As the competitor of the Galaxy S10 + and the iPhone XS Max, Huawei's new high-end smartphone is a complete success. The Chinese manufacturer has become the reference of the market for the quality of the photos of its devices.

The promise: change the rules of photography

With its slogan for its P30 range "Change the Rules of Photography", Huawei is clearly aiming for the top of the podium for smartphone cameras. According to the DxOMark website, which scores devices in advanced tests, the P30 Pro scores 112, placing it in first place among all smartphones on the market. Huawei can boost the performance of its cameras in terms of a photo since it occupies the first three places.





The manufacturer puts forward a quadruple Leica camera, making it a very versatile camera. It incorporates a 40-megapixel main sensor (26 mm, f / 1.6), a 20-megapixel ultra wide angle sensor (16 mm, f / 2.2), an 8 megapixel (125 mm, f / 3.4) periscope telephoto lens and a camera flight time that measures the depth of the field.





The 40-megapixel sensor uses an RYB sensor instead of RGB, thus replacing the green pixels with yellows, which allows it to capture 40% more light. By default, the camera uses pixel binning, which consists of combining four pixels to improve the image, and thus can produce 10-megapixel shots.





The camera also offers 5x optical zoom, 10x hybrid zoom, and 50x digital zoom. Huawei achieved this performance using a periscope telephoto lens: it increases the focal length by aiming the sensor on the side, and using a mirror, to obtain a focal length equivalent to 125 mm.





The killer option: the ToF camera

The presence of the ToF camera, or flight time, adds a new dimension to the photo, and this, rather literally. It is a camera capable of measuring objects in 3D, sending a beam of light invisible to the human eye, then measuring the time it takes to return to the sensor. This indicates the distance of the object.

Associated simply with the camera, it allows certain effects, and in particular the portrait mode of the P30 Pro. By measuring the distance of objects in the image, it can create a more realistic bokeh effect. In augmented reality use, it can measure objects on the screen, or place virtual objects so that they appear with the exact size and correctly placed over the real world image.





What does it replace?





The Huawei P30 Pro comes very logically replace the P20 Pro. The difference in performance is not revolutionary, but the P30 Pro has many interesting improvements. At the screen level, we go from a 6.1-inch display to a curved 6.47-inch display. In addition, the notch is reduced to a simple drop of water, and the screen directly incorporates fingerprint reader and speaker for calls. It now includes the 40-watt fast charge, compared to 22.5 watts for the P20 Pro, and even offers the reverse charge, to charge its earbuds or another smartphone.





It also gains power, with a Kirin 980 and 8 GB of RAM, against a Kirin 970 and 6 GB. The camera is improved with, in particular, the presence of the ToF camera and SuperSpectrum sensor, allowing it to get the score of 112 points in the DxOMark ranking, against 109 for the P20 Pro, which was, however, the first in the ranking at its release.









On the competition side, Huawei's new smartphone is on the high-end market. The competitors are therefore mainly the models of Samsung and Apple. Given the size of the screen, it would be the Samsung Galaxy S10 + with a 6.4-inch display, and the iPhone XS Max with a 6.5-inch screen. The Galaxy S10 + costs only 10 euros more for the 128 GB version and offers very similar characteristics.



The iPhone XS Max starts with only 64 GB of storage, and still costs more than 250 euros more expensive, while having only 4 GB of RAM, against 8 GB among others. But, it is especially at the photo level that the P30 Pro stands out, with its DxOMark score of 112, against 109 at Samsung and 105 at Apple.









The Techwano reviewThe P30 Pro delivers on its promise and delivers photo performance unmatched by the competition. It has no major flaws, and the only criticism could be the audio, with the lack of headphone jack and stereo speakers, quickly offset by good headphones or a Bluetooth speaker. If the presence of the ToF camera looks more like a gadget for the moment, the applications, in augmented reality, in particular, could quickly follow if this kind of sensor were to become generalized. More generally, the P30 Pro offers performance that rival the best smartphones on the market, with an appropriate price.





Technical sheet



OS: Android 9.0 Pie

Processor: Kirin 980

RAM: 8 GB

Storage: 128 or 256 GB and microSD

Screen size: 6.47 inches

Definition: 2.340 x 1.080 pixels

Camera: 40 megapixels (f / 1.6), 20 megapixel ultra wide angle (f / 2.2), 8 megapixel telephoto (F / 3.4), ToF / 32 megapixel (f / 2.0) front

Battery: 4.200 mAh