We tried to know if the Huawei P30 Pro is really as good as it seems and here’s what we found out in our review of the mobile device:
Design and Display
The first thing that we should mention about Huawei P30 Pro’s design is that it is claimed to have been inspired by nature. The Chinese smartphone brand has said that it has taken inspiration from elements in nature like salt flats and mineral deposits. We have to admit that it really seems to have worked in its favour as the handset is simply stunning to look at. The gradient back panel of the Huawei P30 Pro has three colours and it is made up of glass. Depending on how you look at the back panel of the smartphone, its colours appear to be swirling. The handset is available in Breathing Crystal and Aurora colour options and we got the former one for review. Huawei P30 Pro is 158mm tall and 73.4mm wide. With these dimensions, it is big compared to most other smartphones that are launched today. At 192 grams, the handset does seem heavy to hold, but at least for us, that’s not really a bad thing. The front, as well as the back panels of the smartphone, are made up of glass that is rounded on the sides. The metallic frame of Huawei P30 Pro lies between the two.
On the front, Huawei P30 Pro sports a 6.47-inch OLED display that has a notch on its top. A notable thing about the handset is that it comes without an earpiece. Instead, the entire upper half of the display vibrates to produce sound. Although we were sceptical about this at first, it worked perfectly well during our time with the smartphone. The screen of Huawei P30 Pro also has an in-display fingerprint scanner, but personally, we preferred to use the face unlock. We aren’t saying that the fingerprint scanner of the handset did not perform well, we just felt that most on-screen sensors are slightly slow in their working as compared to physical fingerprint scanners. Speaking of Huawei P30 Pro’s fingerprint scanner, it worked accurately during our time with it. The back panel of the smartphone houses the camera module, which comes with three of its four sensors. The fourth Time-of-Flight (ToF) depth sensor is placed right next to the module along with the dual LED flash. The right edge of the smartphone houses the power and volume buttons and the top has the infrared emitter. The bottom edge of the device has the USB Type-C port, SIM tray and a single speaker. The handset comes without a 3.5mm headphone jack, too. Huawei P30 Pro has the IP68 certification, which basically means that it is water and dust resistant. To conclude, we would say that Huawei has put in a lot of effort towards the design of the P30 Pro, and it shows. The device looks extremely premium. The back panel is simply beautiful and the front is dominated by the OLED display. Maybe it is too big to hold for some people, nonetheless, it wasn’t too big a problem for us. Coming to the display of the Huawei P30 Pro, we found it to be really amazing. The colours looked richer than they do on most other devices and the Blacks were deeper. You can choose between a Vivid colour profile and a Standard mode depending on which suits your taste better. In addition to this, you can also control the White Balance.
Needless to say, the image quality was flawless on the device and we spent hours playing games and watching videos because it was such a delightful experience. Some people may not like the notch on the top of the display, but we didn’t find it to be too troublesome. But then, we should point out that the sunlight readability of the smartphone could really be better. In a nutshell, we would say that the display is another aspect of the smartphone that can be considered as a plus. As we mentioned earlier, some people may prefer a full-screen experience at the given price, but then, that’s also got a lot to do with what your personal preference is.
Performance and Cameras
Let’s begin by talking about the specifications of the Huawei P30 Pro. The smartphone runs Android 9.0 Pie skinned with the company’s own EMUI 9.1 and is powered by Huawei’s Kirin 980 SoC. The handset comes with 8GB of RAM and is available with 256GB of internal storage. For imaging duties, Huawei P30 Pro comes with a quad-camera setup that comprises of a 40MP primary sensor with OIS and f/1.6 aperture, a 20MP wide-angle sensor with an f/2.2 aperture and OIS, an 8MP camera that is equipped with a periscope style zoom system and a ToF sensor.
The key highlight of the device is that it comes with support for HDR+ mode, 5X optical zoom, 10X hybrid zoom and 50X digital zoom. For selfies and video calls, Huawei P30 Pro features a 32MP sensor that comes with AI HDR+ with selfies and video calls. The smartphone houses a 4,200mAh battery and has support for reverse wireless charging. Huawei P30 Pro is the first smartphone that comes with EMUI 9.1 OS based on Android Pie. The skin does have some improvements over the EMUI 9.0. The visual elements of the UI have been revamped and the company has said that it has now included bigger icons. The handset comes with Huawei’s GPU Turbo 3.0, which enhances the performance of the device while running graphics hungry games like PUBG Mobile, Fortnite.
You will also find Huawei’s Android 9 Digital Wellbeing tool in the smartphone, but it is named as ‘Digital Balance’ by Huawei. The smartphone also has some pre-installed apps like Facebook, Messenger, Camera360, Netflix, Booking.com and some of the company’s own apps like Tips, Ride Mode, Notepad, SOS alerts, etc. Coming to the handset’s performance, as expected, it was flawless. Considering its price point, we obviously did not expect any lag in the day-to-day usage of the handset. We did a lot of multi-tasking on it and it was a cakewalk to handle it all for Huawei P30 Pro. We often used the device for playing graphics hungry games like Asphalt 9: Legends while the navigation was on. Then too, we faced no lag while. And even though the smartphone has a glass body, it did not heat up during our time with it, not even once. The only thing that did not work perfectly was the in-display fingerprint sensor. While it was accurate, it sometimes worked a little slowly. We wouldn’t really call it a downside, as this is the case with most on-screen fingerprint scanners.
As we have mentioned earlier, we played a number of games on the device. The simpler ones like Alto’s Odyssey ran like a breeze and we could even play the demanding ones like Asphalt 9: Legends without any hiccups. PUBG Mobile also ran smoothly on the smartphone. But then, with the internals that Huawei P30 Pro has, we didn’t expect it to be any different. Coming to the battery life of the smartphone, the device easily lasts more than a day with moderate usage that involved watching YouTube videos, gaming, using social media apps and making phone calls. We should mention that one thing that can really consume the battery of the device is its camera app. We did not see as much dip in the battery level as we did when we were using the camera app. Not even gaming drained that much juice. However, it is not really a downside considering that the 40W SuperCharger charges up to 60% battery in just 30 minutes. The call quality of the device was also good. Even in areas like basements and elevators, we faced no problems in making or receiving calls. The voice output was clear at all times. Finally, let’s talk about the main highlight of the Huawei P30 Pro, its Cameras. The handset comes with a 40MP primary ‘SuperSpectrum’ sensor that comes with an R-Y-Y-B filter for each of its pixel. Other than this, the P30 Pro smartphone comes with a 20MP ultra-wide-angle sensor and a Periscopic optical zoom camera that is actually the real star of the show and adds an entirely new level of capabilities to the device’s camera. The camera of the smartphone comes with a 5X optical zoom, a 10X Hybrid zoom and a 50X digital zoom. The fourth camera on the Huawei P30 Pro is a Time-of-Flight (ToF) depth sensor, which works when one is using AR apps on the device or while 3D scanning an object using the camera app. For selfies and video call, there is a 32MP sensor with an f/2.0 aperture on the handset that comes with beautification features. The company has also touted the AI enhancements of the camera app. AI is enabled automatically on the device and much like Huawei’s Mate 20 Pro, it helps in recognizing scenes, objects, landmarks, text and more. Using AI on the camera app, you can also get translations, estimated calorie counts in food, and more. There are a number of modes that are supported by the camera app of Huawei P30 Pro including Portrait mode, Aperture mode and Pro mode.
A post shared by Gadget Bridge (@gadget.bridge) on Apr 15, 2019 at 10:24am PDT If the camera is a deciding factor for you when it comes to making a choice about, which smartphone to buy, you can definitely go for the Huawei P30 Pro. The images clicked by the device are simply spectacular. They have rich colours and capture the tiniest of details. The performance of the camera remains consistent regardless of the lighting conditions. We clicked some beautiful images using the device in the day, as well as at night. Furthermore, indoor photography is also at par with outdoor photography on this mobile phone. The level of details that the camera can capture was simply amazing. The images remained crisp consistently with the primary sensor, wide-angle sensor or zoomed-in shots. Even the portraits that we clicked using the device were beautiful. Everything was just right, be it the colours, the sharpness or the richness. We clicked a number of zoomed-in shots on the device too. One thing we should point out here is that when we tried using the 50X zoom on Huawei P30 Pro smartphone, even a slight movement of the hand became very noticeable. Although the company has said that there is a stabilisation feature in the lens, it was still difficult to use. Till 30X zoom, the images turn out to be extremely clear. One may not even be able to guess if these pictures are zoomed in. However, at 50X, the results were not as clear. We noticed a slight distortion in some cases, but then, it did help us capture objects that were really-reeaallllyyy far away from us. During our time with the smartphone, we also clicked some images of the moon using the device’s camera. They really don’t look like they have been clicked from a smartphone’s camera because they have turned out to be amazingly clear. We are also sharing these images here with you, so you can let us know what you think of them.
A post shared by Gadget Bridge (@gadget.bridge) on Apr 20, 2019 at 2:09am PDT Coming to the 32MP selfie camera of the Huawei P30 Pro, it also managed to do a good job. We even tried taking some images from the depth effect and some with beautification on. We were quite happy with the overall results that we got.
Verdict
Huawei P30 Pro is priced at Rs 71,990. At this price, it competes directly with the likes of iPhone XS, Samsung Galaxy S10 and Google the Pixel 3 XL. We would say that if photography is what you look for in a smartphone, you would be very happy with Huawei P30 Pro because its camera is worth every penny. If you choose Huawei P30 Pro, you will also get a very long-lasting battery life, very smooth performance and amazing build quality and design. While these aspects can be found in other phones too, the camera is the key highlight of the device. Buy it for that and you would be happy to have spent Rs 71,990 on a smartphone. Pros
Brilliant photography Beautiful design Lasting battery life
Cons
Zoom camera can be more stable In display fingerprint scanner can be slow Display can be better
