2019 Winners and Losers: Huawei and Honor

26 December 2019
It would probably launch alongside the upcoming Xperia flagship in February.

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  • S
  • S Yu
  • gnh
  • 30 Dec 2019

Nick Tagataka, 30 Dec 2019"castle night scene" Yeah, I knew you would point that one... moreYeah, just a few residual issues, no need for a reply:

>focus issue on auto
Andrei has pointed out focusing issues of reviewed devices on numerous occasions in the past, so I'm not making that assumption, though I agree it can't be entirely ruled out.

>using 4 times higher extended ISO
I don't trust Huawei's ISO figures because I did the math in a Notebookcheck review before against their reference DSLR photo, they don't add up with the exposure time and aperture, and at the time I purposed using an external copal shutter or something to determine whether the shutter speed was false or the ISO(needs to be used on slow enough shutter speeds for the lag in manual trigger to be less than a stop, the discrepancy to the DSLR's numbers was more than a stop, so a qualitative conclusion could be reached with significant tolerance to the methodology), it has to be one of the two, so currently I'm not putting that into consideration.

>it's clearly not functioning properly
Well, yes, but it remains to be seen whether the degree of the malfunction always overshadows the increase in total exposure time.

>it packs separate Balong modem
S10 5G packs a discrete modem, is 6.7", 198g, and with 4500mAh battery. It rather suggests that 5000mAh was on the small side for a 7.2" device in the first place. Also the M-Pen lists compatibility for all Mate30 devices, not to mention both Note10 and including the upcoming 10 Lite have S-Pen integrated.

>ROG Phone does not have OIS
I'm commenting on the influence of OIS on night sight in general, it either needs two devices both supporting the same version of Gcam with the same camera setup only w/ w/o OIS to be tested, or else the OIS would need a toggle.

    Anonymous, 30 Dec 2019Says the guy who never used the ROG 2 with gcam or otherwis... more>Says the guy who never used the ROG 2 with gcam or otherwise.

    Still takes better photos than your ROG2 anyday, because I have done handson comparisons. Video is a little sharper, marred by less accurate colours, so nullified the only advantage it had in optics.

    >Enjoy your Kirin chip that throttles during hard-core use.

    It is not faster, but surely more battery efficient, and can push games to 1080@60 easily, and runs far cooler than SD855 any day of the universe. Oh, did I also teach you midrange chips throttle lesser than flagship chips due to laws of physics?

    Also, it renders videos and I can edit photos on Snapseed quickly on a colour accurate screen; you cannot enjoy the latter benefit.

      S Yu, 28 Dec 2019>more like a thin strip The subjective width of the gre... more"castle night scene"
      Yeah, I knew you would point that one out. I'm speculating the UWA lens had a focus issue on auto mode, as all the textures were extremely soft, even softer than in the picture of the playground equipment where the phone was using 4 times higher extended ISO (12800 vs 51200). In all but that particular castle scene, handheld Night Mode on Mate 30 Pro consistently produced worse looking photos with oversoftened details, desaturated colors and strong magenta hue across the frame. GSMArena also confirms this detail rendition issues, it's clearly not functioning properly.

      "Mate20X 5G is 233g yet with merely 4200mAh"
      Isn't that because of the fact that it packs separate Balong modem that takes up larger volume inside the phone instead of integrated one, and use the older antenna design which makes it even less weight and space efficient? The regular Mate 20 X, on the other hand, has 5000mAh and weighs 1 gram less, while Mate 30 Pro packs a 4500mAh cell and weighs 198g. And no, I don't think most people consider it as being in the same league as Mate 30 Pro. As pointed out by many reviewers it's substantially larger than any flagship phablets out in the market, and a large 7.2 inch display, M Pen compatibility and possibly the best stereo speakers on a phone make it more of a pocketable tablet rather than a large display smartphone.

      "a way to disable OIS"
      ? ROG Phone does not have OIS, though.

      All right, I think I said everything I wanted to. As much I enjoyed having the constructive discussion with you, I don't really consider replying to comments on this page to be the best way to spend the last day of the year, so I guess I'll just stop here. Wish you'll have a nice new year, I'll enjoy mine.

        Anonymous, 29 Dec 2019I know 3 ppl who have the mate 30 pro, they have been Huawe... more"1/2.0" sensor"
        Common misconception: A 1/2" sensor must have 32% larger surface area than a 1/2.3" one, but current 48MP 0.8µm sensors are only 6.6% larger than 12MP 1.55µm sensor which is a type 1/2.3" sensor. I have no idea what kind of weird calculation method Sony used to advertise theirs as 1/2", but in fact Samsung states in their website that ISOCELL GM2 (it has exactly the same MP count and pixel pitch as IMX586) is 1/2.25".
        https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/isocell/mobile-image-sensors/isocell-bright-gm2/
        Small details, but it was worth pointing out.

        "Afcourse, the Huawei doesn't have any gcam. Ultrawide on Huawei is the best on market"
        Do you honestly think it would produce a better image even if it had GCam port, though? Huawei's image processing is pretty powerful on the stock camera app already, I don't think there's an area where GCam can do any better apart from RAW capture. And whether UWA lens on latest Huawei phones are the best or not heavily depends on personal preferences, as I already discussed with S Yu - As much as I like the astonishing low light performance and natural detail rendition from Mate 30 Pro's UWA lens, I'm not exactly a huge fan of its narrower field of view either.

        "You are just disappointed that..."
        More like I'm frustrated with your random point system which closely resembles DxOMark's BS "Overall Scores" but unlike DxO isn't even based on any criteria to measure image quality objectively. You have to be more specific about in which area each of those devices do better job than the other, if you actually have seen the samples from those 3 Mate 30 Pro of course.

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • XRg
          • 30 Dec 2019

          GAMERMAN, 30 Dec 2019Keep projecting your personal opinions, ROG2 has a worse ca... moreSays the guy who never used the ROG 2 with gcam or otherwise.
          Enjoy your Kirin chip that throttles during hard-core use.

            Anonymous, 29 Dec 2019I know 3 ppl who have the mate 30 pro, they have been Huawe... moreKeep projecting your personal opinions, ROG2 has a worse camera than my P30 Lite, let alone Mate 30 Pro. Keep seething about it, suits you.

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • XRg
              • 29 Dec 2019

              Nick Tagataka, 29 Dec 2019I apologise that I misread your comment, but still having m... moreI know 3 ppl who have the mate 30 pro, they have been Huawei fans forever. So they imported it, you act as if they had to personally visit China and find it then buy it.
              Banggood is a great website to order stuff from China. Plenty others there as well. Importing a phone or other accessories is super easy. Ordered many accessories back in the day that weren't available yet in my country. Installing GMS manually is super easy. You are underestimating the ability of the average Joe. If one can use a smartphone, one can also install GMS in a few minutes. Plenty of tutorial on YouTube which give you step by step instructions that even less tech savvy people can follow easily. Plus it's a one time process usually done after setting up your phone.

              "Those issues would become less significant if the sensor was huge, but 1/2.25" sensor on ROG Phone II is not really that large to begin with and still far cry from 1/1.7" one that Mate 30 Pro packs inside"
              >> you need to brush up your facts, ROG 2 has 1/2.0" sensor not 1/2.25".

              "But 90 vs 85/100 scoring clearly seems like it is projecting your personal opinion and preference and underestimating the difference in image quality between those two."
              >>Man I compared both camera pics side by side, there might be large gap in night images with stock camera but with Gcam, that gap is narrowed significantly.
              Rog with Gcam :85/100
              Huawei :90/100
              For video I use stock camera though and daylight images are on par.
              Afcourse, the Huawei doesn't have any gcam. Ultrawide on Huawei is the best on market.

              You are just disappointed that a phone designed for gaming extracted great performance using gcam and matched up to flagships in 90 plus percent of the cases. It does lack telephoto but 2x or 3x is useless in my opinion. 5x or above is super useful.

                Anonymous, 28 Dec 2019I said couple of friends not several friends, huge differen... moreI apologise that I misread your comment, but still having multiple friends that have Mate 30 Pro around you is a story that is hard to believe, especially when they had to import one from overseas instead of getting it in local shops, and then they have to install GMS manually after receiving the devices.

                "You've heard of gcam magically transforming pictures"
                Yeah, because I'm the one who said "on most phones Gcam does work like a magic to some extent". What I'm trying to tell you is even with Gcam there's a large gap in picture quality between ROG Phone 2 and Mate 30 Pro.

                "OIS plays less important role today (for low light), since sensor size, the effective pixel size is more important for better low light images"
                IMO they are equally important factors that determine image quality. Without OIS the sensor needs to resort to higher ISO and faster shutter speed to compensate for hand shakes, and for multi frame stacking like HDR+ OIS plays significant role in reducing the misalignment between each frame. Those issues would become less significant if the sensor was huge, but 1/2.25" sensor on ROG Phone II is not really that large to begin with and still far cry from 1/1.7" one that Mate 30 Pro packs inside, even though it's a bit larger than what you can find on most flagship phones. In addition to that it comes with slightly narrower F1.8 aperture and regular RGB Bayer filter which widens the gap in low light performance even further. With Gcam it becomes lot better camera, yes I admit. But 90 vs 85/100 scoring clearly seems like it is projecting your personal opinion and preference and underestimating the difference in image quality between those two.
                Btw, ROG Phone's zooming capability is really poor due to the lack of a dedicated telephoto lens, in case you forgot to take it into account.

                "Articles from proper unbiased camera review websites"
                Well, I just gave you one. Don't even dare to say that Anandtech is not one of them.

                  • S
                  • S Yu
                  • ps8
                  • 28 Dec 2019

                  GAMERMAN, 27 Dec 2019Page 2/2 >Take it easy, you're trolling too hard. Las... more>attacking Huawei (a brand)
                  I'm exposing the truth to the brand, with proof. Calling statements of the truth an attack, are you Trump?

                  >Oops.
                  Yeah, oops. That's Mate20X's page, the evaluation of an entirely different device. "Because Mate20X has good speakers Mate30P must have good speakers"? More of your characteristic trolling.

                  >indirectly declaring it better
                  No I'm directly declaring it better. As I said at the beginning, "ROGP2 is the better phone."
                  And why do I emerge unscathed dealing with one Huawei troll after another? Because you trolls troll. You just used tests done on Mate20X to mislead people into rosy conclusions of Mate30P's speakers. The troll who got banned before you linked to a UK report on Huawei's reluctance to comply with security requirements as bogus proof for Huawei's innocence. Simply citing directly out of the report was enough to tear apart his lies. Simply reading the URL was enough to tear apart yours.

                  >Proof? Because
                  Their copying does not preclude membership into the SDA, there is no "because".
                  As for proof:
                  https://jingyan.baidu.com/article/27fa7326ab73cd46f8271fb6.html
                  Clearly, this simple tutorial explaining the method I described was uploaded a full year before Huawei released their "nano memory".
                  You, as the Huawei trolls before you, like to singlesidedly ask me for proof, while submitting false evidence or sidestepping the whole issue on your side.

                  >Looks like you spent an hour to write comments in 2 parts.
                  Long comments have a higher likelihood of being blocked, I experienced writing one comment, being blocked, but having both halves posted successfully without changing a word. I split the comment out of precaution.
                  And I generally don't consider fighting trolls a waste of time, however, repeating myself is.

                  >Evidence?
                  Yeah, ask "evidence?" and sound smart while spewing countless lies without providing evidence yourself. Yeah right. Double-standard Huawei troll. And you cowa(IIRC this word gets blocked)rdly dodged the 251 incident. Don't think people wouldn't notice.

                  >reported
                  Seems that got your own trolling deleted. I got 6 notifications but only 5 entries were visible, the last one was most likely yours. You're trolling for Huawei, and that makes you a Huawei troll, and I call you out for that at every corner.

                    • S
                    • S Yu
                    • ps8
                    • 28 Dec 2019

                    Nick Tagataka, 28 Dec 2019"the greening on the extreme curves that's more severe on t... more>more like a thin strip
                    The subjective width of the greening would really depend on how far you hold your phone from your face, you might see less of it and it would be less distracting for you.

                    >"hide" the edges using software
                    ...Like making a notch then hiding it, removing the headphone jack and bundling an adapter.

                    >given how powerful GPUs are
                    There are about 10% wasted pixels in total, this could certainly matter depending on the load, 10% is a significant difference and different devices could be ranked with that gap in between. In fact the difference between RTX2080MQ and 2070MQ is sometimes smaller than that. Their price has a much higher difference than 10%.
                    That Mali isn't really future-proof in any case.

                    > As for the lack of volume buttons
                    ...Indeed. The only other possible explanation I could think of is removal of the buttons allows for more flexible placement of the numerous 5G antennas, which again is a solution forced upon consumers for a non-existing problem.

                    >every single scenario
                    The thing is, that's not entirely true. Since you've read the Anandtech review you should've seen the castle night scene, in which the night mode was clearly better than auto, so it does fill a minor role, though I'd agree that it'd be best if it didn't have a place at all, for removing the guesswork of night scenes.

                    >try out the regular Pixel 4
                    Well large screen devices naturally have more battery so it's not really fair to the Pixel 4. OTOH ROGP2's weight shouldn't exclude it from the comparison as Mate20X 5G is 233g yet with merely 4200mAh, and I believe most would consider Mate20X 5G in the same device class as Mate30P.
                    What I mean by mediocre is by the original meaning of the word, "middling or average in quality/performance", in the class it competes in, but in the dominant US culture of hyping everything up it's sometimes interpreted as "below average". I guess I should've clarified.

                    >SoC demanding PCMark Work 2.0 battery
                    So this constitutes a load test, then I guess this matters to the extent the wasted 10% pixels matter. Whoever puts their phones under load for extended periods will put more weight to the SoC efficiency, whoever uses on screen time with mostly light loads will put more weight to the screen efficiency.

                    >but I wouldn't say it's in the same league as Mate 30 Pro
                    Nor did I.
                    Can't really comment on night sight and OIS though, my Gcam version didn't have night sight, nor am I aware of a way to disable OIS, and I don't have shutter speeds to go on.

                      • S
                      • S Yu
                      • ps8
                      • 28 Dec 2019

                      Nick Tagataka, 28 Dec 2019Anandtech has most likely made a mistake when measuring the... more>it can go over 600 nits when the ambient sensor is activated
                      Ah, yes, seems that Anandtech failed to trigger the brightness boost with the ambient sensor for some reason.
                      But the argument stands, the panel still isn't brighter than 1+7P's or ROGP2's, both with higher refresh rates.

                      >come with UD FPS
                      I missed that. I stand corrected.

                        most of us still using android 5.1
                        and feature phone but when we come here we try to lie each other about phone we don't even own thank you
                        am using galaxy from 2015 and no android update or software update but everything is 💪

                          • B
                          • Boys gru
                          • nUk
                          • 28 Dec 2019

                          Mate 30 winner?!? Loser of the year

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • XRg
                            • 28 Dec 2019

                            Nick Tagataka, 28 Dec 2019You accused me of lying about having S10 just because I sai... moreI said couple of friends not several friends, huge difference. Don't be putting your words in my mouth. Importing mate 30 pro is easy. Banggood is a great website for the same. Several others websites as well.

                            "I never said Gcam ports are not good, but there's no way that it can be better than the original Gcam found on Pixel 3 or 4 software tuning wise."
                            >>Never said, gcam on ROG 2 is better than gcam on original pixel but it is as good as it in 95% cases. You've heard of gcam magically transforming pictures? Well on this device, it does, since sensor is good.
                            You need to learn to read better.

                            OIS plays less important role today (for low light), since sensor size, the effective pixel size is more important for better low light images. It does play a role in stabilizing telephoto lens and main sensor for videos(for ROG 2, EIS doing great job even at 4k, It's all in the algorithm). you wouldn't know that since you never used the phone. For long exposure shots, most ppl rely on tripod.

                            What was the point of posting link to the article?
                            Articles from proper unbiased camera review websites would be preferred.

                              Anonymous, 28 Dec 2019 "In the store you mean? And that still doesn't explain th... moreYou accused me of lying about having S10 just because I said super slow mo is a rather impractical feature at this stage, but now you want me to listen to your story that you have "several" friends all of who own Mate 30 Pro, a rare device that is hard to find and very few people are willing to get outside of China. Sure, why wouldn't I believe you?
                              I never said Gcam ports are not good, but there's no way that it can be better than the original Gcam found on Pixel 3 or 4 software tuning wise. And even though the sensor is slightly larger on ROG Phone II, the lack of OIS will certainly hampers image quality when lighting is scarce.

                              "Pixel phones took best low light photos without OIS back in the day"
                              Yeah, BACK IN THE DAY, that's the key point. That's when Samsung was still relying on single frame noise reduction, Huawei was using tiny 1/2.9" sensor and Apple wasn't using any sort of HDR during low light. Google then figured OIS would be a necessity to maintain the image quality advantage and started adding one from Pixel 2. I wonder why I can't find a single great high end phone camera without OIS nowadays?

                              "Your biased opinion is irrelevant"
                              Coming from YOU, I probably should take it as a complement.
                              https://www.anandtech.com/show/15068/the-google-pixel-4-xl-review/6
                              The results speak for themselves. Open full res images and zoom in 100% to see what I mean.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • XRg
                                • 28 Dec 2019

                                Nick Tagataka, 28 Dec 2019"Maybe, just maybe I've used both of them" In the store yo... more
                                "In the store you mean? And that still doesn't explain the specific method you used to give those specific scores to each phone's camera"
                                >>Couple of friends have the mate 30 pro, so compared it several times. Besides you are the one who assumed that gcam port on ROG 2 is not that good.(coz you never used the phone yourself)

                                "How's EIS anything to do with Gcam??? Obviously I'm talking about low light performance, because you know, we were discussing on a still image quality."
                                >>We are discussing overall camera performance not just still image quality.
                                Pixel phones took best low light photos without OIS back in the day, gcam does exactly that. Plenty of phones with OIS which give less stabilized footage compared to non OIS Phones(they mess up the software).

                                "Since I don't consider photos taken by S10 particularly good (especially the Exynos variant that I own), that unfortunately doesn't sound convincing to me at all."
                                S10 is one of the best camera phones on the market right now on par with the mate 30 pro and iPhone 11 pro. Your biased opinion is irrelevant.

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                                  • 123
                                  • Fmx
                                  • 28 Dec 2019

                                  NotAnOpinion, 27 Dec 2019Mate 30 series is far from being the best Android of 2019 f... moreofcourse iphone wins - it has no widgets, and no customization options at all. it is so basic ofcourse it will run benchmarks top

                                    S Yu, 27 Dec 2019Page 1/2 >I would like Google and Apple to disappear fr... moreAnandtech has most likely made a mistake when measuring the display brightness during that review. In fact both Notebookcheck.net AND GSMArena confirms that it can go over 600 nits when the ambient sensor is activated (605 and 683 nits respectively).

                                    P.S. I saw you saying Mate 30 Pro does not come with UD FPS in the other comment. It actually does, along with 3D face unlock of course.
                                    https://fdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/reviews/19/huawei-mate-30-pro/lifestyle/-727w2/gsmarena_026.jpg

                                      Anonymous, 28 Dec 2019"Uh, I actually have no idea where you got those random 85 ... more"Maybe, just maybe I've used both of them"
                                      In the store you mean? And that still doesn't explain the specific method you used to give those specific scores to each phone's camera.

                                      "EIS does a great job even at 4k"
                                      How's EIS anything to do with Gcam??? Obviously I'm talking about low light performance, because you know, we were discussing on a still image quality.

                                      "Gcam makes it match the S10 in 97% conditions"
                                      Since I don't consider photos taken by S10 particularly good (especially the Exynos variant that I own), that unfortunately doesn't sound convincing to me at all.

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • XRg
                                        • 28 Dec 2019

                                        Nick Tagataka, 28 Dec 2019Uh, I actually have no idea where you got those random 85 a... more"Uh, I actually have no idea where you got those random 85 and 90/100 scores from."
                                        >>Maybe, just maybe I've used both of them.

                                        "Gcam does work like a magic to some extent but obviously won't fix everything, which means even with Gcam ROG Phone won't gain extra features like OIS"
                                        >>EIS does a great job even at 4k, just like the Pixel series had great stabiliston a few years back without OIS.

                                        "and on top of that due to the nature of ported camera apps the image quality won't be as good as you can get from Pixel"
                                        >>that is therotical garbage, might apply to some other phones, not for the ROG 2 or Zenfone 6z, real world pics beg to differ. Gcam makes it match the S10 in 97% conditions.

                                        Rog 1 camera performance was subpar, not so much for rog 2.
                                        Calling the camera midrange is injustice.
                                        Accurate natural colors. Daylight photos on par with other flagships while low light photos come close when using gcam, excellent 4k 60fps footage as well.