Huawei Mate 20 Pro found to have durability issues

The Mate 20 Pro is one of 2018's extremely pricey flagship phones. For its price, Huawei offers some exceptionally sophisticated features, including the triple rear camera, an in-display fingerprint scanner and Reverse Wireless Charging (even if this one is best reserved for smaller devices such as wireless earbud cases). Zach Nelson of the JerryRigEverything YouTube channel put the Mate 20 Pro through a well-known durability test.

This test was going reasonably well for the Huawei phone, coping with having its metal frame, camera protection and 6.39-inch, 1440 x 3120 resolution display scratched with razor blades and Mohs hardness picks. However, when it came to the bend-test section of the video, the glass over this display cracked from the very first bend. Conversely, the back appeared to be more rigid and resistant to bending.

Nelson attributed this partial fail to the initial scratches made by the Mohs picks, and to the tightness of the metal frame around the curved glass. This thesis arose from the fact that recent Samsung flagships also have curved screens. However, they did not react as the Mate 20 Pro's did during their bend tests. In addition, the YouTuber found that the fingerprint reader developed faults after the screen cracked. By rough comparison,the glass over the OnePlus 6T's own in-display scanner was scratched several times with a few different objects during this phone's test, and it continued to work as normal afterwards.

Therefore, it seems the Mate 20 Pro has a critical weakness in its build quality. On the other hand, it may just be possible to replace the display alone were it to crack as it did during the bend test. In addition, Nelson did not test the flagship's other features, such as those related to wireless charging, after the bend test. All in all, an investment in a good screen protector at least is a good recommendation for those who own or are considering owning this approximately US$1000 phone.

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