Huawei P30 review

Competition

As we established over the course of this review, Huawei's been very careful not to make the P30 a small P30 Pro. Instead, the vanilla model gets a few key downgrades, which don't necessarily hurt it badly, but still leave no doubt which one exactly the top model is.

And the top model will give you extra reach with its 5x zoom camera, bigger display, even longer battery life plus goodies that are hard to quantify like wireless charging and proper IP68-rated dust and water protection. The Pro does come at a price premium, so if the above extras aren't really that important to you, just save some cash and go for the P30.

Samsung Galaxy S10 • LG G8 ThinQ • Xiaomi Mi 9 • OnePlus 7

A very obvious alternative outside of the Huawei camp is the Samsung Galaxy S10. The S10 packs a similar camera trifecta, though its tele isn't quite as long. More importantly, however, Samsung still has no answer to Huawei's night mode. The Galaxy is also no match in battery life, or charge speed, though if wireless charging is important to you, the S10 has it in both directions, unlike the P30. The S10 is IP68-rated, has the vastly more popular microsSD slot against the P30's NM one (NM what?) and the Galaxy has the more powerful chipset and sharper and brighter display. Then there's the matter of software - EMUI is full-featured but a bit disorganized, while the brand new One UI may not be able to convert long-time TouchWiz haters.

We're yet to hear someone actively praising LG's software, so we can't see the G8 ThinQ winning hearts over thanks to that. The brand new LG is also quite expensive at launch, though this will likely change for the better soon if the past is any indication, potentially making it cheaper than the P30. The P30 outclasses the G8 in both endurance and charge speed, has a tele camera where the G8 doesn't (though it could in your particular market, those G8s are a complete marketing mess) and it's got a more color accurate display, though the one on the G8's is sharper. The G8 packs more computing power, has a microSD slot and is dust and water resistant.

Here's one that isn't IP-rated at all, and neither does it have a memory expansion slot. Ah, but the Xiaomi Mi 9 is a lot more affordable. It's not just about price though - its Snapdragon 855 is more potent than the P30's Kirin, the Mi 9 actually almost keeps up with the P30 in the endurance race and edges ahead in topping up speed, plus it supports 20W wireless charging. And the Mi 9 does all that without lagging behind in the camera department or the display, but the only problem is you may not be able to have one in all parts of the world.

Not available anywhere for the time being simply because it's not even been announced yet, the OnePlus 7 could be the answer you're looking for. The specifics are then in the realm of speculation, but the 1+7 will certainly pack the S855 chipset, so 1 better than the P30, and it'll have the stock-ish Oxygen OS that company loyalists swear by, plus some super fast charging. OnePlus isn't known for making sensible camera setups recently, but we're open to surprises.

Verdict

The Huawei P30 was close to falling victim to Huawei's push for market segmentation. Denying it the (likely expensive) periscope we get, but why did the wireless charging induction coil and the IR emitter have to go as well?

All things considered, however, the P30 doesn't really come off as a lesser phone than the Pro. Sure, it may not be as fully tricked out as its bigger brother, but it's got battery life which most competitors can't match and a versatile triple camera that takes stunning low-light shots, plus the phone looks good in the process. We'd say that makes it a worthwhile proposition.

Pros

• Standout design, eye-catching colors options.
• Fastest under-display fingerprint reader.
• Class-leading battery life in the screen-on tests, properly fast charging.
• Quality display with high marks across the board.
• Flagship-grade performance.
• Great image quality overall, some of the best low-light shots money can get you.

Cons

• No proper dust and water resistance.
• No stereo speakers, no IR blaster (there is one on the Pro).
• While technically the storage can be expanded, Huawei's NM memory cards are still far from mainstream.
• Selfie camera is fixed-focus and there isn't really 32MP worth of detail in the images.
• No 4K60 video recording while everyone else has it.