Huawei P30 Pro review: superpower mobile phone
Huawei P30 Pro is Huawei’s photography-focused flagship, competing against Samsung’s Galaxy S10 Plus, Huawei has positioned the P series as the premier camera phones on the market, everything about the P30 Pro is designed to appeal to mainstream users, from the eye-catching colorways, to the impressive battery life, and top-tier specs, Huawei P30 Pro takes the best bits of the Mate 20 Pro and adds a terrific camera.
Design
158 x 73.4 x 8.4m 192g
Waterdrop notch Curved display edges
USB-C port No headphone jack
The Huawei P30 Pro feels very comfortable in the hand, despite the slippery glass back. It’s a little heavy, but not tiringly so. While most folks will want to use it with two hands, once you slip a good case on, you can definitely use it with one.
The expansive display curves pleasantly on the sides, just like on Samsung’s phones. It’s pretty, but the curves create annoying glare under bright light. If you like flat displays, the regular P30’s got you covered.
The notch on the P30 Pro is small and inconspicuous. As far as notches go, it’s probably the best compromise between form and functionality, as it doesn’t really mess with the notification bar. That was my top complaint about the large notch on the Mate 20 Pro.
The downside? The notch only houses a selfie camera-based face unlock function, it’s not as good as the laser system like in
Another thing ostensibly missing is the earpiece speaker. There’s no grille at all, making for cleaner lines at the top. Huawei embedded the speaker beneath the screen. It seems so obvious, but it’s no mean feat, and Huawei’s implementation works great. It’s based on a technology called “electromagnetic levitation” that’s different from the piezoelectric speakers used in previous embedded designs (most of which were dodgy). Voice calls sound loud and clear, and you don’t even need to press your ear against the screen to hear everything. If you turn call volume up to the max, the speaker can be easily heard from a couple of meters away; set it below 50 percent to keep your calls private.
For regular audio, there’s a single speaker at the bottom. According to Huawei, there was no room for an audio jack, but the company managed to include one on the smaller P30.
the Mate 20 Pro. I was able to unlock it by simply showing it a picture of me on another phone. The feature works well in bright light, but falters in low light and when you don’t look at the phone straight on.
Like the Mate 20 Pro Huawei P30 Pro has an in-display fingerprint reader. Is it any better compared to the Mate? In my experience, it works about the same. It’s not as fast or accurate as conventional sensors, but it’s still fine for daily use. As long as you press your fingerprint firmly on the screen, you’ll get good results.
Overall, I really enjoy the P30 Pro’s design, but it’s polished and comfortable to use and those colors are lovely.
Display
6.47 inches 1080 x 2340, 19.5:9
OLEDH DR10, DCI-P3
398 ppi Always-on display
On the front of the P30, Huawei has slimmed down the small notch at the top of the display very much like what OnePlus did when it moved from the OnePlus 6 to the 6T last year. This has enabled Huawei to increase the size of the screen from the 6.1-inch panel seen on the P20 Pro to a larger 6.47-inch FHD+ resolution OLED with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The display looks solid it's colourful and vibrant. That FHD+ resolution means this is far from the sharpest display on the market right now.
Huawei P30 Pro has beautiful OLED screens. The pixel density, brightness, and contrast levels are on point. By default, display colors are set to Vivid, which I prefer over the slightly warmer Default mode. You can easily pick a custom color setting as well.
The P30 Pro features a simple always-on display that shows the time and some notifications. You can’t customize it beyond setting a schedule for it, and you can’t wake up the phone with a double-tap, which is a real first-world problem for me.
For the record, the regular P30 features a 6.1-inch Full HD OLED display.
Performance
Huawei Kirin 980 Octa-core
Mali-G76 MP10 8GB of RAM
128, 256GB or 512GB of RAM Nano memory card slot
The Huawei P30 Pro performs admirably. It’s as fast and smooth as you’d expect a phone of this caliber to be. I encountered no performance issues whatsoever.
The P30 Pro features a proprietary file system that helps performance. Most users won’t ever notice it, but this deep-level customization gives the phone a bit more oomph when transferring files to and from its storage, in addition to slightly lower app start times.
Speaking of storage, don’t buy a microSD card for your new P30 Pro. The phone has a card slot, but it only works with Huawei’s proprietary Nano Memory format, just like the Mate 20 Pro.
If you really want the best performance, you can enable Performance Mode from the battery settings, though I don’t recommend it. I did not see a visible improvement when gaming, but I did notice a hit on the battery life. If you decide you need it, don’t forget to turn it off afterwards.
Battery
40W fast charging Reverse wireless charging
After the excellent camera, the P30 Pro’s battery is its best feature. I was able to get between 8 and 9 hours of screen-on time. The phone was mostly connected to Wi-Fi, with auto-brightness and the dark mode on, and Performance Mode off. My usage was a mix of plain internet browsing, using Sync for Reddit, watching lots of YouTube, and some gaming.
When the P30 Pro eventually runs out of juice, it’s really easy to fill it back up. The charger in the box is a 40W model, which is much faster than other fast chargers out there. It can charge the P30 Pro up to 70 percent battery in just 30 minutes. It’s really impressive. Support for 15W wireless charging is also great.
The P30 Pro lasts even longer than the Mate 20 Pro, which has the same battery size and core specs and like the Mate 20 Pro and the Galaxy S10 Plus, the P30 Pro can wirelessly charge other devices. This reverse wireless charging function is meant for small gadgets like wireless earbuds, smartwatches, or maybe an electric toothbrush. You can use it to top up other phones, but, at just 2.5W, it won’t be a good experience.
Camera
Standard: 40 MP, f/1.6, OIS Pixel-binned 10MP images
Ultra-wide: 20MP, f/2.2 Telephoto: 8MP, f/3.4, OIS
Time-of-Flight camera 32MP selfie camera
The P30 Pro has three main cameras and a Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensor that measures the distance to objects in the field of view. The main 40MP camera is what you’ll use in most cases. Because it uses pixel binning, it saves 10MP images by default, but you can switch to the full 40MP resolution if you prefer it. For groups of people or landscapes, you can switch to the ultra-wide camera. If you need to bring your subject closer, switch to the telephoto.
If it all sounds daunting, don’t worry – you don’t need to be a photography pro to master the P30 Pro. It’s very simple to use once you learn its quirks, allowing you to fully focus on getting the best shot.
In general, pictures taken with the P30 Pro look great, with crisp detail, pleasant colors, accurate white balance, and good dynamic range, The Huawei P30 Pro has the most versatile and powerful camera of any smartphone.
The zoom ability is impressive: where most phones only support digital zoom, the P30 Pro can zoom in optically up to 5X and then switch to lossless zoom until 10X. If you really want to get close, digital zoom goes up to a whopping 50X. In the real world, you’ll be able to use this zoom ability to capture more detail, frame your shots better, and separate your subject from the background.
Zooming in over 10X rapidly decreases image quality, but with good light you can still get decent results even at high magnification. They won’t be crisp or detailed, but in a pinch, they might be enough.
Occasionally, the P30 Pro has trouble selecting the right lens when swiping to switch zoom factors. In these cases, you get a blurry, shaky image preview, instead of the optically-stabilized image of the telephoto camera. It’s not a major issue, as the phone usually recovers quickly.
Zoom out enough, and the P30 Pro will switch to its ultra-wide camera. The lens on this camera has a smaller aperture and has no OIS, so image quality will be slightly lower. On the Mate 20 Pro, images taken with the ultra-wide lens were pretty dark and blurry, but the P30 Pro seems to be better in this regard. You’ll still get the best results in broad daylight. This camera is also great for macro (close-up) photography.
The portrait mode on the P30 Pro is among the best I have used. This is where that fourth camera comes into play. The Time-of-Flight camera measures the distance to the objects in the scene, allowing the phone to apply more natural-looking blur effects.
In video mode, the P30 Pro shoots in 1080p Full HD by default, but you can go up to 4K UHD with a maximum recording time of 10 minutes per clip. The OIS and AIS work really well to make your handheld shots smoother.
Huawei also teased the ability to record videos with two cameras at a time, so one of them can capture the full scene, while the other can zoom in on the subject. This feature, called Dual-View Video, is coming as an OTA in the coming weeks.
Software
EMUI 9.1
Android 9 Pie
Dark theme
As you'd expect, the latest flagship smartphone from Huawei is running its latest operating system. Dubbed EMUI 9.1 which remains very similar to the UI on the Mate 20 Pro, the software is based on Android 9.0 Pie. It runs extremely well on the hardware and offers all the usual features you'd expect from a flagship smartphone in 2019, The P30 Pro finally displays third-party notifications on the always-on display, which has been a peeve of mine on the Mate. You can also swipe from the sides to exit the app drawer, and you can now open Google Assistant by holding the power button. There are some new integrations too, like the ability to open and start your car with just your phone.
Huawei P30 Pro Price
Huawei P30 Pro 256GB Storage, 8GB RAM is available now on Amazon for 829.99 USD.
For Huawei smartphone owners, there doesn’t seem to be much to worry about anymore. On June 29, 2019, President Trump announced in a news conference that Huawei will yet again be allowed to do business with U.S. companies.
Should I buy Huawei P30 Pro?
The Huawei P30 Pro is not cheap, but neither are its competitors. When you compare it to the iPhone XS Max, Galaxy S10 Plus, or even Pixel 3 XL, the Huawei P30 Pro is definitely on par or above in terms of features, quality, and user experience. You’re getting a real flagship phone at a real flagship price.
Then there’s the camera – you simply cannot get features like 5X optical zoom or extreme low-light photography on other devices right now... let's be honest, the P30 Pro is really all about the camera.
There's also improved battery life, IP68 water and dust resistance, reverse wireless charging, a faster and more accurate in-display fingerprint scanner, the flagship Kirin 980 chipset, more case colours than before, and more.
So, there you have it - the Huawei P30 Pro is without doubt an excellent, marked upgrade over the Huawei P20 Pro, and a strong rival to Samsung's Galaxy S10 Plus. If you are an Android phone user and are currently in the market for a powerful upgrade then you certainly won't be disappointed with the P30 Pro, even though there are rival devices that offer a similar experience.
If you looking for a new flagship Android phone and are also a photography enthusiast, though, then the P30 Pro gets elevated straight to the top of your shopping list, with its best-in-class camera system guaranteed to absolutely blow you away.
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