After weeks of unprecedented leaks, the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro officially made a global debut in Paris on Wednesday. The photography-centric flagship smartphone series brings up to 50x digital zoom and the world’s first Leica Quad Camera system to the masses.
P30 Pro: Photography powerhouse
The top-of-the-line P30 Pro features a beautiful all-new dual-curve design on the front and back, with new gradient colours “inspired by the wonders of nature.” The new colourways: Amber Sunrise (this gets my vote), Breathing Crystal, Black and Aurora supposedly reflect different times of the day. They do look good.
On the front, the P30 Pro disappointingly still has a notched display, although like many smartphones out in the market right now, sports a tiny waterdrop or dewdrop type. The display isn’t anything to shout about–a 6.47-inch Full HD+ (1080×2340) curved OLED display.
The notch in the display, by the way, houses the 32MP selfie shooter. Huawei has integrated a in-display fingerprint scanner, as seen on the Mate 20 Pro.
Oddly, Huawei has removed the top earpiece and has integrated acoustic display technology (like the Mi MIX and Mi MIX 2).
Under the hood, the P30 Pro sports the best Huawei silicon—the 7nm octa-core Kirin 980 coupled by 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage. Storage is expandable but using Huawei’s proprietary NM card format.
Keeping the device juiced is a substantial 4,200mAh battery that charges via USB-C. It supports Huawei’s 40W SuperCharge 2.0 fast-charging technology as well as 15W fast wireless charging and reverse wireless charging.
If it’s all a little run-of-the-mill to you, the biggest upgrade to the P series is the camera system. The P30 Pro boasts a new quad-camera setup which consists of a 40MP f/1.6 wide angle camera, a 20MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle camera, an 8MP f/3.4 5X telephoto camera and a Time of Flight (ToF) camera.
What’s interesting is that the new 40MP main sensor (Huawei calls it “SuperSensing” sensor) uses a RYYB colour array which is arguably better than the standard RGGB. The 1/1.7-inch sensor lets in 40 percent more light than a standard RGGB sensor, capable of an astounding max ISO of 409,600.
Here’s another thing that the P30 Pro will do well–telephoto zoom. The device now has a 5x 8MP telephoto camera with a periscope lens design. This allows the phone to achieve 10x hybrid (optical + digital) lossless zoom, up to a possible 50x max zoom. It sounds astonishing on paper, doesn’t it? Additionally, both the main 40MP sensor and the 8MP telephoto feature optical image stabilisation (OIS).
Huawei has been teasing the P30 Pro’s new zooming prowess in ads and videos and I must say it’s impressive.
The folks over at DxOMark are also impressed—the P30 Pro is now new champion with a score of 112 points.
The dual-SIM device retains its IP68 dust- and water-resistant body but lacks a stereo speaker setup and 3.5mm headphone jack.
P30
The P30 will fit nicely into smaller hands with a more compact body housing a 6.1-inch flat Full HD+ OLED panel. Unlike the P30 Pro, it lacks an in-display fingerprint scanner but has a more conventional rear-mounted unit.
It shares the same Kirin 980 processor as its top run sibling and also features 8GB of RAM but with storage topping 256GB.
It also sports a smaller 3,650mAh battery with support for 22W Huawei SuperCharge fast-charging via USB-C. It lacks wireless charging and reverse wireless charging found on the P30 Pro.
While featuring a similar gradient design, the P30 body lacks IP68 dust- and water-resistance. The P30 comes with one less colour option—Aurora, Black and Breathing Crystal.
In the optics department, the P30 gets a more sensible triple camera system with the same 40MP RYYB main camera but with a slightly slower f/1.8 aperture wide lens.
The secondary 16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide lens couples with an 8MP sensor with a 3x zoom-capable f/2.2 telephoto lens with OIS.
Both devices run EMUI 9.1 out-of-the-box, based on Android 9 Pie.
Pricing and availability
The new HUAWEI P30 and HUAWEI P30 Pro are immediately available globally with the following pricing:
Huawei P30
6GB RAM + 128GB storage – EUR799 (~MYR3,683)
Huawei P30 Pro
8GB RAM + 128GB storage – EUR999 (~MYR4,604)
8GB RAM + 256GB storage – EUR1099 (~MYR5,065)
8GB RAM + 512GB storage – EUR1249 (~MYR5,757)
The HUAWEI P30 Pro is also available in a Special Edition Gift Box. This premium set includes a Breathing Crystal or Pearl White HUAWEI P30 Pro and a Pearl Pink Glamorous Case encrusted with Swarovski crystals.
For more information, visit Huawei.
