Huawei introduced last year (2019, March) the new P30 series, from which we already had the opportunity to analyze the Huawei P30 Pro a few weeks ago. On this occasion, we have with us the middle brother of the “P” range, the Huawei P30.
The Huawei P30 is available with design and hardware very similar to that of its older brother «Pro». However, Huawei has made some cuts in the sections of the camera, battery charger, and others to reduce the price, while recovering the headphone jack.
The Huawei P30 arrives with a 6.1″ Full HD + AMOLED screen, Kirin 980 processor, 6GB of RAM, 128 GB (expandable via NM Card), 40MP + 16MP + 8MP triple rear camera, 32MP front camera and 3,650 battery mAh with fast charge.
Huawei P30 Review, Price and Specifications
Huawei usually launches several variants of its flagship smartphones, which maintain some of the features of the most powerful model but present cuts in others to offer a more affordable price.
Like the Huawei P30 Pro, the Huawei P30 has a sophisticated metal and glass construction. However, the Huawei P30 has a more compact size and, therefore, is more manageable.
The Huawei P30 is available in Amber Sunrise, Breathing Crystal, Pearl White, Aurora and Black finishes. The variant in Black color is somewhat bland, but the Breathing Crystal and Aurora variants produce original light reflections that make it stand out against any other smartphone.
On the front, we find a 6.1″ screen surrounded by a fairly narrow frame that expands at the top to give a “waterdrop” type notch that houses the front camera.
Unlike the P30 Pro, the screen of the P30 is not curved at the sides but is completely flat, so the side frames are more visible.
The glass back cover itself is curved on the sides and, as is common in this type of finish, fingerprints tend to be marked very easily.
Huawei has included an on-screen fingerprint reader, which usually identifies the fingerprint at the first attempt but the unlocking process is slightly slower than a conventional reader.
The area where you must place your finger is quite small and, even with the Always-On screen active, it is not marked until you place your finger, which makes it difficult to get the exact position (at least until you get used to it). In any case, Huawei also gives the possibility of 2D facial recognition.
Huawei has incorporated an OLED panel that offers high sharpness despite having Full HD + resolution. The screen of the P30 offers a wide range of colors, since it not only covers sRGB color range but also the wider Display P3 range, commonly used in the film industry, and is also compatible with HDR content.
In the normal color mode, the screen offers spectacular color fidelity and an almost pure white color, with hardly any color tint. If we opt for the vivid color mode, the color fidelity worsens because, as the name itself indicates, the colors are oversaturated (although many people prefer unreal colors).
The maximum brightness of the screen is around 580 nits (measured with the screen fully illuminated in white and under intense light), which means a high level of brightness, although slightly below some other high-end smartphones. Since it has an OLED panel, the black color is pure and the contrast is very high (theoretically infinite).
The screen offers Always On Display mode that permanently displays the time and other data of interest such as battery level and notification icons. It is possible to wake up the screen with a double-tap on it, as well as make it turn on immediately when a notification arrives.
The Huawei P30 has a Kirin 980 processor manufactured in a 7 nm process, which means that it consumes less energy and is more powerful than other processors of previous generations.
This processor has eight cores: two powerful Cortex-A76 high performance 2.6 GHz cores, two high efficiency Cortex-A76 cores at 1.9 GHz and four Cortex-A55 cores with extreme efficiency at 1.8 GHz. In addition, it has an NPU dual, which accelerates operations related to artificial intelligence.
The Huawei P30 is accompanied by 6 GB of RAM, an amount that should be enough to have no problems when doing multi-task.
In the CPU test, the Huawei P30 has obtained high scores but below what other high-end smartphones launched in 2019 with Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9820 processors get.
In the day-to-day, the Huawei P30 runs smoothly. I have not experienced delays or stops when it comes to scrolling through the interface, loading heavy apps or doing multitasking.
The 3D graphics performance is good but again it falls below other high-end smartphones in the synthetic tests.
However, I have tried three demanding 3D games such as Asphalt 9, Dead Effect 2 and PUBG, and in all of them, very high average refresh rates have been measured, close to 30 or 60 FPS, depending on the limitations of the title.
Therefore, today, if you are fond of games, you will have no problem enjoying the most demanding 3D titles.
The Huawei P30 is available only with 128 GB of storage, a sufficient amount to store a large number of photos, videos, and applications. However, if you need more capacity, Huawei has added the possibility of expanding storage with a card of a proprietary format called NM Card that offers an expansion of up to 256 GB.
In the connectivity aspect, the Huawei P30 is well served with WiFi 802.11 b / g / n / ac (wave2), Bluetooth 5 (compatible with aptX, aptX HD, LDAC and HWA), 4.5G / LTE and NFC. However, it lacks an infrared transmitter and does not have an FM radio.
The Huawei P30 has a 3,650 mAh battery that, in tests, has obtained good autonomy compared to other high-end smartphones.
In addition, it has a 22.5W SuperCharge fast charge that, without being as fast as the 40W charge of the P30 Pro, allows you to fully recharge your phone in about an hour and a half. Unfortunately, Huawei has decided to dispense with wireless charging in this model.
In the multimedia aspect, Huawei has incorporated Dolby Atmos compatible sound when using headphones and also includes the desired 3.5 mm jack. We did not find stereo speakers but the only speaker present is the one next to the USB-C connector.
Focusing on the phone software, Huawei incorporates its own customization layer, EMUI 9.1 on Android 9 Pie, which in my opinion is somewhat confusing and offers applications such as Gallery or Music that completely overlap with those already included in Google as standard.
EMUI adds features that complement Android as a carousel of wallpapers, additional energy-saving modes, granular control of application permissions, one-handed operation, twin application, private space, application blocking, file safe, projection in Desktop mode wirelessly or backup.
Focusing on the photographic section, Huawei has incorporated a triple rear camera developed together with Leica.
The triple camera is formed by a 40 MP main camera (f/1.8) with a new SuperSpectrum sensor capable of capturing more light but without optical stabilization, an ultra-wide 16MP camera ( f /2.2) and a 3X telephoto camera of 8 MP (f/2.4) with optical stabilization.
Starting with the main camera, its performance in conditions of sufficient light is excellent. When the light is scarce, the result is quite good but the absence of optical stabilization and the lower aperture take its toll and the result is not as good as we would like.
The presence of the ultra-wide-angle camera provides great versatility, especially when it comes to capturing monuments and buildings or taking group photographs without having to get too far away. In travel, it becomes a perfect ally, although you have to be careful with the corners as it tends to distort the perspective.
The third camera is the telephoto camera that offers a 3X optical magnification and allows us to get closer to details that would otherwise be impossible to capture.
When recording video, the Huawei P30 offers 4K recording at 30 fps and 1080p at 30/60 fps but cannot record 4K video at 60fps. The recording has a good quality and the stabilization is excellent.
The front camera has a resolution of 32MP and captures selfies with good quality. It allows you to take selfies in Portrait mode as well as, of course, apply a beauty effect.
In conclusion, the Huawei P30 is a highly recommended smartphone if you are looking for a smartphone with a design that falls in love, a screen at the height of the best, a very versatile camera and high autonomy.
Is it worth taking the P30 Pro? If you are going to get a lot out of the camera, the P30 Pro is one step above and also offers some additional improvements such as wireless charging and faster charging.
Huawei P30 Full Specifications
| SIZE | Width:71.36mm Height:149.1mm Depth:7.57mm Weight: Approx. 165g (including the battery) |
| COLOUR | Amber Sunrise Breathing Crystal Pearl White Aurora Black |
| DISPLAY | Size: 6.1 inches Colour: 16.7 million colours Colour Gamut: Wide Color Gamut(DCI-P3) Type: OLED Resolution: FHD+ 2340*1080 |
| PROCESSOR | HUAWEI Kirin 980 Octa-core Processor Dual NPUs(Neural-network Processing Unit) 2Cortex-A76 Based 2.6GHz+ 2Cortex-A76 Based 1.92GHz + 4*Cortex-A55 1.8GHz |
| OPERATING SYSTEM | EMUI 9.1 (Based on Android 9) |
| MEMORY | 6/8 GB RAM + 128 GB ROM |
| CAMERA | Rear Camera: (Leica Triple Camera) 40 MP (Wide Angle Lens, f/1.8 aperture) + 16 MP (Ultra Wide Angle Lens, f/2.2 aperture) + 8 MP (Telephoto, f/2.4 aperture, OIS), supports autofocus (laser focus, phase focus, contrast focus), supports AIS (HUAWEI AI Image Stabilization). Front Camera: 32 MP, f/2.0 aperture |
| BATTERY | 3650mAh (Typical Value)* |
| CHARGING | HUAWEI SuperCharge |
| SENSORS | Ambient Light Sensor In-Screen Fingerprint Sensor Gyroscope Compass Proximity Sensor Gravity Sensor Hall Sensor Laser Sensor Colour Temperature Sensor |
| AUDIO | Dolby Atmos (Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital+, Dolby AC-4) mp3, mp4, 3gp, ogg, amr, aac, flac, wav, midi |
| IN THE BOX | Phone(Built-in battery) x 1 Charger x 1 Type-C Cable x 1 3.5 mm Headset x 1 TPU Protective Case x 1 (No in Western Europe and Northeast Europe) Quick Start Guide x 1 Eject Tool x 1 Warranty Card x 1 |
The Best and Worst of Huawei P30
The best:
The Worst:
Price and competitors
The Huawei P30 is on sale for an official price of ( 509.99 $ (opens in a new tab)”>740.99 $ –> 509.99 $) on Amazon.
If you look at other phones, we have several interesting options in the mid-high range that can compete against the Huawei P30.
The Samsung Galaxy S10e ( 749.99 $ on Amazon) features a 5.8 ″ Dynamic AMOLED display, Exynos 9810 processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of expandable storage via micro-SD, dual 16 + 12MP rear camera, 10MP front camera, battery 3,100 mAh, a fingerprint reader on one side and water resistance.
The OPPO Reno ( 656.65 $ (6GB RAN and 128GB Storage), 747.00 $ (8GB RAN and 256GB Storage) on Amazon) has a 6.4″ AMOLED display, Snapdragon 710, 6/8GB RAM, 128GB/256GB of storage, 48MP Sony IMX586 + 5MP dual rear camera, 16MP pop-up front camera and 3,765 mAh battery.
The Pixel 3a XL ( 448.00 $ (opens in a new tab)”>470.00 $ –> 448.00 $ on Amazon) has a 6 ″ OLED display, Snapdragon 670 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage (not expandable), 12MP rear camera and 3,700 mAh battery.
Of course, we cannot fail to mention the Huawei P30 Pro ( 689.99 $ (opens in a new tab)”>693.99 $ –> 689.99 $ on Amazon), which although it has a clearly higher price has more advanced features.
The Huawei P30 Pro has a 6.47 ″ Full HD + OLED screen, Kirin 980 processor, 8GB of RAM, 128/256 / 512GB of storage, 40MP + 20MP + 8MP + ToF quad-rear camera, 32MP front camera, and battery 4,200 mAh with direct and reverse wireless charging.
All Image credits: Huawei P30
