our exploration of the Nokia 9 PureView the way we always do.
What’s in the box:

• Nokia 9 PureView
• Headphones with a 3.5mm jack
• 3.5mm to USB Type-C adapter
• 18W Power adapter
• USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable
• SIM tool
• Manual

Design

The Nokia 9 PureView dresses the part. With Nokia’s signature metal trim around the edge and imposing stature, it’s ready to take the spot as the brand’s flagship phone. The wait for the arrival of the Nokia 9 was long, however, and it shows. The front looks generic and won’t really impress you. With it’s big (for 2019) top and bottom bezels, it looks a bit dated and reminds us of the LG G6 (which came out in 2017). Still, for some people, that kind of look is better than a notch. But compared to the Galaxy S10+, for example, this looks like a phone from another time period.

Left to right – LG G6, Nokia 9 and Galaxy S10+
The dull impression the front gives is nowhere to be found on the back, however. The full camera assembly consists of the five main cameras, the flash, and the ToF camera, all identically shaped and positioned in a hexagon formation. Best of all, the components are flush with the back of the phone, so there’s no camera bump, making the back panel as sleek as it can be.

The cameras are a verified conversation starter. The arrangement sparks curiosity even in people that aren’t that much interested in phones, just because it looks so unusual (we’d even call it weird). If you decide to get this phone, be prepared to answer the question “What do all these cameras do?” over and over again. When you get bored of that, just keep your phone face up. No one will look twice at it. And while the slick back is not too slippery when you’re holding the phone, when you put it on even a slightly slanted surface, it starts to slowly drift like a tiny glacier. If you’re not careful, you might hear a clank a couple of minutes after you’ve put it down.