Gadgetory

in part one of our big phone dual camera comparison we pitted the mate nine against the iPhone 7 plus now it's time for the real challenge Android seven to Android seven manual modes to manual modes truly bigger screens to truly bigger screens for you specs junkies you can pause the video here to see what these two powerhouses are packing and with that out of the way looking at build quality and design we have a split decision we'd likely side with the mate 9 is the more attractive device subtle seems don't distract as much in the shiny sides with tiny jewel like faucets are appealing the V 20 on the other hand is well charmingly ugly like the love child of a blackberry and an IBM ThinkPad the LG is the more practical of the two though enhanced drop protection and a user replaceable battery when out and about both phones live in some kind of cover because both are too large to be this slippery but for folks who like to use their phones naked the V 20 will do a better job of surviving daily abuse these displays also compete well the mate will allow the user to control a higher brightness but under Auto conditions doesn't seem to get any brighter the LG limits the manual brightness but in auto mode conversed around 15% brighter than the mate will give this win to the LG though for having the higher resolution about one and a half million more pixels on the v20 on a slightly smaller diagonal in the hand we'll call this a tie for ergonomics both featuring rear mounted fingerprint sensors and side mounted volume rockers though the LG could do with slightly larger volume keys as for software and performance Huawei is skinning and tweaking more than LG the v20 allows more of stock nougat to poke through and LG is toned down the amount of UI customizations while way on the other hand is still messing around quite a bit with emui while the layout is more Android light than previous Huawei's we reviewed it's still a unique experience emui is Huawei's custom skin but it goes more than skin-deep it's supposedly able to take advantage of machine learning this improves system performance and resource allocation is the phone ages but we'll have to test those assertions at a later date as for the hardware huawei's Kirin 960 chipset easily outperforms the Qualcomm 20 in the LG for CPU dependent tasks and a daily operation we would anecdotally agree the mate feels snappier though the mate falls about 10 percent behind in graphics benchmarks both phones feel about the same in daily gaming performance the audio game is also a split the huawei wins for speaker playback stereo speakers are always appreciated when gaming or watching videos but the v20 headphone jack is second to none while the may 9 is tied for last in our testing if you cable up some good headphones it's no contest the LG wins against all comers a quick look at battery life and the mate walks away with a substantial victory here the larger battery lasts longer and the maintenance arge is significantly faster the counter-argument for the LG is that you can swap batteries but both devices out of the box Huawei solution is formidable and that brings us to the real showdown these cameras dual sensors but very different philosophies the mate 9 uses two cameras in tandem to improve light color and contrast the LG uses one camera for a standard view and the second for an ultra wide-angle look at the world looking at photos while the V 20s wide-angle is flexible we have to give the overall win here to the mate detail clarity lens quality and fun features the main tonight just edges out the v20 neither camera is a top-tier performer when shooting full auto but both deliver well stocked manual modes which take these respective shooters to another level there's an undefinable quality to mate 9 photos which is highly subjective but something we really enjoy when shooting on huawei Hardware the way the camera paints in detail that might have been lost to a bright exposure or the way you can eke out a bit more dynamic range and a finish JPEG the mates wide aperture mode is amazing for software blurring another benefit of using two cameras with the same field of view to aid in depth analysis the V 20 has a fun pop out mode but the results just look more like a collage and aren't nearly as dramatic when we switch the video though the V 20 absolutely crushes the mate 9 delivers optical image stabilization in UHD video but it just can't compete against how well refined LG's camera panned out are smoother better detailed and true full manual controls over every aspect of video production from shutter speed to bit rate and aspect ratio to full audio controls the may 9 is a respectable video shooter the V 20 is a nearly production grade monster performer there honestly isn't a clear winner here for camera performance if you shoot more stills than video we'd lean towards the mate 9 if you mix up some video there's just no beating the V 20 happily either camera would likely do well in the hands of a mobile photography enthusiast so let's wrap this up where does that leave us between the huawei mate 9 and the LG v 20 this is my Sophie's Choice of the year - monster phablets precious few premium large screen options this year and these two phones represent the category exceedingly well a potential customer really couldn't go wrong with either as a daily driver but chocking up personal experiences I'd be inclined to side with the LG v 20 it's an exceedingly close fight but the enhanced drop resistance incredible headphone jack and more complete video options just barely tip the scales for me over the mates battery life still photo and CPU performance wins as I've been wrapping up the reviews and comparisons for these two devices though this is maybe the happiest I've been all year carrying both phones around with me as daily drivers and of course we want to hear from you which phone takes the win vote in our viewer poll by hitting the more info icon in the upper right corner of this video as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for more reviews and comparisons like these and help us out with some sharing on your favorite social networks for PocketNow i'm juan carlos back now some gadget guy on twitter and instagram and i will catch you all on the next comparison you