Huawei P20, P20 Plus, P20 Pro release date, specs rumors: Design of upcoming 2018 flagship handsets leaked

Official render of Huawei P10 smartphone, highlighting its Leica-powered dual camera setupHuawei website

According to the latest reports, the Chinese handset maker Huawei is all geared up for another grand flagship reveal this 2018. The tech firm has a lot of premium smartphone series that are begging for a hardware refresh, and it is expected that the rumored Huawei P20 will be the first to see the light of day. In fact, the design leaks are already up on the internet, showing not one, but three P20 devices coming this year.

The latest scoop about the Huawei P20 smartphone came from the Chinese social networking site Weibo, suggesting that the next P-series model will feature three variants, namely the regular Huawei P20, Huawei P20 Plus, and the top-end Huawei P20 Pro. According to WCCFTech, the design leaks show the Huawei P20 and P20 having almost the same appearance, especially on the display. The devices have fingerprint readers positioned on the front, and their only difference will probably be the larger build of the P20 Plus. 

Meanwhile, the Huawei P20 Pro sports a higher screen-to-body ratio, due to its immersive full view display and reduced bezels. The design leaks hint on a notch feature similar to the iPhone X, although it is not clear if this notch has something to do with the embedded camera's 3D facial recognition technology. The P20 Pro's fingerprint scanner is placed at the back, just below the camera module.

Speaking of the camera, the 2018 Huawei P series smartphones are all expected to feature a triple-lens camera setup, Phone Arena reported. By the term itself, this camera configuration already sounds more superior than the standard dual cameras in other flagship handsets. This rear-mounted triple camera is said to have 40MP, further supported by the so-called 5x hybrid zoom. The position of this triple-lens camera will be a bit different for each Huawei P20 variant. For the Huawei P20, the camera module is positioned horizontally on the back, while vertically for the P20 Plus. 

The Huawei P20 and P20 Plus will be powered by the company's very own Kirin 970 chipset, which according to Phone Arena has recently achieved higher benchmark score than Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. As for the Huawei P20 Pro, the high-end variant will run the new Kirin 975 chip, having 15 percent performance boost over Kirin 970.

The Huawei P20, P20 Plus, and P20 Pro are expected to launch in mid-2018. Previously, it was thought that the next device in the P series will be called the Huawei P11, following the Huawei P8, P9 and P10 numbering. However, the recent leaks have suggested otherwise.