Huawei presents the world's first triple-camera smartphone

Chinese manufacturer Huawei unveiled its new P20 smartphone line on Tuesday in Paris, including a flagship model billed as the world's first triple-camera smartphone.

Richard Yu, CEO of the world's third-largest smartphone vendor (153 million shipments in 2017) -- behind Samsung and Apple -- unveiled a new flagship smartphone for the Huawei brand in the French capital.

The Huawei P20 will be available in two different versions: the P20 and P20 Pro. Both models feature a small notch at the top, following the trend set by Apple's iPhone X and since adopted by various Android smartphone makers.

Huawei notbaly hit headlines with the P20 Pro, the first triple-camera smartphone squarely aimed at photography professionals.

 The device camera relies on three separate sensors, with a 40-Megapixel sensor for color, a 20-Megapixel sensor for black and white, and an 8-Megapixel sensor for the 3x optical zoom (10x digital zoom).

The camera also boasts light sensitivity up to 102400 ISO, equivalent to DSLRs like the Canon 5D Mark IV. This should help the camera take low-light photos of unprecedented quality for a smartphone.

As for video, the device can shoot slow-motion footage at up to 960 frames per second. As a result, it's no surprise to see the Huawei P20 Pro enter the respected DxOMark image quality ranking at the top spot, both for photo and video quality.

This 6.1-inch smartphone promises ease of use thanks to onboard artificial intelligence, the powerful Kirin 970 processor and 6GB RAM. This is the same processor that features in the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, and is billed as the world's first mobile processor to feature a "neural processing unit."

The Huawei P20 is a 5.8-inch smartphone with an edge-to-edge screen promising slightly more display than the iPhone X and Samsung Galaxy S9.

The handset also has a more powerful battery than its rivals, despite its slimmer build. It has a dual camera with 12- and 20-Megapixel sensors (color and B&W).

In fact, the Huawei P20 comes second in the DxOMark image quality ranking, ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and the Google Pixel 2. The handset gets the same processor as the P20 Pro and has 4GB RAM.

Both phones run the latest version of the Android Oreo (8.1) operating system and have a facial recognition system for unlocking, as well as a PC mode when hooked up to a monitor.

The handsets will be available in four colors, priced from €649 for the Huawei P20 or €899 for the Huawei P20 Pro. A 512GB model created in partnership with Porsche Design will also be available for €2,095.