The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is an absolute beast of a device. Featuring a massive 6.39-inch AMOLED display, a Kirin 980 chipset, and a 4,200mAh battery, the Mate 20 Pro is easily the most powerful Android device out there in the market. But that has not stopped the iFixit team from tearing the device open.
The Mate 20 Pro teardown reveals quite a few interesting tidbits about the device. Firstly, it is remarkable just how small the motherboard on the Mate 20 Pro is. Compared to a device this big, the Mate 20 Pro’s motherboard is small enough to fit inside the likes of an iPhone 4. The additional space allows Huawei to include a beefy 4,200mAh battery inside the device.
Secondly, the bigger notch on the Mate 20 Pro houses a 3D face unlock system that is remarkably similar to what Apple uses on the iPhone X. The teardown also reveals that Huawei is using a Goodix manufactured fingerprint scanner on the Mate 20 Pro. This is apparently the same sensor that is also found on the OnePlus 6T, and its different from the capacitive fingerprint sensors we have seen so far. The fingerprint sensor uses the display’s light to capture an image of your fingerprint and compare it to the data stored by it from before.
Unlike Google, Huawei has ensured that a lot of components inside the Mate 20 Pro are modular in nature thereby making repairs easy. This includes the USB-C port which is connected to the motherboard using a large flex cable. The battery replacement is also easy and only requires one to remove the battery and the mid-frame. Despite this though, iFixit gives the Mate 20 Pro a repairability score of 4 out of 10 due to the glued-down front and rear glass panels and an expensive screen repair which also requires swapping the fingerprint sensor.
