Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro unveiled, have three 40MP cameras between them

Despite the pressure of the US-China trade war, Huawei pressed on and unveiled its new Mate 30 flagships. And it revealed its plans for a life without Google.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro

The Huawei Mate 30 Pro has arguably the most impressive camera hardware of any smartphone ever. In addition to the 40MP Super Sensing camera from the P30 Pro, it gains a 40MP ultra wide cam, which Huawei calls the Cine Camera. Both can use the 3D ToF sensor to render bokeh in videos.

The third camera on the back is an 8MP shooter with a 3x optical zoom (80mm focal length) and 5x optical hybrid zoom. For comparison, the P30 Pro has a 5x optical and 10x hybrid zoom camera. Both the tele and the wide cameras have Optical Image Stabilization.

Back to the two 40MP sensors, they are both physically large and sit behind wide open apertures. The main camera has an 1/1.7"-type sensor and an f/1.6 aperture. The Cine camera has an 1/1.54"-type sensor with 3:2 aspect ratio and an ultra wide lens with f/1.8 aperture.

Video recording is equally impressive. It supports 4K 60fps video capture (a first for Huawei). Frame rates go even higher in slow-motion mode, the phone can do a mind-boggling 7,680fps at 720p. Another fun thing to try is 4K time lapse with HDR+ colors. For shooting in low light, the video camera can go up to ISO 52,000.

The #HuaweiMate30 Pro makes sure you'll always capture 'that shot', with incredible ISO 409600 sensitivity.#RethinkPossibilities#HuaweiMate30 pic.twitter.com/ssWcpPjs8o

— Huawei Mobile IE (@HuaweiMobileIE) September 19, 2019

The 32MP selfie camera is nestled next to the new 3D scanning hardware. There's a dedicated sensor to recognize hand gestures, which works in conjunction with Huawei’s in-house Da Vinci NPU – Huawei just beat Google to the punch. The NPU is also used for the AI Auto-Rotate, which tracks your head to decide how to orient the UI instead of making guesses based on the accelerometer.

Speaking of the Kirin 990 chipset, it’s built on a 7nm+ EUV process and features a powerful Mali-G76 MP16 GPU with an upgraded GPU Turbo. A graphene film carries the heat away from the chipset to keep it cool.

The Huawei Mate 30 Pro highlights aren’t over. It features a 6.53” display with wildly curved sides – 88°. Huawei calls this design "Horizon Display". It’s an OLED panel with 1,176 x 2,400px resolution, HDR and full coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The display has an Always On Mode and supports the M-Pen stylus (which can sense 4,096 levels of pressure).

Always On Display • Optional stylus

Since the display covers the side of the phone, Huawei placed a number of virtual buttons on there - from volume buttons to a shutter key for the camera.

The two Mate 30 phones run EMUI10 on top of Android 10. In lieu of Google Play Services, Huawei has developed its own solution - more details below.

Huawei boosted its wireless charging technology, which can now push up to 27W into the 4,500mAh battery. Wired charging remains at 40W, though considering that Samsung’s supplied “fast” chargers are at 25W and Apple’s is at just 18W it's still among the best around.

On the connectivity side, Huawei boasted that the phone has 21 antennas in total, 14 of which are dedicated to 5G. This allows the phone to support eight 5G bands (the Samsung Galaxy Note10+ 5G supports only 3). There will also be a 4G version for markets still lacking the latest generation networks.

The Huawei Mate 30 Pro comes with 8GB of RAM and a choice between 128GB and 256GB storage. The NM card slot can help you expand that by 256GB. The Pro will be available in four colors: Black, Space Silver, Cosmic Purple and Emerald Green.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro in various colors, including optional vegan leather backs

There will be a special edition with vegan leather back - you read that right. It will come in Orange and Forest Green. As before, the phone is IP68 water resistant.

The Huawei Mate 30 Pro (the 4G model) will cost €1,100 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage. The Mate 30 Pro 5G will be €1,200 with the same memory configuration.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro

In a couple of hours, Huawei will start taking orders for the Mate 30 Pro 4G in China, shipments start on the 28th. Global availability is allegedly coming in October. We are yet to see if global markets will have any liking for a phone with no Play services though.

Huawei Mate 30

The Huawei Mate 30 is closer to the Pro model than perhaps any previous Mate before it. Its screen, an OLED panel, is actually slightly larger at 6.62” and nearly as sharp, considering the 1,080 x 2,340px resolution. It supports HDR10 and DCI-P3, just like hte Pro.

Huawei Mate 30

The screen is flat and with a smaller notch (the 3D sensor is different). Note that both Mates have in-display fingerprint readers.

The rear camera keeps the massive 1/1.7" 40MP sensor with RYYB color filter and f/1.8 aperture. The 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical and 5x hybrid zoom is also on board, both cameras have OIS. However, the ultrawide camera drops down to a 16MP sensor (f/2.2) and the selfie cam has a 24MP sensor.

The phone is still powered by a Kirin 990 chipset and comes in both 4G and 5G versions. Note that these use two different versions of the chip - the 4G one is built on a 7nm process and the medium cores are clocked slightly lower. Also, the NPU has only one big core instead of two.

The battery gets both the 27W wireless and 40W wired charging support, unlike last year’s model which was majorly downgraded compared to the Pro (no wireless and slower wired). The battery capacity is 4,200mAh.

The Mate 30 is rated at IP53 (splash proof).

The Huawei Mate 30 will become available in China today and globally in October at a price of €800. It has 8GB of RAM too, however the storage has been halved to 128GB (you can still expand it with an NM card).

Huawei Mobile Services and AppGallery

Huawei Mobile Services are fully open source and will provide the basic functionality that was handled by Google Play Services so far. The company has created a $1 billion investment fund to support and grow the project.

Users will be able to download software from Huawei's AppGallery, which already has 390 million monthly active users and served 180 billion downloads last year.

Huawei AppGallery • Huawei Mobile Cloud

This is more than an app store, however. Huawei ID will serve as your main account to access a whole ecosystem. Huawei Mobile Cloud takes over from Google Photos and Drive, it lets you sync photos as well as back up data and settings from your phone. Huawei Video is a streaming service with films, TV shows and documentaries (currently available only in Italy and Spain). Huawei is even pushing its own browser ahead of Google's Chrome.