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Introduction
Huawei has completely blurred the lines between its signature Mate and P series by raising the bar higher and higher every six months. And it has done it yet again with the Huawei P30 Pro - now with an even larger AMOLED screen and a brand-new quad-camera setup that aims to become the new benchmark for the whole industry.
Just as expected the next smartphone Leica camera premieres on the Huawei P30 Pro and now it's a quad-setup. But Huawei hasn't just added a ToF sensor and call it a day. Instead, the maker made upgrades across the board - the main snapper has a new 40MP sensor by Sony with improved low-light performance and optical stabilization.
Then Huawei has upped its own game and has introduced an innovative periscopic lens to achieve 5x optical zoom on its 8MP tele camera. The so-called hybrid zoom is available and it's now 10x, with an option to go as high as 50x - all purely digital, of course.
The third camera is borrowed straight from the Mate 20 Pro - a 20MP snapper with 16mm ultra-wide lens and autofocus.
The fourth and final camera is the aforementioned ToF unit, which promises to take the portrait shots up another notch.
The selfie fans aren't forgotten - the front camera is now a 32MP one, with AI HDR+ and improved portraits. It still lacks autofocus, sadly.
The selfie snapper occupies the tiny notch on the new 6.47" AMOLED screen. The panel itself sticks to 1080p resolution and has an under-display fingerprint scanner at the bottom, and also doubles as an earpiece. That's right, the whole thing is now "acoustic" and vibrates to create sound and thus there is no need for an actual earpiece.
Other niceties coming straight from the Mate 20 Pro are the 40W Super Charging and 15W wireless charging support, as well as the reverse wireless charging.
Huawei P30 Pro specs
- Body: dual-glass with metal frame; IP68-rated for dust and water resistance
- Screen: 6.47" AMOLED, 1,080 x 2,340 px resolution (398ppi); tiny notch; acoustic display
- Chipset: Kirin 980 chipset, octa-core processor (2xA76 @2.6GHz + 2xA76 @1.92GHz +4xA55 @1.8GHz), Mali-G76 MP10 GPU, graphene film and heat pipe with vapor chamber cooling system
- Memory: 6/8GB RAM, 128/256/512GB storage (expandable via Nano Memory - hybrid slot)
- OS: Android 9 Pie with EMUI 9.1;
- Camera: 40MP f/1.6 OIS (RYYB filter) + 8MP with periscope 135mm f/3.4 OIS lens (5x optical zoom) + 20MP f/2.2 ultra-wide (16mm) + ToF camera; 4K video capture, 720@960fps slow-mo, Leica branding
- Camera features: 1/1.7" 40MP sensor, up to ISO 204,800, 5x optical zoom, 10x hybrid zoom, 50x digital zoom, Super Macro Mode, OIS + EIS, Variable Aperture, Portrait Mode, Night Mode
- Selfie cam: 32MP, f/2.0 Leica lens, Portrait Mode with live bokeh effects
- Battery: 4,200mAh; Super Charge 40W; 15W wireless charging; reverse wireless charging
- Security: Fingerprint reader (under display)
- Connectivity: Dual SIM, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Dual-band GPS; Bluetooth 5 + LE, NFC, USB Type-C
- Misc: IR blaster, acoustic display acts as earpiece, bottom-firing loudspeaker
The other good news is the P30 Pro is IP68-rated for dust and water resistance.
Just like the Mate 20 series, the P30 lineup adopts the smaller proprietary NM card expansion option with all the positives and negatives that entails.
Finally, the P30 Pro boots the latest EMUI 9.1 based on Android Pie. The phone uses Huawei's new EROFS file system though, which should offer much better read speeds. But before we dig into all those details and technicalities, let's pop this P30 Pro out of its box.
Unboxing the Huawei P30 Pro
The Huawei P30 Pro is packed in a mid-sized paper box with a 40W charger, an enhanced USB-C cable that works with Super Charge, and an EarPods-like headset. Some markets will also get a protective case.
Unfortunately, the P30 Pro won't come with a USB-to-3.5mm adapter as part of its retail bundle. If you need one you will have to either purchase or use one from an older Huawei flagship.
Design
Huawei has evolved the P30 Pro in a lot of ways, but when it comes to design it has stuck with its tried and tested formula. The new flagship is a dual-glass smartphone as is the norm these days and but the new camera arrangement on the back, will make sure it's easily recognizable.
The two-color gradient was first adopted by Huawei and the tradition continues on the Huawei P30 Pro, too. There is a new signature Aurora color for the P30 series, inspired by the Aurora Borealis - or Northern Lights if you prefer. Amber Sunrise, Breathing Crystal, Black, and Pearl White are the other color options.
The signature color is stunning and lives up to its Aurora name. You can see it on the regular Huawei P30 here and we can safely bet this hue will be the best-selling one.
Huawei P30 Pro in Red and P30 in AuroraThere isn't a huge difference between the footprints of the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro, but you can easily spot the different camera arrangement on the back and the lack of a periscope lens.
Huawei P30 Pro (Black) and P30 (Aurora)We have the more traditional black model, which is attractive if not quite as flashy as the other hues. It sure gets smudged up by fingerprints quite easily, so the other P30 Pro might be a bit better in this respect.
Huawei P30 Pro in AuroraThe P30 Pro looks a lot like the Mate 20 Pro and less like the P20 Pro in term of shape and curves. The front and rear glass pieces are both curved towards their longer sides.
At the front of the Huawei P30 Pro is the largest screen the P series has had so far - a 6.47" AMOLED panel with curved edges. We had a look at the subpixel arrangement of the display and it seems to be the same as the one on the Mate 20 Pro suggesting the supplier is the same. And since it's not Diamond Pentile, it seems the panel provider is not Samsung.
Huawei P30 Pro and P20 ProThe screen size is evolving from what we've seen on earlier P-series handsets. The P9 Plus and P10 Plus both had 5.5" displays, while the P20 Pro used a 6.1" screen. Now, the P30 Pro has stepped into Mate territory with this large 6.47" panel.
Huawei P30 Pro and Mate 20 ProThe P30 Pro screen has a tiny notch at the top that contains the selfie camera and nothing else. There isn't an advanced face recognition hardware as on the Mate 20 Pro, a LED flash, or even an earpiece.
By the way, the selfie shooter appears to be centered but it isn't, and you can tell if you look closer. The camera is about 1 or 2 mm to the left side, so if imbalances bother you, considered yourself warned.
The curved AMOLED screen is close in size to the Mate 20 Pro, but having a much smaller notch it has an advantage in usable space. It does come with a lower resolution though - the P30 Pro's panel is 1080p instead of 1440p. But even so everything still looks sharp, so we have no issues with that.
The bezels are very skinny as the trends go today. There is a small chin, sure, but as far as the sides go, the P30 Pro display goes really close to the frame.
Galaxy S10+ and P30 ProFinally, there is an under-display fingerprint scanner around the bottom of the phone. It works quite fast and while it's not always-on it doesn't require you to wake the screen up either. Once you tap around the bottom, the P30 Pro will immediately light the sensor and screen and the recognition is really fast. In fact, this is arguably the fastest sensors of this type we've tested so far.
The place of the sensor lights up every time you pick up the phone, so it's quite easy to get used to it.
Now, let's talk earpiece or the lack of it. The P30 Pro uses bone conduction to deliver the sound during a call and so the screen acts as an earpiece. Huawei says the technology inside the P30 Pro is already a second-gen although this is the first time they've used it in a phone. It should be also superior to, say LG G8's, as the maker has eliminated the need of an exciter, which should produce crisper sound.
So, in case of the Huawei P30 Pro the whole screen vibrates to create the sound, that's why the so-called 'acoustic display' the P30 Pro offers a much deeper output and less sound leaking outside of your ear. The coil to create these vibrations isn't at the top but about 2 cm down from the selfie camera - the P30 Pro will even play an animation to show you where to place your ear for the best experience.
Having tested it extensively we are impressed with the technology. The sound is indeed rich and deep, and it doesn't really matter if your ear is close to the selfie camera where a traditional earpiece would be, or around the sweet spot where the exciter is. There is just a minor difference in the volume.
Also, because of the bone conduction technology sound can be heard in much noisier environments when compared to a traditional earpiece. Even if you are in a club, you will hear the other side quite clearly.
It's not all peachy though. First, because of the regular earpiece is gone, the P30 Pro has no stereo speakers.
Also, sound from your call does leak and if the volume is at the maximum, the person on the other end can still be heard by somebody standing close to you. Then again, this also applies to the regular earpieces, and we can't really say the leakage is worse than on most other phones. But what we can confirm is that unlike the original Mi Mix, the P30 Pro emits sound only from its upper front and there is nothing coming from the back of the phone.
The key feature of the Huawei P30 Pro is its quad-camera on the back, but it's not arranged in a neat rectangle as on the Mate 20 Pro. In fact, it's similar to what we saw on the P20 Pro.
There is one huge camera hump around the top left corner and three of the four snappers reside here in vertical alignment.
Starting top to bottom the first snapper is the 20MP one with the ultra-wide lens. Then comes the 40MP sensor with OIS, and finally you can see the end of the periscope zoom lens (135mm, f/3.4) for the 8MP sensor, also with OIS.
The setup is protruding quite a bit and the P30 Pro wobbles a lot if placed without a case on a flat surface.
Next to the triple main setup sit the dual-tone LED flash and the ToF camera, which is almost invisible on our Black model. The ToF camera replaces the laser autofocus on the P30 Pro and should also improve the edge detection accuracy in portrait shots. We'll see about that.
Huawei P30 Pro in different colorsThe end of the periscope looks really cool, no two words about that. You are not seeing the actual sensor through that hole but the prism at the start the periscope tube. The 8MP sensor itself sits about 2cm to the right and is positioned perpendicular to the other sensors.
Moving to the bottom we see that Huawei makes up for the lack of stereo speaker with a larger single unit at the bottom, next to the USB-C port. The hybrid SIM slot is also at the bottom. Unfortunately, the 3.5mm audio port is gone for good on all Pro models.
The frame is curved on its longer sides, but it's top and bottom are flat. Yet, the P30 Pro cannot stand upright the same way some Xperia handsets of old did.
Huawei Mate P30 Pro measures at 158 x 73.4 x 8.41, which is about the same as the Mate 20 Pro and 3mm taller than the P20 Pro. The P30 Pro weighs 192g - that's 3g heavier than the Mate 20 Pro and 11g heavier than the P20 Pro.
The P30 Pro may have grown in size since the P20 Pro, but it's hardly felt - because of all those curves it feels smaller and thinner than it actually is. The phone is waterproofed, and Huawei says the glass is scratch-resistant though it once again failed to name the supplier.
Still, the P30 Pro handling experience is typical of a 2019 flagship. The phone is slippery, and you have to be careful, but also, it's nothing short of stunning. Sure, we would have preferred the square camera arrangement from the Mates, but maybe it just wasn't possible with this new periscope lens. Plus we are sure many would disagree and prefer this setup instead.
Galaxy S10+ and P30 ProDisplay
The Huawei P30 Pro features a large 6.47" AMOLED display with a tiny cutout at the top.
Our microscope revealed it shares the same subpixel arrangement as the one on the Mate 20 Pro suggesting the panel supplier is the same.
The OLED panel has a resolution of 2,340 x 1,080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The resulting pixel density of 399ppi is more than enough for a sharp picture and pleasant experience.
The Huawei P30 Pro screen looks quite bright and our display test confirms it. When set on Auto, the screen pumps out 605 nits of brightness, while the maximum manual brightness you can achieve with the scrubber in settings is 570 nits - not a chart-topper, but nevertheless an impressive one for an OLED screen.
The minimum brightness we measured on the P30 Pro display was just 2 nits.
The sunlight contrast on the Huawei P30 Pro is excellent, but we expected nothing less from an AMOLED screen and a rather bright one at that.
Display test | 100% brightness | ||
Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | ||
0 | 571 | ∞ | |
0 | 605 | ∞ | |
0 | 412 | ∞ | |
0 | 582 | ∞ | |
0 | 459 | ∞ | |
0 | 655 | ∞ | |
0.002 | 508 | 254000 | |
0.003 | 657 | 219000 | |
0 | 385 | ∞ | |
0 | 793 | ∞ | |
0 | 653 | ∞ | |
0 | 442 | ∞ | |
0 | 620 | ∞ | |
0 | 428 | ∞ | |
0 | 620 | ∞ | |
0 | 426 | ∞ | |
0 | 445 | ∞ | |
0 | 633 | ∞ |
The screen of the P30 Pro has two Color modes - Normal and Vivid. Each of those also has three sub-modes - Default, Warm, and Cold.
The average deltaE we measured for the screen (against DCI-P3) on Vivid is 3.5 with a maximum deviation of 7.7, which is not the best accuracy, but still a very good one. You can fix the bluish whites by switching to Warm color temperature, but the overall accuracy won't improve notably.
Battery life
The Huawei P30 Pro is powered by a large 4,200 mAh battery - the same capacity as the Mate 20 Pro. It also employs Huawei's newest version of SuperCharge that goes up to 40W. The charger is rated 5V/2A, 9V/2A, or 10V/4A.
Unlike the regular SuperCharge, this one uses higher voltage and the battery does heat up. Huawei says the battery was TUV-certified for safety so you don't have to worry about that.
The bundled cable and charger can fill a flat battery up to 70% in just 30 mins, 90% in 45 mins and 100% in 60 mins - very impressive given the battery size.
The P30 Pro also supports up to 15W of wireless charging, and even reverse wireless charging. The latter means you can use the back of the P30 Pro to wirelessly charge smart accessories, or even phones, when needed. If you want to use the reverse wireless charging, you need to enable it from the Battery Settings, it's not an always-on thing.
In our testing, the P30 Pro lasted upwards of 20 hours looping videos and north of fourteen hours running our web browsing script. The 3G voice call test returned a 27h+ talk time. The overall Endurance rating ended up 100 hours thanks to the excellent battery scores and some additional improvements in standby performance compared to the P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSer App. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Huawei P30 Pro for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Loudspeaker
Huawei P30 Pro, unlike the P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro, lacks stereo speakers. Previously, the earpiece doubled as a second speaker, but with the new acoustic screen technology this is impossible.
In our tests the P30 Pro turned out to be quite loud indeed and scored an Excellent mark in our test, but that's not much louder than what we've seen on the Mate 20 and P20 phones.
We played the same music on the P20 Pro and P30 Pro and the P30 speaker does sound better as the sound is richer and crisper. It's certainly among the better ones on a smartphone these days. We compared the Mate 20 Pro and P30 Pro, too, and we found the output to be identical.
Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing |
Overall score | |
68.2 | 74.1 | 77.4 | Very Good | |
67.2 | 72.5 | 84.5 | Very Good | |
70.1 | 74.2 | 81.6 | Very Good | |
66.6 | 69.8 | 90.0 | Very Good | |
74.3 | 70.2 | 82.6 | Very Good | |
70.3 | 73.4 | 83.8 | Very Good | |
71.2 | 76.8 | 80.6 | Excellent | |
70.5 | 74.0 | 84.7 | Excellent | |
72.5 | 73.6 | 85.2 | Excellent | |
71.8 | 69.2 | 91.0 | Excellent | |
74.4 | 74.2 | 83.6 | Excellent | |
68.5 | 73.2 | 90.7 | Excellent | |
70.9 | 73.8 | 90.9 | Excellent | |
71.4 | 73.5 | 91.1 | Excellent | |
82.2 | 74.9 | 85.5 | Excellent |
Audio quality
Huawei P30 Pro did alright in the first part of our audio quality test, posting excellent scores top to bottom. However it’s loudness was just above average and behind most of its direct rivals.
Headphones caused quite a lot of damage to stereo crosstalk and added a tiny bit of intermodulation distortion. Volume levels remained unimpressive, so it’s hardly a performance worth writing home about, given the premium pricing of the phone.
Mind you, we tested the P30 Pro with a passive USB-C to 3.5mm adapter we had from the P20 Pro, since there wasn’t one supplied in the box. Given that Huawei isn’t including it in the retail package, you can purchase a different adapter and if it happens to be an active one, you will get different performance.
Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
+0.04, -0.02 | -90.5 | 90.4 | 0.0014 | 0.013 | -93.0 | |
+0.14, -0.23 | -90.4 | 90.3 | 0.0046 | 0.211 | -47.0 | |
+0.02, -0.16 | -92.1 | 92.0 | 0.0017 | 0.013 | -85.6 | |
+0.07, -0.07 | -92.1 | 92.4 | 0.0021 | 0.106 | -66.5 | |
+0.03, -0.04 | -92.2 | 92.0 | 0.0015 | 0.0079 | -92.7 | |
+0.06, -0.03 | -91.9 | 91.7 | 0.0020 | 0.037 | -77.0 | |
+0.03, -0.05 | -93.0 | 92.8 | 0.0015 | 0.0070 | -94.3 | |
+0.06, -0.03 | -92.7 | 92.5 | 0.0044 | 0.044 | -87.2 | |
+0.02, -0.01 | -93.9 | 93.1 | 0.0015 | 0.0066 | -91.9 | |
+0.05, -0.04 | -92.6 | 93.5 | 0.0026 | 0.072 | -58.7 |
Huawei P30 Pro frequency response
You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.
Android Pie with EMUI 9.1 on top of a new file system
The Huawei P30 Pro runs Android 9 Pie under its custom EMUI launcher, which got a new 9.1 version to mark the launch of the new flagship. Huawei has been working on its custom UI for years and it has polished it quite well.
Despite the small increase in the version number, EMUI 9.1 actually brings a major change under the hood. Every phone to come or be updated to this version will get a new file system called EROFS.
The ERO file system is supposed to offer 3x increase in Random reads, 10% improvement in app startup, and also has freed the storage taken by system files by 20%. So, while there are no visible changes from the Mate 20 series EMUI, the P30 Pro should be snappier in certain scenarios and its OS should have a smaller storage footprint than before.
The rest of the EMUI is the same as on the Mate 20/Pro/X meaning a streamlined general interface and a simplified settings panel where the rarely used options go under "advanced" sub-menus.
Other key features of EMUI 9.1 include GPU Turbo 2.0 support and a new Password vault. There is a better Huawei Share too, which can share files with a PC and print documents wirelessly.
The further highlights include a travel assistant by HiVision and an in-house developed Digital balance app that tells you how much time you are spending on your phone and gives you the option to limit yourself or your kid (the screen will go monochrome after the allowed usage time is up and most apps will be blocked).
The P30 Pro has an upgraded under-display fingerprint scanner. The reader is very easy to set up and requires less pressure than on Mate 20 Pro's. The accuracy is superb, while the recognition is even faster than on the Mate. And while the sensor is not as fast as the latest conventional sensors, it's close enough so the difference doesn't matter in real life usage.
Face Unlock is available, but it just uses the front camera, which means it's less secure and can potentially be fooled by a picture. So, if privacy is of utmost importance, you may want to avoid this option.
You can either embrace the notch, or you can opt to mask it with a black status bar that extends all the way down to the bottom edge of the notch. The P30 Pro has one of the smallest notches around, so we'd imagine few people would choose to hide it.
Huawei has also implemented its version of the iPhone's gesture navigation - swipe up for Home, swipe up and stop midway for Task switcher, or swipe from the left or right edge of the screen for Back. The phone does come by default with Android's virtual navigation keys though, so you are free to chose which method you prefer.
Out of the box, there is no app drawer on the EMUI 9 - it's a single tier interface akin to iOS. However, if you prefer Android's usual two-tier layout, you can enable it from the Display settings.
Lockscreen • Covers • Homescreen • Homescreen styles • Notch options • Digital Balance
EMUI has Magazine lock screen, as usual, which cycles through a bunch of wallpapers (covers), so you see a different one every time you fire up the display.
Huawei's EMUI offers plenty of customization and features, smart rotation, and lift to wake. Themes are supported, too, and there are a lot to choose from.
Fingerprint • fingerprint enrolment • Face recognition • Face recognition • Themes • Themes
The notification shade is a standard affair, with the usual Huawei take on the graphics. There's a brightness slider and a row of toggles, and you pull down again for more toggles.
Multitasking is a familiar affair. Holding the Recent key will let you activate the split screen mode. You could even have a video playing on top of the two windows if for some reason you find that useful.
Notification area • Toggles • Recent apps • Split screen • Split screen
From the Optimiser app (previously known as Phone Manager), you can access shortcuts to storage cleanup, battery settings, blocked numbers, Virus scan powered by Avast, and mobile data usage.
Huawei's own Music app offers a way to listen to stored MP3s, while Huawei's Health app offers Google Fit syncing and step counting. There's a file manager app and a note-taking app. And if you don't like any of those - there is an abundance of alternatives in the Play Store.
There is an improved AI-powered gallery with EMUI 9. In addition to the automatic sorting with highlights, you will get an automatic but editable Spotlight Reel.
There is no FM radio on the P30 Pro, though.
Finally, Huawei P30 Pro features an IR blaster on its top side. Thanks to its Smart Remote companion app, you can control all of your appliances with your phone.
Optimizer • Music Player • Gallery • Huawei Health • Files • Smart Remote
Kirin 980 chipset with improved cooling
Huawei P30 Pro, just like the entire Mate 20 series, utilizes the latest Kirin 980 chip by HiSilicon. We are already well familiar with the 7nm chipset, which while no longer the single most efficient in the Android world - the Snapdragon 855 is also built on 7nm, while Exynos 9820 SoC is on the 8nm node - is still amazingly capable.
The Huawei P30 Pro has an improved cooling system with a combination of graphene film and a heat pipe with vapor chamber.
So, the Kirin 980 uses an octa-core CPU design with 2x high-performance Cortex-A76 cores running at 2.6GHz, another 2x Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 1.92GHz, and 4x power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores that go up to 1.8GHz. The processor makes use of ARM's DynamIQ architecture, which is the evolution of big.LITTLE and allows any subset of cores (or all together) to work simultaneously depending on the workload.
Kirin 980 SoC has a Mali-G76 MP10 (ten-core) GPU, which offers tremendous performance and efficiency gains compared to its predecessor Mali-G72 in the Kirin 970 (P20 Pro).
EMUI 9's GPU Turbo 2.0 is supported by six games in total for the time being - PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, NBA 2k18, Rules of Survival, Vainglory, and Arena of Valor. It allows all those games to run smoothly and steady at 60 fps at full resolution. Huawei is also working with game developers to enable it in even more popular games though we won't be holding our breath.
The chipset also supports 2133MHz LPDDR4X memory and incorporates a dedicated dual NPU chip. Huawei calls it "Dual-Brain Power" and can help recognize up to 4,500 images per minute, which is around 120% faster than last year's single NPU chip on the Kirin 970 SoC.
Benchmarks
Benchmarks scores have been driving the industry for quite some time. Many Chinese makers try to impress with higher and higher (AnTuTu) results, leading to cheating software bring run in order to look favorable in the eyes of the users.
Huawei has made its Performance mode available to anyone and you can find the switch in the Battery settings of the P30 Pro. The Performance mode offers a small speed boost in some instances (mostly in raw CPU power), but not for long as the phone gets warm quickly and the phone automatically reverts to its safe settings until it cools down.
The net result is about 10-12% boost across all benchmark tests for the first run. Yes, that's it. You can get a sustainable 5% boost from the regular mode over time, while the 10% bump is for the first few minutes only. So, we are not sure if the extra heat and battery drain are worth the hassle.
The P30 Pro is on par of the whole Android pile in, when it comes to multi-core processor performance. You can see a small gain from the performance mode quite clearly here. While the latest Exynos and Snapdragon have a minor point advantage over the Kirin 980, for all intents and purposes it will be indistinguishable real life.
GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone XS Max
11432 - Xiaomi Mi 9
11181 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
10387 - Huawei Mate 20 X (perf. mode)
10118 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
10014 - Huawei Mate 20 X
9851 - Huawei Mate 20 Pro
9712 - Huawei P30 Pro
9649 - Xiaomi Mi Mix 3
9065 - Google Pixel 3 XL
8088
The single-core result of the P30 Pro CPU comes short of the fourth-gen Mongoose cores of the Galaxy S10+. Apple and Samsung's latest custom cores are far superior to what the rest of the makers can offer to date.
GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone XS Max
4777 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
4522 - Xiaomi Mi 9
3503 - Huawei Mate 20 X (perf. mode)
3404 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
3323 - Huawei Mate 20 Pro
3291 - Huawei Mate 20 X
3277 - Huawei P30 Pro
3270 - Xiaomi Mi Mix 3
2429 - Google Pixel 3 XL
2363
The Kirin 980 chipset has Mali-G76 10-core GPU in charge of graphics. The raw performance, while an improvement over the previous Kirin 970, ins't wasn't par with what the latest Apple, Qualcomm and Samsung chips offer.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone XS Max
99 - Xiaomi Mi 9
70 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
69 - Xiaomi Mi Mix 3
60 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
56 - Huawei Mate 20 X (perf. mode)
55 - Huawei P30 Pro
54 - Huawei Mate 20 Pro
53 - Google Pixel 3 XL
44
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone XS Max
60 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
42 - Xiaomi Mi 9
42 - Xiaomi Mi Mix 3
35 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
33 - Huawei Mate 20 X (perf. mode)
33 - Huawei P30 Pro
29 - Huawei Mate 20 Pro
29 - Google Pixel 3 XL
28
3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 9
5816 - Xiaomi Mi Mix 3
4945 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
4632 - Huawei Mate 20 X (perf. mode)
4368 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
4315 - Huawei Mate 20 X
3622 - Huawei P30 Pro
3522
The P30 Pro, on the other hand, has a less needy 1080p display and matches the performance of the headliners with 1440p, which is enough reason to be called flagship-worthy.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone XS Max
60 - Xiaomi Mi 9
56 - Xiaomi Mi Mix 3
52 - Huawei P30 Pro
50 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
50 - Huawei Mate 20 X (perf. mode)
49 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
37 - Huawei Mate 20 Pro
27 - Google Pixel 3 XL
24
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone XS Max
47 - Xiaomi Mi 9
35 - Xiaomi Mi Mix 3
30 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
29 - Huawei Mate 20 X (perf. mode)
29 - Huawei P30 Pro
27 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
23 - Huawei Mate 20 Pro
17 - Google Pixel 3 XL
12
The compound benchmark AnTuTu confirms the excellent skills of the new Kirin 980 chipset. If performance mode is enabled, the P30 Pro scores 10% higher and come very close to the Galaxy S10+.
AnTuTu 7
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 9
372006 - Apple iPhone XS Max
353210 - Samsung Galaxy S10+
333736 - Huawei P30 Pro (perf. mode)
316156 - Huawei Mate 20 X (perf. mode)
304403 - Xiaomi Mi Mix 3
292353 - Huawei P30 Pro
290189 - Huawei Mate 20 Pro
273913 - Huawei Mate 20 X
267358 - Google Pixel 3 XL
258244
The P30 Pro is just as powerful as Huawei advertises it to be. The chip offers one of the fastest processors on the Android market, as usual, while its GPU punch is on par to what the most current flagships can do under 1440p resolution. Sure, the P30 Pro GPU isn't the most powerful in the world, but it offers sustained and balanced performance and there isn't a single game right now that can challenge it.
The Kirin 980 is manufactured on the cutting-edge 7nm process, but if you expected it not to warm up - you'd be wrong. The chip does release some amount of heat and the P30 Pro does have a few warm spots, but they are not as prominent on the Mate 20 Pro and Mate 20 X. The new cooling system is indeed doing a great job at distributing heat across the rear glass and the metal frame and you can't really tell where exactly this heat is coming from. And because of this cooling solution the P30 Pro is one of the coolest Huawei flagships we've seen in a while. Some throttling may occur after running consecutive benchmark tests but only then.
The P30 Pro runs buttery-smooth its operating system and there is not a single game that won't run flawlessly at 1080p resolution. Overall, the Kirin 980 is one of those chipsets worth having in your phone and bragging with its speed.
Leica-powered quad-camera setup
The Huawei P30 Pro is spearheading the smartphone camera evolution, just like the P20 Pro was, but instead of three there are now four sensors on the back. The P30 Pro contains every photography achievements Huawei has accomplished in the mobile segment so far and is the bearer of the latest Leica developments as well.
Three of the four cameras share a hump - the top one is the 20MP shooter with the ultra-wide angle f/2.2 lens, then comes the main 40MP camera with a wide-angle (or regular in phone terms) f/1.8 OIS lens, and finally you get the f/3.4 periscope telephoto OIS lens for 5x optical zoom and an 8MP sensor. The fourth camera is the ToF one, sitting flush next to the dual-tone LED flash.
And now let's dig into the technicalities.
Hardware
Main camera: The Huawei P30 Pro is equipped with a new 40MP sensor by Sony. They are calling it SuperSensing sensor. It will output 10MP photos by default due to the Quad-Bayer filter, but if you feel like it - you can still opt to save the 40MP image. If you are unfamiliar with Bayer and Quad-Bayer filters, you may want to check this article to know how they work, but the short version is this - they essentially function as 10MP sensors with very large pixels and some advanced functionality such as real time HDR.
While the 40MP SuperSensing sensor has the same resolution and 27mm lens as the main snappers on the P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro, it's actually a brand-new sensor made by Sony exclusively for Huawei. The lens is now brighter at F/1.6 and optically stabilized which alone is a massive improvement over the previous generation.
Second the 40MP SuperSensing sensor has a new color filter. Instead of the traditional RGGB filter, Huawei and Sony have used a RYYB color filter on the sensor (where the green sub-pixels have been replaced by yellow ones). They say yellow allows them to collect up to 40% more light than the green filters in RGGB and this change should translate into better image quality, especially in low-light.
So to sum things up - the 40MP camera now has a brighter aperture, an optical stabilization system, and a new color filter - three things that should help massively improve its performance in low-light photography. And if that's not enough, Huawei's proprietary Night Mode is available as well.
Ultra-wide angle camera: The 20MP snapper with an f/2.2 16mm lens which we saw for the first time on the Mate 20 Pro has been carried over to the P30 Pro. It has phase-detection autofocus and also supports Super Macro Mode for photos from as close as 2.5cm. Huawei has improved its Night Mode to work better with the ultra-wide angle camera on the P30 Pro, though - it now takes up to 8 or 9 seconds to capture and the images are much better.
Telephoto camera: Without a doubt, the crown jewel of the Huawei P30 Pro is its telephoto camera. We've seen periscope cameras before but they were all zoom designs and not with very high image quality. This here is a proper stabilized prime lens and we expect it to deliver much better images.
But first, let's talk about this camera's sensor. It's still 8MP in resolution, but Huawei has opted for a bigger sensor and now its pixels are 1.22µm big - an update over the 1.0µm pixels on the 8MP telephoto snappers of the P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro.
The sensor is placed perpendicuarly to the back about 2cm to the right of the camera hump. What you actually see when looking at the back is the periscope lens' front element. There are no mirrors involved here - the light is refracted at a 90-degree angle towards the sensor by a prism.
The refracted light passes through a set of 5 additional optical elements. The system also provides optical image stabilization, which is a must for long focal lengths where even small camera shake is multiplied.
The periscope lens on the P30 Pro is 125mm and, obviously, optically stabilized, has f/3.4 aperture, and it should offer 5x optical zoom (125mm) over the 27mm main camera. Well, if you do the math the optical zoom isn't exactly 5x as 125/27 equals 4.63. But we guess 4.63x zoom isn't as marketing-friendly as 5x is.
What can be even more confusing is that the EXIF of the zoomed photos says 135mm, which corresponds to true 5x optical zoom. But Huawei has confirmed for us that 125mm is the correct number in 35mm terms, which means the actual zoom over the main camera is about 4.6x and not 5x. But for the sake of avoiding further confusion, we will stick to calling it 5x zoom from now on.
Huawei also does the so-called 10x hybrid zoom, combining digital and optical magnification. It's supposed to provide lossless digital zooming. In fact you can even go up to 50x digital zoom - this mode has dubious benefits for actual picture taking but we're sure it would allow you to have a clear look at something happening quite far away from you.
ToF camera: The fourth camera is outside the main setup next to the LED flash. It's a ToF (time of flight) camera and has two main objectives - to speed up the autofocus and thus replacing the laser assistance, but also because of its ability to deliver a depth map for the scen it should improve the subject separation and the background blur in portrait mode. As the ToF sensor offers better multi-layer mapping you get more accurate multi-level bokeh simulation.
Camera app
Huawei likes to mark its zoom as 5x optical and 10x hybrid. You will find 5x and 10x options in its camera app, while the wide-angle camera is called 0.6x. Well, if we have to be technically correct, when you compare the focal lengths of the wide and tele ends (16-125mm in 35mm terms), we'd say the P30 Pro offers a 7.8x optical zoom as opposed to 5x. Of course, this is only about the wording and it should not concern regular users, but we just wanted to mention this to avoid any confusion. When presenting the camera samples, we will use the Huawei's convention for marking zoom steps.
The camera app is enhanced by Huawei's AI just as before. There is an improved Master AI, which recognizes and tunes settings for up to 1,500 different scenes. Huawei has made it less aggressive, after the negative feedback they received for the P20 Pro where the Greenery and Blue Sky modes were over the top. We are happy with the presets used on the P30 Pro but if you'd like to keep the Master AI turned off, the switch is now sitting comfortably on your viewfinder, so you don't have to go through the settings.
Photo • Aperture • Pro • All modes • Monochrome • Light Painting
The camera app itself hasn't changed much since the Mate 20 Pro. First off, you have a mode selector on the bottom. You swipe left or right to change modes, but you can't swipe on the viewfinder, just on the selector itself. Swiping up and down doesn't switch between front and rear camera either, you have a button for that (admittedly, it's at the bottom within easy reach). Basically, you're still wasting the viewfinder by not having gestures enabled on it, except for pinch to zoom.
As for zooming, a tap on the currently selected magnifaction indicator in the viewfinder toggles consecutively the 1x (25mm), 5x (125mm), 10x (250mm), and the 0.6x (16mm) magnifactions. The 10x mode is what Huawei refers to as hybrid zoom (essentially it's 2x digital zoom applied to the 5x optical camera).
Our experience is that you can get the same quality merely by cropping and upscaling a photo taken by the 5x camera. Of course, as with all digital zooming, the argument remains that doing it in the camera allows you to get better metering and appropriate exposure for the particular area you are interested in, which might not be possible if you merely crop and upsize photos with a wider field of view.
There's a Pro mode here where you can adjust parameters yourself - ISO (50 to 409,600), shutter speed (1/4000s to 30s), exposure compensation (-4 to +4EV in 1/3 stop increments), and white balance (presets and specific light temperature). You can also choose the metering mode (matrix, center-weighted and spot), and the focus mode (single, continuous and manual). If the phone thinks you messed up the exposure, an icon will pop up to warn you.
The monochrome mode is still available in spite of the P30 Pro not having a B&W camera. It's in the 'More' section, where the extra modes are: Monochrome, Panorama, and HDR, among others. The Super Macro mode is also here, and it has 1x and 0.6x toggles, too. If you choose 1x - the camera will just crop the image from the ultra-wide-angle source.
For years now, Huawei phones have had both a Portrait mode and an Aperture mode. There's now more differentiation than ever between the two. In Aperture, you can choose the simulated aperture in the range from f/0.95 to f/16. Post shot, you can change the aperture and the desired focus point within the Gallery.
In Portrait mode you can enable and disable the background blur, but you can also choose the bokeh shapes - circles, hearts, swirl or discs - those actually turned out nice. You can also opt for simulated lighting, and you can even add some beautification on a scale from 0 to 10.
Portrait mode
The P30 Pro records video up to 4K resolution at 30fps - there's still no 4K/60fps mode, though. You can, however, choose between h.264 and h.265.
Huawei is promising unmatched low-light videos on the P30 Pro due to the combined benefits of all the changes they've introduced to the camera system as well as the availability of super high ISO ceiling - the camera can push that up to ISO 409,600 compared to only ISO 102,400 on the P20 Pro.
There's super slow-mo recording as well, in what's become the industry-standard 720p/960fps, as well as 'regular' slow-mo in 720p/240 and 1080p/120fps. While the regular slow-mo clips are only limited in length by your free storage, the super slow-mo clips last precisely 10s - 6s of slow-mo and two seconds of regular speed action on both ends.
The video camera should also offer Dual View video down the line where you see the combined footage from two of the camera simultaneously on the video screen - for instance, the ultra-wide angle one and the normal one. The feature will not be available at launch but it planned to arrive as an OTA update.
Huawei is offering the so-called HiVision smart assistant as part of the camera app. It's basically a smart lens, which automatically recognizes landmarks, art, and food. Some of the smart functions include text translation and calories count, with the latter more of a gimmick as it's often comically off target.
Image quality
The default photos come from the 40MP sensor, but after the phone works its magic on them, it saves a resulting 10MP image. There is one easy rule with the P30 Pro - if the ultra-wide-angle camera didn't take it, then it's a 10MP photo. That's right; even the 8MP zoom camera spits out 10MP images.
Anyway, the normal (27mm) photos which are captured during the day are among the best photos a smartphone camera can produce today. There is very high-level detail even in complex areas, exceptional dynamic range, accurate colors, superb contrast, and, overall very mature processing.
Huawei P30 Pro 10MP regular photos
The overly aggressive Master AI on the Huawei P20 Pro has been reworked, and we no longer get over-the-top greenery and blue skies photos. If the phone recognizes a Blue Sky or Greenery scene, the algorithm applies only a minor contrast boost and very slight extra saturation of the blues or greens. But nothing over the top as on the P20 Pro.
Huawei P30 Pro 10MP photos with Master AI
If resolution is crucial to you, sometimes you can get more by shooting in 40MP mode. However results vary from frame to frame so for those curcial shots we suggest you shoot in both modes and then pick up the one you like better.
Now, let's check the ultra-wide-angle camera. There is enough resolved detail in the photos we took with it, though it isn't a match to the main one. The color rendition is excellent and true to life, while the noise levels are still low. The dynamic range is often superb, probably due to the multi-frame stacking magic, although it's still a bit lower than what we observed on the regular photos.
As is usually the case with wide-angle cameras there is noticeable corner softness and visible chromatic aberrations. Those aren't so bad as to ruin the picture and are quite hard to spot if you are not pixel peeping.
And even if the 20MP images from the wide camera may lack some per-pixel detail, they still look great when downscaled to say 8MP or 10 MP.
Huawei P30 Pro 20MP ultra-wide-angle photos
The ultra-wide-angle cam can also do for macro shots just like the other cameras - for this mode to work best you should opt for Super Macro from the mode selector. These are quite good in quality and will do for the occasional shooting of flower petals, bugs, and other tiny peculiar things. Yes, chromatic aberration is still noticeable here and there, but it comes with the territory.
Huawei P30 Pro 20MP macro samples with wide-angle camera
The 125mm tele camera is only 8MP, but the photos to come out of it are 10MP - perhaps Huawei upscaled them to match the resolution of the main camera. Even so '5x' shots turn out quite spectacular. When enough lighting is present they are a close match for those we took with the 40MP snapper. They zoomed pictures are very detailed and the extra reach is really quite impressive for a smartphone. The color, contrast, and dynamic range are also very good.
Huawei P30 Pro 10MP 5x optically zoomed photos
The hybrid 10x zoom is digital, and you can tell right away. The photos come up identical to what you would get if you were to zoom and crop the 5x pics by yourself, but on some harder scenes doing so before you take it may result in better metering and exposure for the desired area.
Huawei P30 Pro 10MP 10x hybrid zoomed samples
We shot a few scenes with all default zoom modes and here are the samples.
Wide • Normal • 5x zoom • 10x zoom
Wide • Normal • 5x zoom • 10x zoom
Wide • Normal • 5x zoom • 10x zoom
And here's what the 50x digital zoom looks like. Obviously, it's per-pixel quality is poor, but it can serve to help you read a sign far away or make unusable as a photo, but on the viewfinder, it does look fine enough and it can be used as a portable binocular.
Normal • 5x zoom • 10x zoom • 50x zoom
If you use 5x zoom, the Huawei P30 Pro will obviously beat any digital zoom achieved from a 2x telephoto camera or a regular 27mm one. No two words about that. Still, digitally zooming from a 54mm up to 125mm isn't that bad and will do for certain occasions. Here's how those 5x photos stack up against the Samsung Galaxy S10+, Xiaomi Mi 9, and Huawei Mate 20 Pro - when we use digital zoom to put them all on equal ground.
On the other hand if you don't need 5x zoom, but 2x or 3x then the P30 Pro would have to resort to digitally zooming from its main 27mm camera and will actually end up worse than them.
Low light
Now, let's see what happens when the lighting is less than idea. You can shoot with all three cameras in both regular and night modes. Huawei claims the latter has been improved, especially for the ultra-wide camera, while the new type of filter, the OIS, and the brighter aperture on the 40MP sensor should allow for even better regular photos.
The 10MP low-light photos we took with the regular 1x camera are very impressive but not that different from what we saw on the Mate 20 Pro and X. But thanks to the brighter aperture, the P30 Pro is able to achieve the same exposure level with a higher shutter speed which means it's a lot less likely to ruin a shot due to camera shake or motion blur. And we can confirm that all of the photos we snapped with this camera turned out perfectly usable and blur-free.
The images have an even exposure, well preserved highlights, and over all great dynamic range. Noise was never an issue even in the shadows and night-time colors were retained very well.
Huawei P30 Pro 10MP regular photos
Night mode works just as on previous Huawei phones producing bright handheld night-time photos. It captures a bunch of photos and stacks them to produce a final image of accurate exposure and lower noise.
And while on many occassions there isn't a major difference between the normal and Night shots taken with the main camera, it does make a difference if you want to brighten those night skies and recover some detail in the highlight and shadow areas.
Huawei P30 Pro 10MP Night Mode photos
You can even shoot through with the 5X zoom camera in low light and the results are not as bad as the slower F/3.3 aperture may suggest. Night Mode works, too, but at 125mm effective focal length blurry photos will not be a rarity.
5x regular • 5x regular • 5x regular • 5x Night Mode
The ultra-wide-angle 20MP camera has f/2.2 aperture and isn't optically stabilized, so the regular low-light photos are rather disappointing. There are some minor improvements in the processing since the Mate 20 Pro, but the noise reduction still smears a lot of the fine detail and a third of our shots came out blurry.
Huawei P30 Pro 20MP ultra-wide-angle photos
We found that at night, the wide-angle-camera was at its best when used with Huawei's great Night mode. It has been vastly improved for this snapper since the Mate 20 Pro. It captures several photos with different exposures but now instead of 5 or 6, it takes up to 8 seconds. All those images taken during this rather long period of shooting are stacked together to produce a nicely exposed shot with great dynamic range and plenty of detail. The photos are saved in 10MP, though.
Sure, their colors are a bit washed out compared to what you'd get with the regular camera, but other than that - if you need to shoot with this camera in the dark, don't be afraid to do it.
Portraits
Huawei P30 Pro has four cameras but only two are involved when taking portraits - the main 40MP one and the ToF snapper.
You can't choose the blur strength - instead, you can use one of the few bokeh highlights shapes - circles, hearts, swirl or discs. Then there are Portrait Lighting effects, if you are a fan of those.
Huawei P30 Pro 10MP portrait photos
The subject separation in the portrait shots we took is one of the best, if not the best we've seen done on a smartphone. The resolved detail is excellent, the blurred backgrounds looked nice no matter which effect we used, and it didn't really matter if the subject was close or not.
Huawei P30 Pro 10MP portrait photos
Finally, in addition to those blur and/or lighting effects, you can also use various skin and face beautification options.
Portrait photos with different blur and lighting effects
Aperture
The P30 Pro also features the so-called Aperture Mode. It lets you do post-shot re-focusing and lets you adjust the blur strength, simulating apertures in the f/0.95-f/16 range. It can be used for non-human subjects and does well with the subject isolation even with more complex shapes.
F/2.0 • F/4.0 • F/6.3 • F/16.0
In fact, if you don't care about the extra features of the portrait mode - beautification, highlight shapes and effects - you would be better off using this one for all your faux bokeh shots. At the very least the added flexibility of being able to change focus and depth post-shot would be a welcome bonus.
Selfies
The Huawei P30 Pro's selfie camera has the impressive 32MP resolution and an f/2.0 lens, but sadly, it's still a fixed focus unit. It can do portraits with various effects as usual, and Huawei promises better subject separation. It also supports AI HDR+, which is an enhanced HDR over the previous series thanks to a more advanced AI algorithm for highlights mapping.
The 32MP selfie cam does a very good job. The dynamic range is excellent for a selfie shooter enhanced by that AI HDR+, obviously, and we liked that we never had to think about the light source position. The colors are good and there is plenty of detail, even if not quite as much as the resolution would make you believe. Despite having four times the resolution, the P30 Pro still has slightly less detail than the Pixel 3's selfie camera.
Something to keep in mind is that the focus sweet spot is not at an arm's length. If you are of above average height you'll need to slighly bend your arm so your face doesn't end up out of focus.
Huawei P30 Pro 32MP selfie photos
The front camera has the same Portrait mode as the main one, but the subject separation is far inferior. You can see ears and hair have gone missing on some of the shots. The cool blur effects have made it to the selfie portrait mode, too, which is nice.
Huawei P30 Pro 32MP selfie portraits
Lighting effects are available as well, but the separation is even worse here.
Huawei P30 Pro 32MP selfie portraits with effects
Video recording
The Huawei P30 Pro has three different cameras on its back, which should make it an equally interesting device for shooting videos as it was for stills. Giving you the freedom to zoom in or out in any video resolution, with some excellent stabilization at that, is something that a full-blown camera will have a hard time matching, let alone with the same level of convenience.
The newest Huawei P30 Pro supports shooting in 4K and 1080p at 30fps with all of its snappers. 1080p at 60fps mode can be used only with the main and ultra-wide-angle snappers as was the case with the Mate 20 Pro. You also have a choice between the h.264 and h.265 codecs.
Huawei has announced one new upcoming shooting mode though - Dual-View Video. It will be available via a firmware update later on and will allow you to create a split-screen video with two of the rear cameras, showing a wide/normal and a zoomed-in view of the scene.
But, let's talk quality first.
Main camera
The 4K footage from the main camera has stellar dynamic range, the colors are true to life and contrast is excellent. There is a decent amount of resolved detail, though we've seen flagships do a bit better.
The 4K clips have a video bitrate of 26Mbps, which may be one of the reasons for the having less than ideal sharpness - excessive compression might wipe some of that away. Or maybe the always-on electronic stabilization has taken its toll on the picture quality. Or both.
The 1080p videos shot at 30fps, except for the lower resolution, offer similar sharpness, dynamic range, colors and contrast.
Finally, the 1080p clips shot at 60fps have less resolved detail than the 30fps ones.
Now, let’s take a look at some low-light video footage. The more sensitive new RYYB sensor, optical image stabilization and bright aperture provide class-leading low-light videos. The clips are fantastic - the level of resolved detail is high, the noise is kept under control, the exposure is even and the colors are just brilliant.
Telephoto camera
Both 4K and 1080p videos shot at 30fps from the telephoto camera turned out great. First and foremost, the camera does an excellent job at zooming in and showing what's far away from you. The 5x optical zoom is so far unmatched and Huawei will keep its lead here for a while.
The videos we took with the tele camera offer the same niceties as the regular one such as impressive dynamic range, fantastic colors and contrast.
Also, the stabilization achieved with the periscope lens is quite impressive and will easily allow you to track and shoot a subject free of any handshake.
Once again, though, sharpness isn't great in the 4K videos. While the 1080p clips look excellent with plenty of detail, the 4K ones are really soft. We suspect Huawei is upscaling from 1440p resolution because the 8MP sensor doesn't have the needed horizontal resolution to shoot in native 4K.
Still, the tele camera offers a truly unique video recording experience and no matter the resolution you choose to shoot in, you will end up with some excellent zoomed videos that can't be match by any competitor right now.
The 10x zoom works in videos, too, and while it's purely digital, it lets you go really close, which depending on what you are shooting, may be well worth the sacrifice in image quality.
Ultra-wide-angle camera
Finally, the footage from the ultra-wide-angle is not quite as good as the other two, no matter if shot in 4K or 1080p. The resolved detail isn't on par, the dynamic range is average at best, and the colors are a bit over-saturated.
And the 60fps clips from the ultra-wide-camera are extremely low in detail and are rather unusable.
Zooming
Zooming while shooting video from 0.6x all the way to 10x, or even 50x, is possible and quite easy - you just need to drag your finger over the zoom slider. There are abrupt changes when the phone switches from ultra-wide to regular and from regular to telephoto camera, though. And zooming from the regular up to 5x zoom is purely digital and doesn't look good when you approach 5x.
But once you are already in telephoto cam mode you can use magnification without much loss in quality and free of any abrupt changes in picture quality.
Video stabilization
All videos coming from the regular and telephoto cameras are optically and electronically stabilized, while the ultra-wide-angle snapper employs only EIS. The digital stabilization is always-on and you can't opt out of it even if you want to.
The electronic + optical stabilization combo on the main camera works flawlessly at 1080p@30fps.
The 4K and 1080p@60fps also benefit from both stabilization options, though the electronic isn't as effecient.
The footage coming from the ultra-wide-angle camera is electronically stabilized and it's looking pretty good. Not as perfect and the main one, but still.
Finally, we have to note that the stabilized tele camera comes in really hand when you need to follow a moving subject. You can get some exceptional handheld footage. Just keep in mind that if you are walking all the movement is amplified by the extended focal length and you'll end up with pretty shaky footage - there are some physics limitations that even the best stabilization can't fix.
As usual, we've provided samples straight out of the camera for you to download - 2160p@30fps (10s, 35MB), 2160p@30fps ultra-wide (10s, 33MB), 2160p@30fps 5x zoom (10s, 35MB), 2160p@30fps 10x zoom (10s, 35MB), 1080p@30fps (10s, 14MB), 1080p@30fps ultra-wide (10s, 14MB), 1080p@30fps 5x zoom (10s, 16MB), 1080p@30fps 10x zoom (10s, 16MB), 1080p@ (11s, 24MB), and 1080p@60fps ultra-wide (10s, 17MB).
Final thoughts
Huawei has really hit its stride and is once again having the rest of the phone makers playing catch up. It was the maker to make the dual-camera trendy. Then it made the triple-setup cool. The ultra-wide-angle snapper from the Mate 20 series turned out to be way more successful than LG's and many others are following suit now.
But Huawei has made another jump in mobile photography with the quad-camera setup.
The 10MP low-light photos are arguably the best you can get from a phone these days. The ultra-wide snapper has autofocus and its photos are also among the best in the class. The portraits enhanced by the ToF camera are another thing tough to match. But the 5x optical zoom is the crown jewel of the camera and it even managed to surpass our expectations.
So, while a handful of phones already offer the wide-regular-telephoto combo, Huawei managed to retain its edge by expanding the reach of the last one. The combination of high image quality and the versatility of the cameras make the Huawei P30 Pro the new cameraphone king.
The competition
If such a complex camera system is not among your priorities though, then there are plenty of other options you can choose from.
The Samsung Galaxy S10+ is the first phone to come to mind when we think of alternatives. It has a higher-res Super AMOLED screen and a punch-hole dual-camera at the front. Its triple camera on the back is quite capable (ultra-wide, regular plus 2x zoom) though it does lack a night mode. It can do 4K at 60fps videos, though and the phone itself offers stereo speakers, 3.5mm jack, and a microSD card slot option.
The Google Pixel 3 XL also has a higher-res OLED screen but is powered by a previous generation Snapdragon 845 chipset. Its single camera excels in low-light and portraits and the selfie camera is arguably the best in the market. Plus, the pure Android experience is something many appreciate. But as far as versatility and creativity goes, P30 Pro is far ahead of the Pixel.
Sony Xperia 1 will launch in two months with a large and notch-free 4K OLED screen. It has the latest chipset and a triple 12MP camera on the back with ultra-wide, regular and tele modules. The Xperia 1 is still a couple of months away though and it's unclear if its cameras will be able to come close to the P30 Pro, but the high-res screen and unique aspect ratio may turn the tides for you. Or not.
Samsung Galaxy S10+ • Google Pixel 3 XL • Sony Xperia 1
The Xiaomi Mi 9 is a much cheaper alternative that lets you have three different focal lengths at half the price of the P30 Pro. The Mi 9 has a 6.4" Super AMOLED screen of the same 1080p resolution, the latest Snapdragon 855 chipset, and a very nice-looking glass design though not water resistant. Its triple camera is capable, though far from the level of the P30 - particularly when light is scarce.
Finally, if you like Huawei's phones and cameras, but want to save some money, the Mate 20 Pro or Mate 20 X may do it for you. Both have excellent triple-camera setups with 3x optical and 5x hybrid zoom. Both phones run on the same Kirin 980 chip and have some impressive battery backup. The Mate 20 Pro has a 6.39" 1440p OLED screen, while the Mate 20 X enjoys a 7.2" OLED even if it's a 1080p one. So, if the 5x optical zoom is not a must-have, you should check those out.
Xiaomi Mi 9 • Huawei Mate 20 Pro • Huawei Mate 20 X
The verdict
Huawei is already turning into the cameraphone benchmark for the whole industry. And the Huawei P30 Pro is exactly the next big thing everyone will be looking to beat.
But don't get us wrong - while photography is the Huawei P30 Pro's forte, it still excels at everything that you'd need from a modern smartphone - design, screen, performance and gaming, even battery life. It may not be without omissions, but those are much easier to forgive when you have that many strengths.
Pros
- Stunning color options and trendy design, water-resistant
- Excellent AMOLED screen with a tiny notch
- Fastest under-display fingerprint reader
- Fantastic battery life
- Flagship-grade performance
- Class-leading daylight and low-light camera performance
- Unmatched 5x optical zoom lens
- Super fast wired and wireless charging
Cons
- No 3.5mm audio port
- No 4K at 60fps video capture
- No stereo speakers
- Selfie camera is fixed-focus
- Huawei's NM memory cards are still far from mainstream
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