Huawei P30 Pro Review: It's all about the camera

The first thing that captures your attention is how beautiful the P30 Pro looks. It's built to turn heads, the unique back is stunning. We had the white gradient version, which Huawei claims is meant to represent the sun reflecting off salt flats. We don't know if this gradient is an accurate representation of a salt flat but it does look good. It certainly looks like an expensive phone. The materials used are mostly glass and metal, and this in turn gives the phone a nice tactile feel. It is a fingerprint magnet though. The P30 has also managed to do away with the top speaker grill and instead vibrates the screen to create sound. Though it sounds like a bad idea, the execution on the P30 is well done, and the sound was clear and in combination with the bottom speaker grill, was very loud. The curved OLED screen on the device looks elegant and reproduces colours vividly. The in-screen fingerprint scanner, though improved over the Mate 20 Pro, is still a little cumbersome to use.

The Huawei P30 Pro is focused primarily on the camera and there are many innovations in the quad camera setup designed by Leica. For starters, rather than the standard RGB (red, blue, green) sensor the phone has a RYYB (red, yellow, yellow, blue) sensor that pulls in more light. Through our tests, we find this to be true - night and low light images were brighter and had more details than any other phone in the market today. However, the dynamic contrast is a bit off and the phone struggled with pictures where there was a bright light in a low light picture. Maybe future software upgrades could solve this problem. The P30 is also exceptional with its zoom-in capabilities, thanks to the periscope zoom camera. The phone trumps everything out there right now. The phone also does a brilliant job with the digital zoom, allowing the camera to push beyond its 5X capability to get crisp images at 10X and superzoomed 50X images. However, the performance drops a bit in low light conditions.

The wide-angle is also satisfying to use, though Samsung's S10 Pro covers a larger area than the P30 Pro does. The superzoom introduced in the Mate 20 makes a comeback here and it doesn't disappoint. You can capture unbelievable macro pictures. The 32MP front camera also delivers decent images and works very well with the AR emoji. Images that come out of the RYYB sensor do feel like they lacked colour but do very well in image editing apps and seemed to capture a lot more textures and details than the S10 Pro. Videos also similarly benefited from the RYYB sensor. However, it must be noted that the P30 Pro doesn't support 4k60FPS, which is disappointing because other phones in this price range do. Inside, the phone features the same Kirin 980 processor found on the Mate 20 Pro and performs well in regular use. Videogames and applications load quick and work without lag. The 4200mAh battery has enough juice to last for more than a day and can quickly charge to around 80 per cent in 30 minutes. The phone also supports wireless charging and can charge other devices wirelessly just like the Mate 20 Pro.

The P30 runs on the latest version of EMUI 9.1, which is based on the latest Android. There are a few modification done to EMUI in this new update. The screen now features four icons in a row instead of five like it did in the Mate 20 Pro. The gesture capabilities have also improved, making them more practical and useful, though we do face some edge detection problems with a few apps. The Huawei P30 Pro along with its discounted Huawei Watch GT and one-time free screen replacement add some flavour to an otherwise expensive proposition. For the price of R71,990 the phone delivers on the camera, looks, battery and speed. While not 100 per cent in some areas, it comes very close. Overall, it's a solid phone if you are willing to spend
the money.

Log on to Spec sheet: https://bit.ly/hp30pspecs
Camera Samples: https://bit.ly/hp30psamples
Benchmarks: https://bit.ly/hp30pbench

Pros:

• The camera is amazing
• Packed with features
• Looks beautiful

Cons:

• Camera software needs more work
• Onscreen £ Fingerprint scanner needs to improve
• Expensive

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