The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is one of the smartphones with the best camera you can purchase right now. The phone packs some really nice camera features but there is one overlooked feature which is the Underwater Camera mode. The guys at Android Authority have given it a spin and released a review.
The underwater mode is designed to allow you to take photos under the water. Even though the phone has an IP68 rating, the first thing you see when you switch to the mode is a reminder that tells you to switch to a Huawei waterproof phone case (pictured above). It also warns the user to stick to operating instructions as damages to the phone caused by misuse will not be covered by warranty.
Unfortunately, the Huawei waterproof phone case is only available in China. Thus the test was done with a generic waterproof phone case. In underwater mode, the volume buttons are the controls you need. Volume up is for taking photos (long press for burst photos) and volume down is for recording videos. The volume up button also serves as the pause button while recording while pressing the volume down ends recording.
So where does the Mate 20 Pro need improvement? First, camera modes are limited. The selfie camera doesn’t work and you can’t use wide-angle or telephoto in this mode which is a bummer just in case you wanted to take that dope shot while snorkeling.
Another place where the underwater mode falls short is in how to exit the mode. Huawei says you should press and hold a certain area below the viewfinder. Seeing as you shouldn’t even need to touch the screen in that mode, setting the exit button as a touch gesture seems stupid.
According to the reviewer, less than a minute after he began swimming, the phone had exited underwater mode and was now in the settings menu. Apparently, water interfered with the display and did that. Other phone manufacturers that have phones with an underwater mode such as Hisense and CAT use a hardware button or a series of gestures to exit the mode.
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Huawei needs to iron out these issues with the underwater mode for it to be really useful. Nevertheless, the Mate 20 Pro is a great device but not a great camera phone under water. Thankfully, virtually all these issues can be fixed via a software update.
