Introduction
Huawei is angling for the high end segment with its three-eyed raven P20 Pro. They packed a ton of tech in here, what with three cameras, plus a 24 MP selfie cam—all topped off by a notched display. Hate it or love it, we're tearing it down..
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Winterspring is coming and so is the new flagship from Huawei. Let's have a quick look at those flourishing specs: -
6.1-inch OLED touchscreen with 2240 × 1080 resolution and an aspect ratio of 18.7:9
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Octa-core Kirin 970 with Mali-G72 MP12 GPU and a dedicated NPU
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Triple camera 40 MP + 8 MP + 20 MP, ƒ/1.6 and ƒ/2.4 main camera unit by Leica
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24 megapixel (no that's not a typo) ƒ/2.0 selfie camera
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128 GB storage and 6 GB RAM
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Unlike Samsung, Huawei has opted to notch their display around its camera and earpiece speaker.
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That said, the P20 Pro seems a little lukewarm on the notch front—the EMUI offers its user the option to ''hide'' the notch.
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The notch isn't the only thing Huawei borrowed from Apple, it sports an iPhone X-style 1.4 mm mesa with two cameras and a more modest iPhone 6-style "button" for the monochrome sensor.
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Stacked against (under) the P10, this new Huawei comes with some beefed up dimensions: 155 × 73.9 × 7.8 mm (6.10 × 2.91 × 0.31 in) and 180 g in weight.
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Flipped over, we see evolution in action: Two cameras bad, three cameras good!
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The 40 MP and 8 MP cameras work together to get a 3x optical zoom. The 20 MP monochrome camera brings more details and extra sharpness.
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Since the P20 Pro's "extra" cameras live on the back, and it doesn't need Face ID hardware, its notch takes up a bit less real estate than the iPhone X it takes after (on the right).
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Outil utilisé dans cette étape :iSclack$24.99
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But enough about the outsides—in teardown land, it's what's inside that counts.
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Eliminating pesky pentalobes was a welcome move, but no screws at all? Time to try our luck with the trusty iSclack.
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To our surprise the P20 Pro opens almost as easily as a flower in the spring sun. Almost. We've never had to use an opening pick on a flower...
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This teardown is really starting to bloom, look at all that techy nectar—er, is this metaphor getting away from us?
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We go to remove the back cover and are foiled! No fingerprint scanner back here and there's still a cable primed to be ripped during opening.
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We finally get our hands on some screws and make quick work of the NFC antenna and motherboard shield.
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That's an NFC antenna, not a wireless charging coil—that crackable glass back is just for show, and for getting broken...
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Finally, we come to the brains of this operation—the motherboard—and wrestle it free from its various connectors.
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Huawei once again sticks to its usual motherboard design, opting for a wider battery and a smaller board than some other Android phones.
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The trio of cameras comes along for the ride, holding fast to the board, with the rear flash module in tow.
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So many options, which to investigate first—cameras, or motherboard? We opt for the peepers and take the front-facing camera along for the ride.
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The three rear cameras get by with just two connectors—the main camera and the monochrome camera share one port, while the telephoto camera gets the other all to itself.
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From the side we can compare the relative elevations:
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Left: 20 MP (monochrome ƒ/1.6). Middle: 40 MP (main camera ƒ/1.8). Right: 8 MP (telephoto ƒ/2.4)
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Lastly, we've got all four eyes lined up for inspection, including the P20 Pro's selfie cam with only 24 MP.
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The P20 Pro may not have a fancy dual-aperture lens, but it can laser focus. And deep focus. And phase focus. And contrast focus. Basically, it does a lot of fast focusing.
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Officially, only the little 8 MP telephoto cam gets hardware OIS—the others, saith Huawei, rely on Kirin's Neural Processing Unit for things like predictive focus, settings for over 19 different scenes, and filter effects like bokeh.
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That said, this sure looks like OIS hardware to us—three OIS hardwares, to be exact. Are you holding out on us, Huawei?
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The primary RGB camera uses a 1/1.7 inch sensor (for reference: iPhone X 1/2.9 inch, Samsung Galaxy S9+ 1/2.55 inch) and has a maximum ISO of 102,400—ready for nightly skyline shots and party pix.
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Oh what the heck. We're as curious as you are, so here are the triplets completely dissected. You won't get more teardown for your money—wait, this is free.
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And while we're at it, let's also take a closer look at the sensors.
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In the middle is the 1/1.7 inch RGB sensor, with the 1/2.7 inch monochrome sensor cozying up to its left. On the right we see the telephoto with a 1/4 inch sensor.
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What kind of fancy chips did Huawei pack in the phone? Let's see:
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Micron MT53D768M64D8WF-053 WT:D 6 GB LPDDR4 SDRAM with the Kirin 970 SoC underneath
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Samsung KLUDG4U1EA-B0C1 128 GB V-NAND flash memory
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HiSilicon Hi6403-GWCV110 audio IC
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Texas Instruments BQ25895 I2C battery charger controller
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ON Semiconductor NLAS2750 dual SPDT analog switch
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ON Semiconductor FSA644UCX 1.5 Gbps 4-data lane switch
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Let's flip it with a spatula and check the back:
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HiSilicon Hi6363-GFCV100 RF transceiver
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Skyworks SKY78113-14, SKY78114-61, and SKY78117-4A Skyone Front End LTE modules
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HiSilicon Hi6421-GFCV810 power management IC
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Cypress BCM43596 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module
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HiSilicon Hi6423-GWCV100 power management IC
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Broadcom BCM4774 GNSS receiver w/ sensor hub
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HiSilicon Hi6H01S and Hi6H02S RF Switch/LNA
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IC Identification, continued:
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Texas Instruments DRV2605 haptic driver
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Texas Instruments LM3642 boost LED flash driver
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Skyworks SKY13351-378LF GaAs SPDT switch
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STMicroelectronics LSM6DSM 3-axis accelerometer/gyroscope
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AKM Semiconductor AK09918C 3-axis electronic compass
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Richtek RT8095GQW 2 A synchronous step-down converter
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Probably RF switches
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Outil utilisé dans cette étape :iFixit Adhesive Remover$19.99
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We usually don't like barriers between us and battery replacements, but we might make an exception for this modular charging port. That'll be a painless replacement!
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Since we got this far without heat, we stay cool and attack the battery glue with some drops of magic. Wait just a tick—then, opening pick.
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As smartphone batteries go, this one's a heavyweight—4,000 mAh at 3.82V, or 15.28 Wh.
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That beats the Samsung Galaxy S9+ (13.48 Wh) and the iPhone X (10.35 Wh) by far and is on par with its kinsman the Mate 10 Pro. To be fair software has a big effect on power efficiency.
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We turn our focus to the bottom of the frame and find a tiny daughterboard, hiding amongst a loudspeaker and vibrator motor.
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Compared to the battery extraction, the glue securing this collection of parts is a breeze—albeit a sticky one.
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But where's the headphone jack!?
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Good thing that charging port is modular, because it'll be doing double duty with headphones and charging cables!
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Time for one last iOpener/pick song and dance—for this refrain: display removal!
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We make the display assembly like a banana and ''split.''
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The display lifts out of the body, but only after the display cable makes a harrowing journey through a hole in the mid frame.
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Display separated, we're left with not much intel. However, one item does remain.
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Some gentle prying and the home button is freed!
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Lacking Face ID hardware or iris scanning, this phone still uses the "archaic" physical button. No word on whether it's locked to its motherboard.
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In an unusual twist, the proximity and brightness sensor is buried under the display in the midframe—making for a rather anticlimactic end to our teardown.
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Time to move on! Throw a last glance at the insides of the three-eyed phone from Huawei and look forward to more teardown fun from iFixit!
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Want to see inside your own P20 Pro without taking it apart? Check out this layered wallpaper and download it on your phone!
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- Many components are modular and can be replaced independently.
- Replacing the battery is possible but at the expense of some time and effort.
- Double the risk for breakage with glass front and back.
- Replacing the screen requires going through at least two layers of adhesive and some disassembly.
Dernières pensées
Indice de réparabilité


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48 commentaires
we should always cultivate habit of repairing the broken gadgets and reuse them. else e waste is going to grow like !&&* and kill us. Thanks I fix for your job
the best teardown site. I wish you start franchisee in India too.
www.drtechnno.com
Why only a 4 out of 10? This is like the only flagship that doesn't require heat to get into, and you say in the article that everything is modular…
I would give only 1 point to every flagship phones which back hold by double sided adhesive tape, these phones are fuckingly expensive and the only thing holds it together is cheap tape, if i pay the price of an used car for a phone then i want screws, not double addhesive tape.
Please do a Huawei P20 Lite Teardown
;0