These days, every new smartphone launch I attend feels like everything’s getting a bit monotonous. It’s a crowd out there – the same notch, dewdrop, couple more cameras, updated UI, blah de blah. But many times, what’s on paper does not really translate to awesomeness in real-world tests.
However, having said that, a few companies focus on adding innovation to their products and Huawei is one of them. The company has always focused on the photography aspect of the smartphone ever since it first launched its P series a good number of years ago.
The Huawei P30 Pro is yet another innovation – it comes packed with a quad camera module that includes a 40MP main camera with the Huawei SuperSpectrum Sensor, a 20MP ultra-wide angle camera, an 8MP telephoto camera, and a Huawei ToF Camera. On the front, you also get a 32MP snapper that takes beautiful selfies with ease.
On the front, the Huawei P30 Pro comes packed with a gorgeous 6.47-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a screen resolution of 1080-by-2340 pixels. The near bezel-less front glass also includes an in-screen fingerprint sensor for quick and secure identity authentication. The Huawei P30 Pro also features Huawei Acoustic Display Technology that enables it to deliver high-quality audio through a sound emitting display.
Under the hood, the P30 Pro is powered by the 7nm Kirin 980 processor. This is paired with 8 GB of RAM and a choice of either 128GB, 256GB or 512GB of internal storage capacity. As far as the battery is concerned, it is rated at 4200mAh. The Huawei P30 Pro runs on Android v9.0 (Pie) operating system with Huawei’s very own EMUI 9.1 running on top of it.
While it all looks good on paper, what about real-world tests? The stand out feature of the P30 Pro is its photography prowess. The 40MP main sensor on the P30 Pro comes with a wide f/1.6 lens. Furthermore the P30 Pro also finally offers OIS on the main sensor, something which has been lacking in Huawei’s earlier smartphones.
The Pr30 Pro also comes with a wide-angle module – a 20MP f/2.2 unit with a 16mm equivalent focal length. The P30 Pro also comes with a telephoto/zoom module, reaching an optical magnification factor of 5x, or a 135mm equivalent focal length.
In terms of design and build quality, the P30 Pro shares the same curved screen and back glass design, as seen on the Mate 20 Pro. On the right edge, you find the power and volume buttons. On the top, you get an IR blaster, while on the bottom, you get the dual SIM card tray (which can house a nanoSD card), the USB-C port and speaker grille.
Now, coming to the main feature of the P30 Pro – the cameras. Under good lighting conditions, the Huawei P30 Pro was able to deliver some amazing shots. The Night mode in the camera app really worked well, capturing some really good pictures under low light conditions. I was also impressed by the P30 Pro’s ability to images in 50X digital zoom. One word of caution, though – use a tripod when capturing images in the superzoom mode.
To gauge the real world performance of the P30 Pro, we ran a few benchmarks such as PCMark Work 2.0, 3DMark Sling Shot 3.1 Extreme Unlimited, and GFXBench Aztec Ruins. The Huawei P30 Pro was able to handle all tasks thrown at it with ease, thanks to the Kirin 980 processor and the 8GB of RAM.
Packing in a gorgeous display, excellent specs and outstanding photography prowess, Huawei has a winner in its hands.
Price: AED 3399
