See how the Huawei P20 Pro's cameras stacks up to the Galaxy S9 Plus, iPhone X and Pixel 2

Three cameras and a mirrored purple back delineate the Huawei P20 Pro from other phones. But how does it compete with the likes of the iPhone X, Galaxy S9 Plus and Pixel 2? To find out I took hundreds of photos and videos in a variety of environments. 

The next slides are comparison photos taken with each phone. No post-processing was done.

The next five photos were all taken at Dolores Park in San Francisco.

The iPhone X's photo has a nice punchy look.

The Pixel 2 did a good job at protecting the highlights, but the overall image is a tad dark.

This was taken in the Huawei P20 Pro's regular photo mode.

I used the Master AI on this photo which identified the sky in the picture and optimized it.

The next four photos are from Portrait mode on each phone.

Her face looks more flat in this photo than the other phones.

The Pixel 2 did a great job getting the details in her face. But the background is a little off.

This one is my favorite of the bunch.

These next photos were taken at the Hotel Utah of Youth In A Roman Field performing.

Saturated red light in a dark environment like this club is one of the worst setups for photography. I'm impressed with how the Galaxy S9 Plus handled it.

I like that the Pixel 2 handles high contrast low light scenes like this so well. There is still noise in the shadows, but it didn't clip the highlights on the performer's face.

I used the P20 Pro's 3x optical zoom here.

A picture taken with "Blue Sky" optimization turned off.

A picture taken with "Blue Sky" optimization turned on.

I used pro mode on the Galaxy S9 Plus to get this shot.

I also used Pro mode here, too. Only the Huawei P20 Pro and Galaxy S9 Plus out of the four have a pro mode.

I'm impressed with what the Pixel 2 was able to get especially zoomed in so far.

I like the way the Galaxy S9 Plus captured this scene.

I used Night mode here.

This photo was taken in the regular camera mode on the P20 Pro.

Four pictures of the Women's Building in San Francisco.

Four photos taken from the same place. The iPhone X and Galaxy S9 Plus photos (top and bottom left) were both taken with 2X optical zoom. The Huawei P20 Pro photo (bottom right) was taken with 3X optical zoom. And the Pixel 2 photo (top right) was taken with 2X digital zoom.

This was taken with the Huawei P20 Pro's 3X optical zoom.

This was taken with the Galaxy S9 Plus' 2X optical zoom.

This was was captured with the Pixel 2's 2X digital zoom.

This picture was taken with the 2X optical zoom on the iPhone X.

This photo was taken with in regular photo mode on the Huawei P20 Pro.

This photo was taken in Night mode which takes a series of photos over a 4 second exposure.

Though it wasn't night, I took this photo inside a theater with the P20 Pro's Night mode.

This was taken with the P20 Pro's 3X optical zoom.

This was taken with the P20 Pro's 5X Hybrid zoom (digital and optical zoom).

The remainder of pictures were all taken with the Huawei P20 Pro. This was at a Wu-Tang Clan concert in San Francisco.

HBO hosted a Westworld event. You were given either a black hat or a white hat.

The dome atop San Francisco city hall lit up to celebrate the Golden State Warriors.

The San Francisco Chronicle building at sunrise.

A close up of the clock tower taken with the Huawei's 3X optical zoom.

The Castro Theater during the San Francisco International Film Festival.

This gentleman played piano covers of Radiohead and the Rolling Stones at the Westworld event.

With three rear cameras and a partnership with Leica, the Huawei P20 Pro has lots of promise as a image making machine. I compared it to three of the best camera phones out there: The iPhone X, Pixel 2 and Galaxy S9 Plus.

The following are pictures taken with each for comparison.

Inside the Toronado Pub.

A cat that doesn't want her picture taken.

A life-sized drone from the Westworld event.

A sweet old white Ford Bronco.

For a more in-depth look at the four phones, check out our in-depth camera comparison of the Huawei P20 Pro, iPhone X, Pixel 2 and Galaxy S9 Plus.

This was the best shot of that same moon that I was able to get with the iPhone X.