L
ast year, the P20 Pro was the
phone that demanded
everyone sit up and take notice
of Huawei. The company instantly
went from being a budget upstart
to a serious Samsung and Apple
competitor. It’s a hard task for that
phone’s successor to live up to, but
the P30 Pro zooms its way straight
to the top of the pack.
Not only is the device loaded
with the lightning-fast Kirin 980
chipset that debuted in the Mate 20
Pro late last year, but the P30 Pro
also comes with buckets of
memory and storage, a smaller
notch, a significantly bigger battery,
and a new camera system that’s
genuinely revolutionary.
It’s that camera that really helps
the P30 Pro stand out. The
impressive 3x optical zoom of the
P20 Pro has been increased to 5x
optical zoom, and that’s paired with
a 10x lossless hybrid zoom feature
that uses AI to sharpen up your
shots and remove blur from handmovements. This is seriously
impressive stuff.
Huawei has rebuilt its camera
system from the ground-up – a
complete overhaul that starts with
the sensor in the new quadruple-
camera system. Rather than opting
for the standard RGB (red-green-
blue) sensor of every other
smartphone maker, Huawei has
gone for a RYYB (red-yellow-yellow-
blue) sensor in the P30 Pro, because
yellow sensors can absorb much
more light than green ones. The
results are worth it.Vibrant result
Photographs are sharp and burst
with vibrant colours, though they
aren’t quite as over-saturated as
the Samsung Galaxy S10’s. There’s
the ability to add bokeh-style
blur behind the subject of your
photograph, as you can do on
other phones, of course. While
this isn’t quite as refined and
realistic as the iPhone XS, it standstoe-to-toe with the best efforts
from Google and Samsung.
There’s also an ultra-wide lens for
creating highly original shots (it
can also be useful when you’re
sightseeing, for example, and
looking to squeeze an entire
skyscraper into the shot).
With all that said, the camera’s
zoom functionality is easily the
star of the show. The lossless 5x
optical zoom is phenomenal for
capturing details in the distance.
When out and about testing the
P30 Pro, we were able to zoom in
on features on the other side of the
street with crystal-clear clarity. This
alone will transform your travel
and gig photography, in addition
to your everyday shots. And that’s
not even the most impressive
zoom feature!
Huawei’s hybrid 10x zoom, which
it also claims is completely lossless,
uses AI to detect what is in the
photo and to enhance and sharpen
any details that may have been lostHauwei P30 Pro
£1,100 | $1,300 http://www.hauwei.com/uk
Chinese manufacturer’s flagship product impresses in every way
86 |^ |^ August 2019