Huawei’s Upcoming Mate 20 Sets a Mind-Blowing Benchmark Record

Apple’s iPhones routinely beat out similar Android devices when it comes to benchmark testing and real-world performance. But there’s at least one upcoming Android device that could give Cupertino flagships a run for their money.

A Chinese tech news blog called CNMO has reportedly obtained leaked AnTuTu benchmark results for the upcoming Huawei Mate 20. And if they’re legitimate, the scores are truly mind-blowing.

In fact, they set a new record for the highest benchmark results recorded on AnTuTu thus far.

The Mate 20, which is powered by Huawei’s in-house Kirin 980 chip, scored a staggering 356,318.

Prior to that, the highest scores clocked on the benchmarking platform reached about 260,000 — and that was the Samsung Galaxy S9+. The iPhone X, by comparison, scored upwards of 226,000.

It’s worth noting that the Galaxy S9+ is the first Android device in recent memory to beat out a similar generation iPhone (the iPhone X, in this case) in some testing.

Typically, even aging last-gen iPhones absolutely crush current Android flagships. And that’s despite the fact that most newer Android devices appear, on paper, to be superior handsets.

There’s a variety of reasons for that, but a big factor is the close integration and control Apple wields over both its hardware and software. Android, on the other hand, is more of a fragmented ecosystem. There are a ton of hardware makers using slight variations on the same, open-source software platform.

The fact that the Mate 20 puts the S9+ to shame — and, as a result, every current iPhone — is nothing short of unprecedented.

Huawei’s Mate 20 is expected to be launched sometime this fall, but we don’t know too much about the device. It’s rumored to sport improved neural processing units for A.I. tasks, a more powerful GPU, and will likely retain the triple-camera setup introduced with the recent Huawei P20 Pro.

Unfortunately for U.S.-based consumers, Huawei has struggled to gain any sort of foothold in the country. The Chinese OEM has no major retail or carrier partners in the U.S. — a deal with AT&T fell through earlier in 2018, and just last month, Best Buy announced it would stop selling Huawei’s phones.

That’s mostly due to fairly widespread concerns that its devices could be used as spying tools for the Chinese government. Earlier this year, several high-profile U.S. intelligence agencies urged American consumers to avoid buying Huawei and other Chinese-made devices.