Huawei has just announced the Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro at an event in Paris today. Over the past few weeks, there have been lots of leaks about both phones but today’s event reveals new details. The Huawei P30 series, just like their predecessors are camera beasts and with what we have seen today, competitors have a lot of catching up to do.
Specs
The Huawei P30 has a 6.1-inch FHD+ (2340 x 1080) OLED DCI-P3 HDR display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The Pro version has a larger 6.47-inch FHD+ curved OLED display. Both screens have low-power consumption. The P30 Pro doesn’t have an earpiece, instead, it uses Acoustic Display Technology which emits sounds through the display using magnetic levitation.
Powering both phones is the Kirin 980 with up to 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. There is support for storage expansion using Huawei’s NM Card. Huawei has redesigned the tray: rather than a SIM tray where the two SIMs and or the NM Card are side-by-side, the tray of the P30 series is designed to fit in one Nano SIM on top and the NM Card or a second Nano SIM underneath.
The Huawei P30 Pro has an IP68 rating while the P30 has an IP53 rating. Both have an in-display fingerprint scanner which is 30% faster than that of the previous generation.
The P30 has a 3,650mAh battery with support for 22.5W fast charging while the P30 Pro has a 4,200mAh battery with support for 40W fast-charging and support for 15W wireless fast charging. The P30 might not have the Pro’s 40W fast charging but it has an audio jack.
Both phones run EMUI 9.1 based on Android Pie. We will have a separate article talking about the new features of EMUI 9.
Cameras
This is the selling point of the P30 and P30 Pro and Huawei doesn’t hold back on both devices. The P30 has three cameras – an 8MP f/2.4 3X telephoto lens, a 16MP f/2.2 ultra wide angle lens, and a 40MP f/1.8 wide angle lens. The P30 Pro has four – a 20MP f/2.2 ultra wide angle lens, a 40MP f/1.6 wide-angle lens, an 8MP f/3.4 5X telephoto, and a ToF depth-sensing camera.
For the selfie camera, both the Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro come with a 32MP sensor with AI HDR+.
Unlike other cameras that use an RGGB sensor, the Huawei P30 series use RYYB sensors. They are the first phones in the world to do so. The RYYB sensor is able to absorb 40% more light than the RGGB sensor. The sensor size is also bigger at 1/1.7 inches, 125% more than that of the Galaxy S10 Plus and the iPhone Xs Max.
The 40MP main camera and the 8MP telephoto lens on the P30 Pro both have OIS for better low-light performance. Both the P30 and P30 Pro also have the highest ISO value of any phone. Huawei shared some camera samples that show how both phones perform in low-light and even did a live demo during the launch. They really do blow the competition out of the water.
The P30 and P30 Pro are not only low-light camera champs but also masters of zoom. The P30 has 3X optical zoom, 5X hybrid zoom, and 30X digital zoom. The Pro model has 5X optical zoom, 10X hybrid zoom, and 50X digital zoom. Below are sample photos taking with the zoom lens. The SuperZoom lens also allows you to record timelapse videos from a distance.
[envira-gallery id=”242898″]Just like their predecessors, the P30 series have AIS which allows you to take professional long exposure photos without a tripod. The feature now also works in daytime. There is also a feature called Dual-View video which allows you to record a wide-angle and close-up view simultaneously.
The P30 Pro has a fourth camera – the ToF sensor which allows for better depth capturing for portrait images. With the ToF sensor, the P30 Pro has a new Pro-Bokeh mode for portrait images with a high level of detail. Both phones also have a 2.5cm super macro mode that allows you to capture close up images with incredible details.
Huawei didn’t fail to brag about its DxOMark scores too. The P30 Pro has a photo score of 119 and a video score of 97 for an overall score of 112. Notice that the video score of the P30 Pro is even lower than that of the P20 Pro?
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Price and Availability
The Huawei P30 is priced at €799 and that gets you 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The P30 Pro starts at €999 for the 8GB RAM + 128GB version, jumps to €1099 for the 8GB RAM + 256GB version and €1249 for the 8GB RAM + 512GB version. Both phones are available for purchase starting today.
