Honor 30 lineup: random thoughts

This Wednesday Honor unveiled its new flagship trio: the Honor 30, Honor 30 Pro, and Honor 30 Pro+. While we are yet to spend some quality time with them and see how well they perform here are some early thoughts based on what we saw at the event.

• Honor is once again staying close to its parent company, reusing as much of the R&D and supply chain as possible without becoming a direct clone. The vanilla option, the Pro version, and the Pro+ camera behemoth sit just below their respective P40 family siblings, allowing Huawei to offer options at six different price points.

• The Honor 30 Pro and Honor 30 Pro+ are gorgeous-looking smartphones. There is just something special in having two different textures on the back. The giant Honor inscription on the back might be a bit too much, but in a market where design is getting increasingly similar, every different idea feels like a breath of fresh air.
  
  The front with its curved sides is also looking much better than before and it's likely to handle better too. The obvious trade-off is fragility and replacement costs, plus issues finding screen protectors.

• The Honor V30 family needed two months to escape China and hit retail shelves around the world. At things stand the Honor 30 lineup might also take its time. While the P40 and Xs got an almost simultaneous release in China and global markets, the lockdowns due to the COVID-19 outbreak mean shipping units is hard, while the demand is not there in the first place.

• The Honor 30 Pro+ might be very tempting to cameraphone lover with a setup punching high above its $700 price tag. It may not have the extra reach of the P40 Pro+ and its 10x periscope telephoto module it's arguably the second best thing and it costs half as much too. Provided that Honor can supply enough units it's bound to sell excellently in China.

• In global markets it feels like Honor 30 has the best chances. Costing just €400 and offering a large sensor main camera, a periscope telephoto snapper and ultrawide units it might convince plenty of people to give the Google-deprived life a try.

• That said a lot depends on the progress Huawei makes with its own HMS. Fully matching the Google ecosystem is some way off if at all feasible, but if it comes up with a Maps equivalent it will take a huge step towards becoming a usable alternative.