Huawei P30 Pro: A phone that still has to prove itself

Dominik Bärlocher

12.4.2019

Translation: machine translated

The specs sound a little old-fashioned and familiar. However, the Huawei P30 Pro is convincing. An initial expedition in the Parisian night shows that the P30 Pro is by no means bad, but the proof of its long-term quality has yet to be provided.

I don't really like the specs of the new Huawei P30 Pro. Nothing about it sounds particularly exciting. Kirin 980 system-on-a-chip, 8 GB RAM, 128 or 256 GB internal memory, expandable with a nano SD card, 6.47-inch diagonal curved AMOLED screen, 4200 mAh battery. Doesn't really knock my socks off now.

Nevertheless: I'm kind of interested in this thing. Because Huawei has tweaked a few things, and when CEO Richard Yu talks about his new flagship on stage in Paris, the usual enthusiasm of the charming man with the bad English is palpable. Especially when he talks about the P30 Pro's new camera system.

More cameras, more better?

That's why video producer Stephanie Tresch and I realised that we would be doing our first tests on Wednesday night. Especially low light shots. We want to see whether the four cameras really can do it as well as the images on the screen suggest.

The answer is the same as pretty much every answer to a question about the P30 Pro: We'll see. Because the potential is there, no question. Notre Dame Cathedral has rarely looked better in the dark. Every gargoyle, every ornament, every stone is illuminated in night mode. But it all looks so eerily artificial.

But in normal photo mode, where you let the camera's artificial intelligence (AI) decide on its own what it sees, the camera shines.

Clearly, the software's performance is impressive and it does little to nothing wrong. It accentuates colours where it needs to, brings out the tones it needs to and brightens everything up so that it looks like a really successful photo in the dark. Of course, because the four cameras can keep up to 409,600 ISO more or less stable and work with an F-stop of up to f/0.95. The software is also really good at creating a composite from night mode shots.

The problem: I don't like the pictures. The night mode images have nothing in common with night. They look like strangely lit pictures that were taken during the day. I like the aperture mode much better, where you simply open the lens up to f/0.95 and then take the picture.

Luckily, this is not the only aspect in which Huawei is looking for the best. Because there's also the matter of the zoom.

50x only with tripod please

The P20 Pro has recognised Stephanie cleanly, although it does fray her hair a little and the Hôtel de Ville looks as if it has been painted with watercolours. The image is good for social media or without much zoom.

The Aperture mode logically blurs the background, because a rule from photography goes something like this: the more Aperture, the more depth of field. Nevertheless, if the AI decides that the aperture mode has to go there, then it is making the wrong decision. So I force it into night mode.

When it comes to zoom, Huawei shows its inventive spirit and goes big. Optically, the P30 Pro has a 5x zoom. Hybrid zoom is still 10x and with digital support, the phone manages a 50x zoom. However, the latter is almost completely unusable without a tripod - you have to have a very steady hand to somehow get a good shot.

But that's the end of our expedition into the Parisian night. It's getting cold, windy and we have work to do: Stephanie has to edit the video you can see above and I have to write this text here.

Black is boring

Thus, a thesis: The Huawei P30 Pro is not a phone that impresses at first glance. It's not a phone that redefines the world or immediately knocks everyone's socks off. It is a phone that proves itself in use. A mobile that earns its place as a tool for everyday use, that doesn't get messy and lasts a long time.

Further, I must note that we have successfully managed to live in a world where a black mobile may look elegant and all, but comes across as boring as hell. Huawei has buried its black-to-purple colour gradient with the name Twilight and given it a successor. "Aurora" goes from green to blue and "Breathing Crystal" from white to violet and blue. Wow. Really. There is still an orange-red colour, but it's a bit too bold.

Your questions with answers

In the first article about Huawei's show in Paris, I asked you about your questions. Let me answer them as best I can after about six hours of testing
.

Also difficult to say after using the phone for six hours. It's certainly a solid upgrade, depending on where you prioritise your purchase, but I don't want to commit to a "yes" or a "no". Ask me again in a month or two.

The four cameras of the P30 Pro are:

1. 40MP, 1/1.7-inch quad sensor; F1.6 aperture, OIS, 27mm-equivalent
2. Tele: 8MP sensor, folded optics with F3.4 aperture, OIS, 125mm-equivalent
3. Super-wide: 20MP, F2.2 aperture, 16mm-equivalent
4. Time of Flight Camera for measuring and covering distances

The P30 has the following camera system installed:

1. 40MP, 1/1.7-inch quad sensor; F1.6 aperture, OIS, 27mm-equivalent
2. Tele: 8MP sensor, folded optics with F3.4 aperture, OIS, 125mm-equivalent
3. Super-wide: 20MP, F2.2 aperture, 16mm-equivalent

So, that's it. That's enough for today. We'll go out again tomorrow and test. If we discover anything else, we'll let you know. Otherwise we'll see you again for the review in a month or two. <p

Dominik Bärlocher

Senior Editor

dominik.baerlocher@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.

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