Notch is the new trend in the market and there’s no denying that the Apple iPhone X popularised the design. Soon after the iPX launch, Android manufacturers started to imitate the notch up front, and this included the world’s number three smartphone company, Huawei. However, turns out, Huawei could have considered using the notch design way before Apple and its iPhone X.

In an interview with Forbes’ Ben Sin, Huawei’s Mobile Head, Li took some time to talk about the notch design on the Huawei P20 series. He said that the company had conceptualised this design “three to four years ago”, however, Huawei decided to play it safe. With a notch up front, the symmetrical design that’s usually seen on most smartphones and loved by Chinese customers, would be ruined. This is why the company thought it was not the right time to release a flagship with a notch up front.

However, seeing the success of the notch-equipped iPhone X, Huawei realised that it played too safe. Li adds that the company missed their chance to pioneer the notch design.

Li further said that the gradient twilight color for the P20 Pro almost didn’t materialise as many considered it to be a bit ‘too much’. However, Huawei decided to take a chance with this color and it definitely paid off, considering how this variant is a consumer favourite today.

RELATED: Huawei P20 Pro: 4 Major Drawbacks Of the Phone

End of the day, it’s not about who thought of the idea first but who managed to get it right and present it to the public on a commercial product. Clearly, Apple got it right with the notch and it looks like more and more smartphones will catch on with the trend in the coming months.

But one things’ for sure, the billion of dollars being spent on Huawei’s R&D department is paying off. The three camera design is no gimmick and it delivers a stunning smartphone camera experience. The gradient back is nothing like we’ve seen before and gives the P20 Pro a unique identity. I’m sure in the coming months, more phone makers will try to release their own version of a gradient back as well as a triple camera setup. But we’ll always remember, Huawei was the first to pioneer both these elements in a smartphones.

You can read Ben’s interview with Li on Forbes from here.

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Huawei P20 Pro is the best smartphone from the Chinese giant. The phone has almost everything that you would expect in a top-end device, making it one of the best choices in the premium segment. However, the phone isn’t without flaws. There are a few things that we would have loved to see on the device, and in this article, we try to pick the four major drawbacks of the P20 Pro. While these flaws aren’t exactly deal breakers, but for a flagship that costs more than $1000, we would have expected to see them on board.

Notch Front Design

Huawei isn’t new to designing beautiful smartphones. The Huawei Mate series and even the Honor 8 models have simple yet elegant designs. However, with the P20 Pro, the company decided to follow the crowd. Hence the notch up front. This makes the phone just another model in the crowd. I agree that the gradient back looks beautiful but most users are likely to cover that up with a case. So the front design doesn’t do justice to the real flagship that the P20 Pro is. We could have definitely used a better front design.

No Wireless Charging

Wireless Charging is a feature that has been around for years now, but its adoption hasn’t been widespread. That’s going to change in the coming months, especially after Apple added Wireless Charging support to its premium iPhone X model. Most flagships, including Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, Xperia XZ2 Premium, Galaxy S9, support Qi based Wireless Charging standard. So, the P20 Pro misses out on this premium feature.

No 4K OIS

The Huawei P20 Pro is a great camera flagship. In fact DxOMark rates it as the best smartphone camera in the market right now. The phone is an amazing video shooter too. In our review of the P20 Pro, we found that the phone manages to capture great 1080p and 4K videos. However, there was one major feature missing in 4K video shooting mode — stabilisation. Despite the powerful camera hardware, the Huawei P20 Pro doesn’t have stabilisation while shooting in UHD resolution. This is really a shame as more often than not, the 4K videos from the P20 Pro would turn out to be shaky, ruining the experience. Competitors like Samsung and Sony have made sure to add stabilisation to their flagships even at 4K, so this is definitely a drawback of the device. Check the 4K video sample down below.

No Headphone Jack

By now, customers have started to realise that headphone jack may not last the next few years. However, there is still a section of the population who can’t live without their wired headphones. They love the vanilla audio experience without any add-on adapters or bluetooth headphones. Considering that companies like Samsung and LG still provide 3.5mm headphone jacks on their premium flagships, the lack of this port on the P20 Pro looks like a drawback to a potential customer.

So these were the major drawbacks of the Huawei P20 Pro that we could think of. Nevertheless, the P20 Pro is one of the best smartphones that you can buy today.

So what do you love or hate about the P20 Pro?

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