Samsung Galaxy Note9 vs Huawei P20 Pro: shootout of flagship camera phones

“Both the Galaxy Note9 and Huawei P20 Pro are equipped with the best camera setups in the smartphone market”

As the leaks had suggested, the Samsung Galaxy Note9 has turned out to be an impressive smartphone. But if you’ll recall, our feelings were somewhat similar when the Huawei P20 Pro (review) was unveiled earlier this year. This handset from the Chinese company surprised us not just with its triple rear camera setup, but also a host of the other specs. Now that the Note9 has arrived, the Huawei phone has some good competition to face in the market. Here’s a thorough comparison between the Samsung Galaxy Note9 and Huawei P20 Pro to help you make a better decision.

Design and display

In terms of the overall looks, the contest is pretty tight. While the Galaxy Note9 impresses with its spectacular Infinity Display, the P20 Pro dazzles with its unique colour-shifting back surface. The constructions of these phones are also similar to each other, as they have glass on their fronts and backs, while aluminium frames bind them together. Another thing that’s common between the two is dust- and water resistance. And while both of them feature Type-C ports for charging and data transfers, the headphone socket is missing on the Huawei handset. Samsung’s offering also comes out ahead in terms of sensors, for it comes with an iris scanner and a heart-rate monitor along with the usual ones.

Coming to their rear panels, the Samsung Galaxy Note9 features a dual-camera setup aligned horizontally, with a fingerprint scanner below. The Huawei P20 Pro on the other hand, has vertically-stacked triple cameras on its back.

The notch is the main differentiating factor when it comes to the displays of these phones. The Note9 has a curved Infinity Display which has zero side bezels, but the reasonable bezels at the top and bottom. The P20 Pro embraces the notch to offer minimal bezels on sides and the top, with the chin holding the hardware home button which doubles up as the fingerprint reader. In terms of the display quality, the Note9 sports a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1,440 x 2,960 pixels and HDR 10 compatibility. This effectively makes it one of the best displays out in the market right now. Compared to that, the P20 Pro falls short of impressing since it’s a 6.1-inch AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1,080 x 2,240 pixels.

The S Pen is a big advantage for the Note9, especially because it has been equipped with Bluetooth LE connectivity, this time around. That means you can use it to perform tasks like pausing YouTube videos, controlling music, remotely clicking photos, switching slides during presentations and much more. 

Hardware and software

In India, Samsung has equipped its newest phone with a 2.7GHz octa-core Exynos 9810 processor. The P20 Pro has adopted Huawei’s flagship Kirin 970 chipset which offers a 2.4GHz octa-core processor. And while both the phones come with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, the Note9’s higher-end model surpasses all expectations by shipping with 8GB of RAM and a whopping 512GB of storage onboard. And on top of that, Samsung has also blessed it with a microSD card slot for additional storage, which means you can have 1TB of memory on your smartphone. As opposed to that, the P20 Pro does not come with expandable storage.

Both the phones offer their own skins on top of Android 8.1 Oreo. Even though, the Note9 hasn’t brought any significant new software changes over Samsung’s previous models, you’ll find a fresh AI-powered scene recognition feature in its camera. And then there are also new S Pen capabilities to take advantage of. The P20 Pro’s software also benefits from a number of AI camera features. These include scene recognition, 3D portrait lighting, AI image stabilization and more.

Camera and battery

The Galaxy Note9 comes with a 12MP primary shooter with the world’s first dual aperture-lens, which can switch between f/2.4 and f/1.5 aperture depending upon the ambient light.  The secondary camera is also 12MP in resolution and features a f/2.4 aperture. Both the shooters come with OIS, and offer 2x optical zoom, a portrait mode and the option of capturing super slow-mo videos at 960fps.

The Leica-certified triple-camera module on the P20 Pro features a 40MP RGB shooter, a 20MP monochrome snapper and an 8MP telephoto sensor. This combination also provides a 960fps slow-motion mode, apart from a portrait mode and a unique 5x hybrid zoom that really lets you get close to your subjects. The front camera on the Note 9 is an 8MP unit, while that of the Huawei handset is a 24MP snapper.

Battery-wise, both these phones stand on the same ground, as they each sip juice from 4,000mAh units. But while fast charging is something that’s present on both, fast wireless charging functionality is only available on Samsung’s phone.

Closing thoughts

The Samsung Galaxy Note9 excels against the Huawei P20 Pro in almost all departments. In terms of cameras however, it’s a close match. For those who are willing to spend and looking for an all-round smartphone with productivity-centric features, then the Galaxy Note9 is a no-brainer. But for those who might not require S Pen-like functionality and are looking for versatile shooters, the P20 Pro might be a better bet. 

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