Let’s face it – we live in a country that remains heavily-influenced by all things Apple.

Indeed, and while internationally sales have stalled, in Ireland iOS usage is on the up. [caption id="attachment_440338" align="aligncenter" width="565"] Deviceatlas.com [/caption] Yes, Apple continues to be on plenty of tech wish-lists - not least at this time of year. That and once you’re in the mindset of iOS and have gotten used to the brand’s hyper user-friendly ways, many will complain that it's tough to dive into Android. Granted our phones are with us constantly; it’s how we access social, email, and news – but also music, maps, and messaging. We go to bed with them... and then schedule in our wake-call for the next morning. However, when the latest Apple smartphone offering – the iPhone XS – was unveiled recently, the price made even iOS die-hards baulk: €1,200. It’s an eye-watering sum for a smartphone. And understandably, many Irish customers are now looking for better-value offerings. [caption id="attachment_440340" align="aligncenter" width="597"] The P20 Pro[/caption] Step forward Huawei; the Chinese tech brand that is proving itself to be a serious contender in the Irish smartphone sector. It’s already made its mark globally – selling more devices than Apple and coming in second only to Samsung. Having never used a Huawei before, we recently put the P20 Pro model to the test. So how did we get on? Well, here are the five things we learned making the switch… 1) The battery is a beast It’s a massive complaint about Apple smartphones; they’re expensive, they’re fancy… but the battery-life won’t see you through a standard day’s usage. Not so with the Huawei P20 Pro. Its battery is a robust beast that can handle hours of calls, social, music streaming, messaging, apps, and videos with ease. And while this device sadly doesn’t support wireless charging, you can boost it back to 58 percent battery in 30-minutes. 2) Syncing up Many fans of the Apple brand talk about how user-friendly those devices are. However, on Android there is a particular ease that comes Google-owned and operated apps: think Maps, YouTube, Translate, Docs, Gmail, Calendar, News - not to mention the search engine itself. The P20 Pro is also super-fast and after a week or so of playing around, we certainly felt like we'd mastered it. https://twitter.com/mrflygerian/status/1071559555102978048 3) Price There comes a stage when you ask the question: how much do you want to part with for your smartphone? With Apple charging four-figure sums in recent times, it’s not surprising that customers are weighing up their options. The Huawei P20 Pro is priced at €600 upfront (or for free with certain operators/packages) making is significantly more affordable than its longer-established counterparts (and boasting similar specs too). https://twitter.com/renaissancegd/status/1070015954300690432 4) Camera This summer the brand evidently made efforts to become a lot more visible within the Irish market – resulting in the Huawei P20 Pro cropping up in the hands of a load of online influencers. The big plus for that crowd? A triple-lens camera that makes photos and video super-clear. "The expertly-crafted Huawei 40MP Leica triple-lens combines with powerful proprietary innovation including object recognition and super slow-motion to deliver a professional photography experience," it says. We say – right now, you just won’t get a better smartphone camera. 5) Storage The Huawei P20 Pro has a hefty 6GB of RAM and 128GB of on-board storage – when we put the phone to the test, we never had to delete WhatsApp messages, or clear photos and videos just to free-up storage for everyday app-usage. Otherwise, the device itself felt robust (it proved well able to take a few knocks and falls, for example). Verdict The Huawei P20 Pro has been touted by a load of blogs and reviews as one of the best phones of 2018 – right up there with the iPhone X and the Samsung Galaxy S9. We agree. And for us, we loved the exceptional battery-life and crystal-clear photos in particular. That it's so competitively-priced is just an added bonus.