Huawei Mate 20 Lite launches in the UK

Mid-tier member of new Mate family goes on sale in the UK next week.

We won't have much longer to wait for the Huawei Mate 20, and in the run up to the new flagship's arrival, Huawei UK has today unveiled the mid-tier "Lite" entry in the series. The Huawei Mate 20 Lite hits all the major feature beats of the Mate series, with a big screen, dual cameras and a gigantic battery, while arriving at a more affordable price point of £379 SIM-free.

As well as a stylish glass-backed chassis with Mate 10-style accents, the phone features a 6.3-inch notched Full HD+ LTPS display with svelte bezels and a relatively slim profile of 7.6mm. It's powered by Huawei's mid-tier Kirin 710 processor, with 4GB of RAM and a base 64GB of storage, upgradeable via microSD. It's running version 8.2 of Huawei's EMUI software atop Android 8.1 Oreo -- an interim step between the familiar EMUI 8.1 and the upcoming EMUI 9. In terms of visuals and performance, 8.2 is pretty much identical to what we've seen on countless Huawei devices over the past year.

Although the Kirin 710 chip doesn't include a NPU (neural processing unit), Huawei has ported across most of the AI features of the higher-priced Mate phones, including AI battery enhancements and object and scene recognition within the stock Gallery app. There's also AI scene detection is supported in the camera, along with Huawei's 3D portrait lighting and 3D emoji features. So the full feature set of Huawei camera features is present, even though the camera hardware is a little weaker than what you'd find in a flagship. (There's a 20-megapixel f/1.8 unit around the back, paired with a 2-megapixel depth-sensing secondary camera.)

At least battery life should be strong, ith a 3,750mAh cell powering the Mate 20 Lite. And that ample capacity doesn't come at the expense of ports -- unlike other Huawei phones, there's a 3.5mm headphone jack included, and Huawei's HiSten audio tuning technology.

As for what you don't get: There's no water resistance spec listed, and you'll have to make do with 9V quick charging as opposed to Huawei's faster SuperCharge tech.

Huawei Mate 20 Lite specs

Category	Features
Size	158.3mm x 75.3mm x 7.6mm
Display	6.3-inch LTPS, FHD+ resolution 1080 x 2340 (19.5:9)
Weight	172 grams
Processor	Huawei Kirin 710 (4xA73 @ 2.2GHz + 4xA53 @ 1.7GHz)
RAM	4GB
Storage	64GB + SD up to 256GB
Battery	3750mAh
Audio	Dual microphone noise reduction, Huawei HiSten Sound Algorithm, Bluetooth 4.2
Rear Cameras	20MP (f/1.8) + 2MP
Front Camera	24MP Fusion Pixel (f/2.0) + 2MP
Wi-Fi	802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4/5G, Wi-Fi Direct
Sensors	Fingerprint, Proximity, Ambient light sensor, Digital compass, Gyroscope, Acceleration sensor, Hall sensor (SNE-LX1 only)
Software	Android 8.1, EMUI 8.2

The Huawei Mate 20 Lite will arrive on Vodafone and at Carphone Warehouse from September 25, with EE following in October.