Huawei pushes photography limits with P30 series

Since Huawei has gained global recognition for its phones, the focus has always been on the camera capabilities of its devices. That is the same this time around. As they would say, the P30 and P30 Pro are evolutionary instead of being revolutionary. You can see the P30 Pro taking inspiration from the Mate 20 line, while the P30 looks like a refined version of the P20 Pro. It comes in eye-catching new colors with interesting names: Breathing Crystal, Amber Sunrise, Pearl White, Classical Black, and Aurora (a Huawei signature we’ve seen copied endlessly in the segment).

The P30 has a 6.1-inch FHD+ OLED display, while the P30 Pro has a 6.47-inch FHD+ Curved OLED screen. Huawei drops the bevy of cameras and sensors on the Mate 20 Pro to give both the P30 and P30 Pro a smaller dewdrop display, which the company claims is symmetric. These phones are said to be more compact with narrower bezels and a lighter build. But the P30 Pro retains the big battery of the Mate 20 Pro despite that (although when compared with the said phone, it is slightly heavier—granted it’s also a slightly bigger phone.

While discovering the display is well and good, we know you’re here for the cameras. The more expensive P30 Pro has one more sensor over its little brother. Both share a 32-megapixel front camera with f/2.0 aperture. Both also have a 40-megapixel main wide angle lens at the back. But the P30 Pro comes with an f/1.6 aperture and OIS, while the P30 doesn’t have OIS and has an f/1.8 aperture. The P30 Pro has a 20-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture, while the P30 has a 16-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture. Both have an 8-megapixel telephoto lens with OIS. But the P30 Pro has an f/3.4 aperture, while the P30 has an f/2.4 aperture. The P30 Pro gets an extra sensor in the form of the Time of Flight lens, which is designed to improve portrait mode, augmented reality mode, or other apps and features that would benefit from depth mapping.

Some of the improvements these new cameras bring include better low light performance, stabilization, and zooming. The telephoto lens employs a periscope style of zoom lens that can push zooming capabilities up to 50x on digital zoom. On the video side, Huawei brings a new Dual-View Video to capture two perspectives of the same scene at once. For example, you get a close-up shot beside one that shows more of the scenery.

Both phones run on up to 86B RAM and the Kirin 980 processor and Mali-G76 GPU. The storage option for the P30 Pro goes up to 512GB, while the P30 goes up to 256GB. Battery for the P30 Pro is at 4,200mAh and it supports Huawei’s SuperCharge, which charges up to a maximum of 40W and Wireless Quick Charge of up to 15W. The P30 has a smaller 3,650mAh battery with Huawei SuperCharge support. However, it doesn’t support wireless charging. The P30 does, however, have a headphone jack, while the P30 Pro doesn’t.

Both phones are launching in Canada on April 11^th and will only be available in Breathing Crystal and Black. You can check out the different carriers for their plans.