Huawei’s latest top-end phone, the P30 Pro, has a genuinely groundbreaking new quad camera system on the back with amazing low-light performance and the first 5x optical zoom enabling a practically spycam-like 50x digital zoom. The new £900 phone, from the firm that continues to be at the centre of a political storm, has the familiar metal frame, curved glass and all-screen design of 2018-19. New for the P30 Pro are some stunning colour options, including the pearlescent oil slick-like “breathing crystal” and the eye-popping amber sunrise. If you want a phone that gloriously embraces colour, this is it. Stretching 6.47in from corner to corner, with a small tear-drop notch at the top, the FHD+ OLED is massive and beautiful, only beaten out by Samsung’s high resolution stunner on the Galaxy S10+. Amber sunrise on the left, breathing crystal on the right. Bright, eye-catching colour options that offset the all-black front nicely. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian Build quality is exceptional. The glass back is slippery on fabric, but OK in the hand, even if it is a fingerprint magnet. A clear plastic case is included in the box in most regions. There’s no earpiece speaker. Instead the whole screen vibrates to produce your call audio, which is indistinguishable from a regular speaker. Despite the phone’s huge screen, the P30 Pro is still fairly manageable thanks to its narrow width. At 73.4mm wide, it is narrower than all of the similarly-sized competition, including the 77.4mm wide iPhone XS Max and 74.1mm Samsung Galaxy S10+, even if it is a smidgen wider than the 72.3mm Mate 20 Pro. The P30 Pro weighs 192g, though, which puts it on the heavy side, only surpassed by the 208g iPhone XS Max. Specifications Screen: 6.47in FHD+ OLED (398ppi) Processor: octa-core Huawei Kirin 980 RAM: 8GB of RAM Storage: 128 or 512GB plus nano memory card Operating system: EMUI 9.1 based on Android 9 Pie Camera: quadruple rear camera 40MP, 20MP ultra-wide angle, 8MP telephoto, ToF depth, 32MP front-facing camera Connectivity: LTE, Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 5 and GPS (dual-sim available in some regions) Water resistance: IP68 Dimensions: 158 x 73.4 x 8.41 mm Weight: 192g High performance, long battery life The USB-C port in the bottom is flanked by the sim-tray and mono speaker. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian The guts of the P30 Pro are identical to the Mate 20 Pro: Huawei’s own Kirin 980 processor and 8GB of RAM. As such performance was identical. Snappy, fast and smooth all over, including in long gaming sessions. It easily kept up with the best of the rest. Huawei has made a name for itself with long battery life and it continues to stand head and shoulders above the rest. With heavy usage it lasted just under 35 hours between charges, meaning it would make it all the way from 7am on day one until 6pm on day two. That was as my primary device with the usual deluge of email, messages and push notifications, lots of browsing, five hours of Spotify via Bluetooth headphones, watching 90 minutes of offline movies, 30 minutes of gaming and shooting about 20 photos a day. Even when used as a primary navigation aid and camera on holiday, it never once got below 15% by midnight. With lighter usage the P30 Pro should manage 48 hours between charges, or far longer with one of the specialised power-saving modes active. A full charge took less than an hour, reaching 70% in just over 30 minutes via cable. It also has fast 15W wireless charging and wireless power sharing for charging some other Qi-compatible devices. EMUI 9.1 Huawei’s gesture navigation is one of the better options on Android. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian The P30 Pro runs Huawei’s latest version of EMUI 9.1, which is the company’s version of Android 9 Pie. It looks and behaves almost identically to EMUI 9 on the Mate 20 Pro. EMUI 9.1 has slightly refined gesture navigation options, which work very well, swiping in from either left or right side of the screen for back, up from the centre of the bottom of the screen for home, or up and hold for recently used apps. Swipe up from the bottom left or right to activate Google Assistant. The only thing missing is a quick way to get immediately back to the previously used app, as double-tapping the old overview button did. The traditional three-button navigation bar is available if you don’t like gestures and there are many other customisation options including full theme support. EMUI’s strengths are long-term performance and battery life, with extensive automatic and manual suppression systems that stop apps draining battery in the background. Occasionally that means you miss notifications, but EMUI is getting better at alleviating the problem and a little tweaking of the per-app power saving settings can make sure your WhatsApps or Guardian push notifications get through. Overall, Huawei is making gradual improvements, giving a fairly refined experience, but it still lags behind Google, OnePlus or Samsung in look and feel for a western audience. The speed of updates is also not the best in the industry. Fingerprint scanner The optical fingerprint scanner is embedded in the bottom section of the screen. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian In-screen fingerprint scanners are all the rage at the moment as they free-up space on the device while keeping them in a convenient position on the front. The P30 Pro has Huawei’s next iteration of its optical fingerprint scanner. It’s faster, more accurate and easier to hit with muscle memory, being further down the screen than the Mate 20 Pro. It’s still not as fast nor secure as traditional capacitive fingerprint scanners, but I found it fast and reliable enough to use without looking, making it a worthwhile trade-off. Camera The camera app is fairly simple to use, which most options available with a swipe. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian Large, meaningful steps forward in smartphone photography are fairly rare, but with the P30 Pro Huawei’s managed two of them in one device. The new Leica quad-camera system dramatically improves both zoom and low-light performance. The 40-megapixel wide angle and 20-megapixel ultra-wide angle cameras are joined by a brand new 8-megapixel telephoto camera that uses a prism to direct light sideways into the body of the phone for a 5x optical zoom lens. The fourth camera is a 3D depth-sensing system called a time of flight (ToF) camera used for portrait effects and other bits. The combination of cameras is truly outstanding. The ultra-wide angle camera is a lot of fun, producing some really interesting shots. But it is the 5x optical zoom that is unmatched by rivals, getting you far closer to your subject without using hybrid or digital zoom. Then there’s the up to 10x hybrid zoom on top, with uses the other cameras to fill in detail. In good light the differences between hybrid and the 5x optical zoom are small. If that wasn’t enough, you get a 50x digital zoom, which is visibly inferior to the optical and hybrid, but is still good enough to read text from quite some distance or spot people on a distant hilltop. Allow Instagram content? This article includes content provided by Instagram . We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Allow and continue I used it as a surrogate for a pair of binoculars on several occasions to great effect. Getting to the various zoom levels is easy but holding a 50x zoom steady enough to keep your target in view takes a little practice. The second big leap is in low-light photography. Using a new camera sensor system that ditches green for yellow pixels, Huawei has been able to dramatically improve light absorption and the results are miraculous. Ordinary point-and-shoot shots without using a dedicated night or long exposure mode can all but turn night into day illuminating full detail and colour in scenes where the human eye struggles. Google managed a similar feat with its Night Sight mode, but that takes several seconds to take an image. The P30 Pro does better with an instant snap. Four cameras on the back, three in the lump including the new 5x optical zoom camera, and one next to it below the flash. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian In terms of camera image quality, the results are equally impressive, matching or beating rivals in almost every scenario. Google’s Pixel still produces better detail and contrast in HDR images but only just. You can point and shoot the P30 Pro at almost anything and get a good image. Huawei’s Master AI system is also improved, but I never really felt the need to engage it – the images were mostly right without. Even the 32-megapixel selfie camera in the small notch on the front of the device is great, capturing a good amount of detail and managing variable lightning conditions well despite being fixed-focus. Observations Curved glass and slim bezels meet a squared-off end for an attractive but familiar design. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian With gesture navigation enabled, sometimes I activated Google Assistant when reaching for the punctuation slider in Gboard while typing quickly There’s a mic hole right next to the sim tray - do not poke the sim ejector in there by accident or risk ruining the mic The vibrating haptic feedback is nice and staccato, although not quite as sharp as Google’s or Apple’s phones It has a single speaker in the bottom, which is fairly loud and clear There’s no headphone socket, just a USB-C socket in the bottom Dual-sim support is available in some regions plus a nano memory card slot Price The Huawei P30 Pro has an RRP of £899.99 with 128GB of storage or £1,099.99 with 512GB. For comparison, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro costs £729 with 128GB storage, the 128GB Samsung Galaxy S10+ costs £899, the 64GB Google Pixel 3 XL costs £719 with 64GB, the 64GB iPhone XS Max costs £1,099, 128GB Honor View20 costs £449 and the 64GB OnePlus 6T costs £499. Verdict Huawei is no stranger to hyperbole, but not for the first time experience matches up to the claims. The P30 Pro genuinely marks a massive leap forward for smartphone cameras with game changing low-light performance and a remarkable new zoom technology. Both make meaningful, useful additions to your photographic arsenal, giving the P30 Pro the best camera available. It’s flexible, powerful and above all, super-fun to use. Which surely is the point. The rest of the phone is excellent, too, if not that dissimilar to the older Mate 20 Pro. Battery life remains competition-beating. It’s snappy, bright and beautiful, and even Huawei’s EMUI software is improving. Despite being fairly narrow and therefore easier to handle than rivals with similar screen sizes, there’s no getting around the fact that the P30 Pro is a pretty large phone. Smaller hands will struggle. At £900, the P30 Pro is certainly a premium smartphone. But if your priorities are performance, battery life and camera capability, the Huawei P30 Pro is the best phone you can buy right now and will take some beating. Pros: incredible low-light camera, amazing zoom, fun ultra-wide angle camera, long battery life, in-display fingerprint scanner, wireless charging, reverse wireless charging, good processor, stunning colour options Cons: EMUI not to everyone’s taste, nano memory not microSD, expensive, no headphone socket, no stereo speakers, HDR not as good as Google’s The small notch at the top contains the selfie camera. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian Other reviews<doc-sep>(Pocket-lint) - Something happened in 2018 that took a lot of people by surprise: Huawei, after its years of tinkering and P-series iterations, introduced the best phone camera on the market. The following year, in 2019, the P30 Pro went about by tearing up the rule book and going big on photography. However, the Chinese company has been battling to hold onto its 'king of the camera phones' crown, what with Google introducing the incredible Night Sight mode in its Pixel phones, Samsung pushing multiple cameras in its A9 and great in-device processing in its Galaxy S10+, and Oppo now showing very similar technology in its Reno 10x Zoom. The P30 Pro doesn't muck about though. By implementing a Leica Quad Camera system - which marries ultra-wide, super-high resolution and genuine zoom alongside a Time-of-Flight (ToF) camera - the Chinese company succeeded in implementing the most versatile camera in any phone before any other maker. The iPhone is only at three cameras even years after. Of course, there have been US trade war issues that have caused people to baulk at the idea of Huawei phones, because its newser handsets - such as the Mate 30 Pro and follow-up to this reviewed handset, the P40 Pro - can't support Google Play services (i.e. no Play Store). But as that political pantomime gets sorted out - and we hope it does - we still think the P30 Pro is a great phone. Whether or not it happens to be a kind-of swan song... squirrel_widget_147530 6.47-inch OLED Huawei FullView Display, FHD+ resolution (2340 x 1080), 19.5:9 aspect ratio Finishes: Breathing Crystal, Amber Sunrise, Aurora, Pearl White, Black No front-facing speaker, uses magnetism vibrations for audio Dimensions: 149.1 x 71.4 x 7.6mm / Weighs: 165g Optical in-screen fingerprint scanner IP68 water- and dust-resistant No 3.5mm headphone jack Teardrop notch With many saying the hole-punch camera would be the dominant force, Huawei thinks different: the P30 Pro has a small 'dewdrop' notch front and centre. Thing is, the Huawei's screen choice, at 6.47-inches, is so massive that this little black-out area to the top where the front-facing camera is housed is barely noticeable. Flip a coin, really, it's six of one half a dozen of the other - and we've barely noticed the difference between this and a punch-hole camera like you'll find in, say, the OnePlus 8. At least the Pro isn't a slider phone, like the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3, which would make for a bulky, dust-grabbing form factor. However, the P30 Pro is far chunkier than the P20 Pro from before, for the simple fact that the newer phone houses a massive battery under the hood. It's 4,200mAh, which given how well the Mate 20 Pro proved in performance terms with the same battery capacity, is great. The P30 Pro lasts for an age - but more on that later. Ultimately, the P30 Pro is a larger, beefier version of the P20 Pro that it replaces. That larger screen has a narrow aspect ratio, though, so it's easy to hold and puts it on par with the other sizeable screens we're seeing - take a look at the Samsung Galaxy S20+ as one obvious example - including Huawei's own curved-edge P40 Pro follow-up. Despite this physical size, Huawei has foregone cramming more pixels into the Pro's screen - which we think could be seen as a mistake. Imagine being able to watch crisper streams from Netflix, or zoom into those photos with extra eye-popping detail? Samsung offers a 3200 x 1440 resolution in its S20+ (even the at-the-time comparison with the S10+ was higher), which it turns off by default for the sake of battery life, and Huawei could easily have offered a similar solution for the best of both worlds, going high-res only when really needed or requested. Visually, however, the P30 Pro is a stunner. Shown here in its 'Breathing Crystal' finish - we know, marketing names have to be a bit silly, right? - it's a gradient finish with a pearlescent sheen. It's a fingerprint magnet, though, as is to be expected these days, but keep it clean and that surface sure does sing. There is are more conventional black option, or if you're looking to go the opposite way then the orange Amber Sunrise is a hot look (well, maybe, it's not as lary as it looks in press photos - as we discovered when first seeing some samples at the P30 Pro launch event in Paris). An even more up-to-date option, the P30 Pro Ultimate Edition, appeared in 2020 as Huawei's sort-of protest phone. This gets around the Google Services issue, as it's "old" hardware at this point, but does feature the fingerprint-resistant finish of the P40 Pro, called Silver Frost, which is a favourite. The P30 Pro's design embodied some new ideas when it was launched. Look up by that dewdrop notch and you won't see a speaker crammed into the edge next to it, because the P30 Pro doesn't have one. Instead, by using magnets to create vibrations in the screen, you'll hear audio projected into your ear. We've seen and tested this feature in the Vivo Apex 2019 concept phone - and it's impressive to say the least. It works, too, as we've found in long-winded calls with our credit card company (buying these pricey phones brings inevitable financial woes, eh? ). It does mean, however, that the P30 Pro's bottom-edge-only speaker sees the phone lag behind some of its competition when it comes to audio. We weren't expecting gaming-quality stereo output as per the Razer Phone 2, but the Google Pixel 4 XL is notably better with its stereo setup and output than this Huawei. Pocket-lint The P30 Pro also updated Huawei's in-screen fingerprint scanner, by offering with an optical solution. It's easy to register, quick and accurate to log-in - but not a patch on how incredibly fast that aforementioned Vivo phone is (really, you need to look at our video to get an idea of that speed). At least in-screen scanners are now of good quality, though, which shows how far Huawei has come in a short period of time - since the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS and its so-so scanner just a few years ago. Leica Quad Camera system, SuperSensing main sensor Optical stabilisation (OIS) for main and zoom lenses Main: 40MP, 27mm, f/1.6 Wide: 20MP, 16mm, f/2.2 Zoom: 8MP, 5x periscope zoom, 125mm, f/3.4 10x hybrid zoom, not optical Time-of-Flight (ToF) for depth Front-facing selfie camera: 32MP Now, on to the main event. The P30 Pro is really pitched as a camera phone. And it has a whole heap of interesting things to offer in this department. At the time of launch there was nothing better - but since then the competition has rallied hard to play catch-up. Principal to these is the so-called SuperSensing sensor, which functions entirely different to most conventional sensors. This is going to get a little bit deep, so hold onto your brains for a moment. Best smartphones 2021 rated: The top mobile phones available to buy today By Chris Hall · 27 May 2021 Most camera sensors have what's called a Bayer array - a four piece grid that delivers red, green, blue and green (RGBG) light frequency adsorption to the pixel sites below, with the camera then able to decipher full colour information from these readings. Huawei has done away with this in place of a red, yellow, blue, yellow (RYBY) array. Why? Because yellow light frequency is more sensitive, thus can capture more information for a more detailed result. Now that's the theory, but it's the results that are really interesting. As the P30 Pro can do so much, we've broken this camera review section into sub-sections. For most, it'll be the quad camera system setup that's most interesting, because it's this variety of lenses that allow for greater versatility in capture. Pocket-lint There's the 16mm wide-angle lens, as per the Mate 20 Pro, which squeezes lots into the frame. We love this wide-angle for the dramatism it can add to a scene - although the edges are softer than the centre by a long way and there's some colour shifting towards these peripheries too. Then there's an ultra-high resolution main sensor - it only captures 40MP when you tell it; 10MP is the default as it can super-sample for better results - which delivers really detailed shots. Huawei is glutton for over-sharpening images, but in the P30 Pro the majority of the time the results are spot on. The only downer is when switching between these lenses and seeing inconsistency between colour and exposure. The camera can also 'jump around' while the optical stabilisation kicks in, which looks a bit odd on screen. The key lens to the Pro is the one that offers 5x optical zoom, used as a 10x digital zoom when needed, which pulls on the data from the other main camera to assist with software enhancing the zoom result. The 5x optical zoom is mighty impressive, presenting a good level of detail considering the periscope zoom mechanism used. It's not pin-sharp at 100 per cent, but we've seen no other phone produce shots this crisp at an equivalent focal range. Well, there is now the Oppo Reno 10x Zoom to consider, but Huawei got there first. Pocket-lint : 16mm wide-angle16mm wide-angle Beyond 5x zoom things from the P30 Pro need to be taken within the context of a phone camera proposition though. The 10x hybrid zoom is fine - it's clearly not 'lossless' as Huawei claims, you only need to look at the frames in full size to see this - but the level of detail that's decipherable in this mode is impressive, even if it lacks genuine bite and sharpness. Beyond this, Huawei offers up-to-50x digital zoom. It's entertaining, but the results aren't really worthwhile for much, given how soft things become as a result of the upscaling. It's darn hard to hold the thing steady at this kind of zoom too. Sure, nothing else on the market can compete with that, but really it's the 5x zoom that hits the sweet spot. You might think you've ever really wanted to use such a zoom, but the moment you begin to see the possibilities it brings, it'll be hard to move on to a phone with a camera any less sophisticated. It's great for candid shots and great for seeing different composition options. The P30 Pro is easy to use too. Selecting between wide, 1x, 3x, 5x and 10x is as simple as tapping the on-screen zoom circle icon (with a prompt as to what the current zoom is). If you're more a pinch-to-zoom operator then that's also possible, making those zoom levels between 1x and 5x easily achievable (though we must admit, we do miss the standard 3x optical zoom of the P20 Pro in that regard). Huawei being Huawei, though, there are a variety of options available to toggle on and off. There's a colour setting - which selects between standard, vivid and smooth colours - and Master AI top and centre which uses learned data to auto-recognise scenes and adjust exposure, select settings and tweak colours as it thinks is best appropriate. Master AI definitely has its uses, but it's not always desirable. It will present the mode it believes is appropriate - such as Super Macro, Text, Blue Sky, and so forth - which you can deactivate on-screen by hitting a little cross next to the auto-selected mode. The camera is supposed to learn if its recognition is incorrect when repeat presses occur. But we've seen plenty of errors: our dining table was a 'waterfall', apparently, while we've seen fruit mistaken for 'moon' and other such comical capers. Many will like the simplicity that AI offers with its enhancement of exposure and colours, though, so we can certainly see why it exists. When it comes to shooting subjects up close, the P30 Pro can get really close. With the standard lens, we're talking just a few centimetres from the subject. But that's not all: the 5x zoom lens can also focus up close too.<doc-sep>
Photography champion Huawei P30 Pro Mainstream choice Samsung Galaxy S10+ The P30 Pro makes a compelling case for the best camera phone of 2019. With an all-new 40MP camera that takes stunning photos in daylight and low-light conditions and a zoom lens that goes all the way up to 10x without any loss in quality, the P30 Pro is a photography tour de force. The P30 Pro also has a vibrant display backed by top-notch performance and two-day battery life with 40W fast charging. $900 at eBay Pros 10x zoom is exhilarating Re-engineered 40MP primary camera 4200mAh battery with 40W fast charging Gorgeous design Top-notch specs Cons Optical in-display sensor is slow Too tall for one-handed use Not available in the U.S. The Galaxy S10+ will be the default choice for many purely based on availability. Samsung has once again done a fantastic job with the design, with the Infinity-O cutout at the front minimizing bezels significantly. The performance is right up there with the best that Android has to offer, but what sets the S10+ apart is the Dynamic AMOLED display. It is without a doubt the best screen you'll find on any phone today. $850 at Samsung Pros Best display on a phone today Top-tier hardware Outstanding cameras Headphone jack Cons Average battery life Expensive The Galaxy S10+ made its debut just a month ago, but it's already in danger of being upstaged. Huawei has steadily been raising its flagship game over the last 18 months, and the P30 Pro is its strongest showing yet. So does Huawei have what it takes to win against the best Android phone in the market today? Let's find out. P30 Pro and Galaxy S10+ are two of the most feature-rich phones today Both Huawei and Samsung have done a fantastic job with the design of their flagships. The P30 Pro retains the gradient pattern from last year, with new color options added to the mix. The Aurora option I'm using switches between various hues of blue, and it looks striking. Up front there's a tiny waterdrop cutout for the camera, and the earpiece is now built into the display, much like what Vivo and LG are doing. Samsung, meanwhile, has set the standard for industrial design over the years, and the Infinity-O cutout on the S10+ is a novel way of eliminating bezels. The design at the back hasn't changed all too much in recent generations, but the new colors on offer with the S10+ give it an added elegance. The P30 Pro is able to keep up with the Galaxy S10+ on features — that's no small feat. The P30 Pro has a 6.47-inch OLED display with curved edges, and while the panel is vibrant, it loses out to the Galaxy S10+. Samsung has been making the best panels in the business for several years now, and the Galaxy S10+ offers the best display you'll find on any phone today. The Dynamic AMOLED panel is gorgeous, with excellent contrast levels and saturated colors. It's so good that making the switch from the S10+ to the P30 Pro made my initially feel that the P30 Pro's screen is lackluster. As for other features, both phones offer wireless charging as well as reverse wireless charging. Huawei was the one to kickstart the reverse wireless charging trend last year, and Samsung followed suit with the S10+. Both also have large batteries, with the P30 Pro featuring a 4200mAh unit and the S10+ a 4100mAh battery. Although battery capacity is nearly the same on both devices, the P30 Pro offers much better battery life thanks to a lower-res FHD+ panel and EMUI's aggressive memory management. And when you do need to top up, Huawei's 40W charger is considerably faster than the 15W solution Samsung offers on the S10+. Both phones also have IP68 dust and water resistance, and the S10+ also retains the 3.5mm jack, one of very few flagships to still do so. And while both manufacturers offered secure facial recognition systems on their previous flagships that is no longer the case. Samsung got rid of iris scanning for a standard face unlock system on the S10+, and Huawei similarly has software-driven face unlock on the P30 Pro. Neither is as secure as a fingerprint sensor, and to their credit both Samsung and Huawei mention as much while setting up face unlock. As for fingerprint authentication, the S10+ is using ultrasonic tech while Huawei is sticking to an optical sensor.