Huawei and Honor devices are set to be locked down entirely next week starting July 22nd, but it's still not too late to unlock your bootloader. Once you unlock your bootloader, you open up the possibility to install custom ROMs such as LineageOS or Resurrection Remix on Project Treble-supported devices. We reviewed the Honor 9 Lite running a pure AOSP ROM a few months ago, and the performance improvement was night and day between AOSP and EMUI. However, the biggest problem with these AOSP ROMs is the camera performance which this port of the Huawei P20 camera app aims to solve.

Without a camera ported from EMUI, you often end up with poor quality photos with green lines or artifacts in them. Without using the proper camera libraries, photos weren't processed correctly. Because of these issues, it basically meant that if you wanted to use your phone for picture taking, you had to stay on EMUI. That's why XDA Member Darkest-Dark ported the excellent Huawei P20 camera app to HiSilicon Kirin 659 devices (tested on the Honor 9 Lite). I decided to give it a test drive to see how well it works.

The port can be installed via a Magisk Module. You can download the latest version of Magisk from the links in this article. Before we show you the improvements this camera port brings, check out the photo below which was taken using the stock AOSP camera app.

honor 9 lite project treble aosp

Huawei P20 Camera ported to Kirin 659 devices like the Honor 9 Lite

I gave the new camera application a test run and the results are a whole lot better than with the AOSP camera application. Even just having the ability to control the ISO and shutter speed makes a huge difference. All of the photos shown below are from an AOSP-based GSI with the ported Huawei P20 camera application. Note that WordPress compresses the images I uploaded, so the quality is even better than what's shown below. Still, you can get a general idea of the improved dynamic range colors. Before, the camera could barely be considered usable.

The shots are much better than what we saw before, right? The camera no longer produces weird artifacts in the picture, and some of the shots turned out quite well. All of these photos are point and shoot, by the way. There are a number of available options if you want full control over your camera. That includes ISO, exposure, white balance, and more.

Huawei P20 Camera Port Features

The Huawei P20 camera port has a huge number of features, though there are a few bugs and it does crash somewhat often. Having said that, it's constantly being developed and improved upon. You can check out the list of features below. Note that slow motion works on stock EMUI as well.

  • Aperture
  • Portrait
  • Photo
  • Video
  • Pro Mode
  • Night Shot
  • Light Painting
  • HDR
  • Panorama
  • Time-lapse
  • Good food
  • Document scan
  • Filter
  • Watermark
  • QR-Code-Scanner

Now, obviously, don't expect a miracle here. Keep in mind that the Honor 9 Lite is a budget smartphone, so the camera is not going to be mind-blowing. Having said that, it is capable of some decent photos with the right lighting. We also need to remember that most smartphones with a HiSilicon Kirin 659 system-on-chip will be budget devices too. The Huawei P20 camera port is simply for those on custom ROMs who don't want to sacrifice camera quality for the performance improvements that an AOSP ROM can bring. Check out the forum thread below to download and install the Magisk Module.

Download Huawei P20 camera port for Kirin 659 devices