Huawei P60 Pro review

The competition

Let's face it, Huawei needs to fight the competition with everything it has, even when the fight has been pretty much lost. The omission of 5G connectivity and access to anything Google-made has already excluded the Huawei P60 Pro from the shortlists of most mainstream users. But the Huawei P devices have never been really made for the typical mainstream users - the P stands for Photography, and if the premium camera technology suits you best, we believe you will manage to live with or overcome the omissions one way or another.

Indeed, the Huawei P60 Pro offers something that no other phone than the previous Huawei Mate 50 Pro can offer - truly variable aperture. This, combined with the outstanding photo and video quality, makes the Huawei P60 Pro a unique device. But there is more - the telemacro capabilities with the zoom camera, and the superb selfie experience, shape the P60 Pro as one of the best cameraphones on the market.

The cameraphone niche has been thriving lately, so let's explore a few of the alternatives.

We cannot but start with the cameraphone king itself - the Xiaomi 13 Ultra. The latest Xiaomi flagship has a longer zoom reach and a more versatile camera setup with equally wonderful photo and video quality. The 13 Ultra also comes with a variable aperture, but there are two fixed steps instead of 10 - f/1.9 and f/4.0. The Ultra is an all-round smartphone with everything you may desire, with a better display, faster hardware, better connected, and co-developed with Leica camera experience - a domain that was once Huawei's. The Ultra has a mediocre selfie camera - our only beef with it. It is selling much cheaper in China than the P60 Pro, but we are not sure what this means for the international markets.

The Find X6 Pro impressed us with its complete flagship and camera technology, too. It has an even more premium display and faster hardware, while its camera department offers equally impressive quality across the board. There is no variable aperture or telemacro option, but the great selfie camera and the rest of the features may tip the scales in its favor. The Find X6 Pro is currently a China-bound phone, but it is available as an import across many retailers worldwide.

The vivo X90 Pro is the only global (China-made) phone so far, already available in many countries. It has shorter zoom without macro, and mediocre selfie camera, but offers impressive photos and videos, similar display and chipset, and also equal battery life. And it is available now pretty much everywhere.

The Honor Magic5 Pro is worth considering over the P60 Pro. It costs the same in Europe, and offer a larger display, the most current Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with 5G, and a similar cameras excluding the variable aperture. The Magic5 Pro saves equally impressive photos and videos, but it also comes with everything Google. And for that, it could turn the more lucrative offer.

Finally, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is the ultimate device right now for having pretty much everything, S-Pen and 10x telephoto camera included. Sure, the photos and videos aren't as natural-looking as on the phones we've mentioned so far, but the global availability and all the neat features will mean a lot for many users.

Xiaomi 13 Ultra • Oppo Find X6 Pro • vivo X90 Pro • Honor Magic5 Pro • Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

Our verdict

The Huawei P60 Pro is a wonderful smartphone with some of the best mobile cameras on the market. We were thrilled to find it excelling in everything camera-related, selfies included, and we do love the variable aperture and the telemacro capabilities - truly impressive features as far as smartphones are concerned.

The Huawei P60 Pro is a flagship device, too, with an excellent LTPO OLED, a fast Snapdragon chipset, and large battery with great battery life and fast charging. Oh, and we do appreciate Huawei making the charger more universal with its two ports.

The P60 Pro also impresses with its design - it's a glass smartphone with proper ingress protection and plenty of different color (and finish) options.

Finally, for those concerned with the lack of Google's stuff - Gbox works rather well for most of the apps, and it's even offered as an install as part of the setup process. Yes, you can't have Android Auto or Nearby share, and the file management is a bit more complex as Gbox is a virtual machine after all, but it works well.

There are two things that are problematic on the Huawei P60 Pro - the lack of 5G connectivity and the previous generation Snapdragon chipset. And the Google hassle, too. The hefty price tag (€1199 for 8GB/256GB Black, €1399 for 12GB/512GB Pearl) doesn't help much either.

But we have to admit that the Huawei smartphones have always impressed us with their cameras, even their mid-range phones do better than many recent flagships. Huawei's ecosystem has grown even larger with their newly found focus on wearables, headphones, laptops and tablets, among which a Huawei phone would be in good company.

So, if you have loved the Huawei cameras like we did, and you can live without 5G access, we are pretty sure you will find the new P60 Pro an excellent choice. When photography comes first, the P60 Pro has some pretty unique features not available on any other maker's phone.

Long story short, the Huawei P60 Pro is a phone easy to love and even easier to hate. Like the iPhones. And just like Apple's devices, this one will make a worthy purchase if chosen for the right reasons.

Pros

• Premium design and looks, IP68-rated.
• Outstanding LTPO OLED screen, quite bright, HDR10+.
• Adequate battery life, plenty fast charging.
• Universal PD charger ships with the phone.
• Impressive speakers' audio quality.
• Class-leading photo quality across the board, selfies incl.
• Truly variable aperture on the main camera.
• Impressive telemacro photos and videos.
• Powerful enough hardware.

Cons

• No native Google Mobile Services.
• No 5G.
• We've seen more detailed videos from other Huawei phones.
• EMUI has the habit of cleaning stuff it shouldn't.
• Prone to throttling under peak performance.
• A bit expensive at launch.