Today during an event in Paris, Huawei unveiled its latest flagship smartphones. Called the P30 and P30 Pro, the devices offer beastly specs that make them proper 2019 contenders along with a few features that are new to the smartphone landscape.
Speaking of which, one of those features is the company’s new 10x zoom capability. It’s only available on the larger P30 Pro, but it’s pretty awesome nonetheless. It uses a hybrid zoom consisting of an 8MP periscope lens and software. The hardware offers the equivalent of a 135mm lens to achieve 5x zoom, while the software uses data collected from the other cameras to add detail and achieve 10x zoom. The software also powers up to 50x zoom, but at that level of zoom, it probably won’t work as well.
Of course, cameras are always an important focus for Huawei, and the P30 and P30 Pro aim to improve upon its legacy. They utilize a 40MP RYB main sensor opposed to an RGB sensor which can take in 40 percent more light. You also get a 125 percent larger sensor than the Galaxy S10 Plus or iPhone XS Max along with an f/1.6 aperture and dual OIS on the main lens and telephoto camera.
Huawei also claims it has the highest light sensitivity with the P30 Pro with an ISO of 409600. At 1 lux of light, the P30 will capture much brighter and more detailed low-light photos.
For wide-angle shots, there’s a 20MP sensor.
As for the rest of the phone, the P30 and P30 Pro share similar designs with glass on the front and back and metal rails along the sides. The former is IP53 rated, while the latter is IP67 rated. Huawei is using its now famous gradient color finishes on the back to add some shimmer and shine to the phones, and at least in the renders, they look really gorgeous.
On the front, you get a 6.1-inch OLED Full HD+ display with the P30 and a 6.47-inch Full HD+ OLED panel with the P30 Pro. Both offer in-display fingerprint readers and teardrop notches. This is different from what Samsung now offers with the Galaxy S10 family as they utilize hole-punch displays in the corner. Whether you like notches or not is really up to you, but at least the ones on the P30 and P30 Pro aren’t that offensive.
The P30 and P30 Pro’s screens also vibrate to provide audio playback. It replaces the traditional earpiece at the top and lines up with what LG offers with the G8 ThinQ. I have yet to try a phone with a vibrating screen that produces audio so I’ll let you know in the future if it works as well as companies promise.
Under the hood, Huawei packs in a Kirin 980 processor, up to 8GB of RAM, and up to 512GB of storage. With the P30, there’s a 3,650mAh battery inside, while the P30 Pro opts for a 4,200mAh cell. You also get wireless charging, reverse wireless charging, and USB-C fast charging.
Software wise, the P30 and P30 Pro come with EMUI based on Android Pie. Huawei isn’t exactly a leader in Western markets when it comes to software quality, so it should be interesting to see if they manage to improve things with this new generation.
Huawei has yet to announce pricing or availability for the P30 and P30 Pro, but we expect to hear about it soon. Stay tuned!
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