Huawei has a lot of affordable flagships in its portfolio and it just does not want to stop releasing this kind of devices. Today, the Nova 5 series debuted and it includes a new affordable flagship: the Nova 5 Pro. Now, there is nothing better than comparing it with other cheap high-end phones from Huawei. And the latest ones are the Honor 20 Pro and Huawei P30. Not the most affordable flagship phones from the company, but you can consider them middle way between the most powerful company’s flagships and the most affordable flagships such as the vanilla Honor 20. So these devices are perfect for people seeking the best performance without facing many compromises.

Huawei Nova 5 Pro vs Huawei P30 vs Honor 20 Pro

Huawei Nova 5 Pro Huawei P30 Samsung Galaxy S10
DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT 157.4 x 74.8 x 7.3 mm, 171 g 149.1 x 71.4 x 7.6 mm, 165 g 154.6 x 74 x 8.4 mm, 182 g
DISPLAY  6.39 inches, 1080 x 2340p (Full HD+), OLED 6.1 inches, 1080 x 2340p (Full HD+), OLED 6.26 inches, 1440 x 3040p (Full HD+), IPS LCD
PROCESSOR HiSilicon Kirin 980, octa-core 2.6 GHz Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 980, octa-core 2.6 GHz Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 980, octa-core 2.6 GHz
MEMORY  8 GB RAM, 128 GB –  8 GB RAM, 256 GB – Nano Memory Card slot 6 GB RAM, 128 GB – 8 GB RAM, 64 GB  – 8 GB RAM, 128 GB – 8 GB RAM, 256 GB, nano memory card slot 8 GB RAM, 256 GB
SOFTWARE  Android 9 Pie, EMUI 9.1 Android 9 Pie, EMUI Android 9 Pie, EMUI
CONNECTIVITY  Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS  Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS
CAMERA  Quad 48 + 16 + 2 + 2 MP, f/1.8, f/2.2, f/2.4 and f/2.4
32 MP f/2.0 front camera		 Triple 40 + 16 + 8 MP, f/1.8, f/2.2 and f/2.4
32 MP f/2.0 front camera		 Quad 48 + 8 + 16 +  2 MP, f/1.4, f/2.4, f/2.2 and f/2.4
32 MP f/2.0 front camera
BATTERY  3500 mAh, fast charging 40W with VOOC 3.0 3650 mAh, fast charging 22.5W 4000 mAh, fast charging 22.5W
ADDITIONAL FEATURES  Hybrid Dual SIM slot Hybrid Dual SIM slot Hybrid Dual SIM slot

Design

If you care about the aesthetics, the Honor 20 Pro is the perfect device for you. It has a punch-hole display which minimizes the bezels without the need of a notch, and an outstanding reflective glass back. You get a similar stunning glass back even on the Huawei P30 and the Huawei Nova 5 Pro, but they have a standard display with a waterdrop notch instead of a punch-hole one. However, Huawei P30 has two important advantages: it is splash and dust resistant, and it is a more compact phone than its siblings.

 

Display

While Honor 20 Pro is the winner when it comes to design, Huawei Nova 5 Pro and Huawei P30 come with a better display. Given that it is HDR10-compliant, Huawei P30 is able to deliver a better color reproduction with multimedia content, but on the other hand, the Huawei Nova 5 Pro has a bigger screen. The 6.1 inches of the Huawei P30 may be not sufficient for some advanced users, that is why we highlight this. Honor 20 Pro sits in the middle in terms of display size, but it has a classic IPS panel which can not reach their quality.

 

Hardware/Software

Huawei P30, Huawei Nova 5 Pro and Honor 20 Pro are all powered by the Kirin 980 chipset and they offer similar speeds and smoothness. That is essentially why we chose this trio for this comparison. Their most expensive variant even comes with the same memory configuration: up to 8 GB of RAM and up to 256 GB of internal storage. And all of them have Android 9 Pie out of the box. But unlike its Huawei sibling, the Honor 20 Pro does not feature an expansion slot.

 

Camera

Honor 20 Pro wins the camera comparison with the most complete and amazing camera setup. It comes with a quad camera on its back that includes OIS, up to 3x optical zoom and even a dedicated macro camera, as well as an ultrawide lens. The main sensor has a 48 MP resolution and the brightest focal aperture ever seen on a Huawei phone: f/1.4. That means it can shoot amazing photos even in low light scenes. The second place belongs to the Huawei P30 with its amazing RYYB sensor which is able to capture a lot of light as well, OIS and 3x optical zoom (it lacks the dedicated macro camera).

 

Battery

The battery award will probably go to the Huawei Nova 5 Pro: despite it comes with exactly the same battery capacity as the Honor 20 Pro (4000 mAh), the Nova 5 Pro has an OLED display which should have a lower energy consumption. Huawei P30 has just 3650 mAh, so it loses in most of the scenarios.

 

Price

Huawei P30’s price starts from €550/$625, Honor 20 Pro costs €600/$680 in the 8/256 GB configuration and Huawei Nova 5 Pro starts from €390/$445 in China. At the end of the day, my favorite one is the Honor 20 Pro due to its big battery, beautiful punch-hole design, big battery, and amazing cameras.

 

 

 

Huawei Nova 5 Pro vs Huawei P30 vs Honor 20 Pro: PRO and CONS

Huawei P30

PROS

  • Amazing cameras
  • Splash resistant
  • Great display
  • Compact

CONS

  • Smaller battery

 

Honor 20 Pro

PROS

  • Affordable price
  • Innovative design
  • Good cameras
  • Big battery

CONS

  • IPS display

 

Huawei Nova 5 Pro

PROS

  • Compact
  • Awesome display
  • Big battery
  • Great cameras

CONS

  • Limited availability

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