iFixit teardown reveals unique camera setup for HUAWEI P20 Pro

When HUAWEI launched the HUAWEI P20 Pro at the end of March, we finally had confirmation that the device would be the first to hit the market with three rear camera lenses. Now, with iFixit publishing its HUAWEI P20 Pro teardown today, we have a good look at how those cameras integrate with the rest of the device.

It turns out that the 20MP monochrome lens and the 40MP main lens both share the same connector port. Meanwhile, the 8MP telephoto lens — the first-of-its-kind in the trio — gets its own exclusive connection to the motherboard.

The HUAWEI Mate 10 Pro, which features a dual camera setup on the rear, also featured one connector for two cameras. It appears that Huawei didn’t try to reinvent the wheel when it decided to add the telephoto lens to the P20 Pro; it merely added a new connection on top of the usual dual camera connector.

The iFixit teardown of the P20 Pro also reveals that it’s incredibly difficult to get to the device’s 4,000mAh battery. However, once you do get to it, the charger port for the battery is modular, making replacing the port much more manageable than some other devices. This is helpful since the P20 Pro doesn’t have a headphone jack, which will put more wear-and-tear on the USB Type-C port than usual.

It’s also revealed during the teardown that replacing the display will be tricky as it is adhered to the glass back, which is easily breakable. If you’re the kind of person who cracks their smartphone screens on the regular, you might want to avoid getting the P20 Plus — or just buy a really great case.

The HUAWEI P20 Pro, like the HUAWEI Mate 10 Pro, gets a score of four out of ten on the iFixit repairability scale. Not the worst, but certainly not as good as the Google Pixel and Pixel XL which both scored a seven out of ten.

You can read the full HUAWEI P20 Pro teardown here.

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