Hands-On, Smartphone

Huawei P30 Hands-On: The More Affordable Alternative

Update, 3 April: The Huawei P30 is now in Malaysia, and only the 128GB variant with 8GB of RAM is available here. Retailing at RM2,699, the phone is available in three colours: Aurora, Breathing Crystal, and Black.

Set to go on sale on 6 April, the P30 is priced pretty competitively in Malaysia. In fact, it retails at the exact same price point as the Samsung Galaxy S10e – the most affordable device in the Galaxy S10 series.

Nonetheless, for RM2,699, the P30 really does offer good value for money. It may not be quite as impressive as the P30 Pro, but it certainly serves as a good (and much more affordable) alternative.

The original article follows.

The Huawei P30 Pro may be the star of the show, but the more affordable Huawei P30 has a few tricks up its sleeves too. It can definitely hold its own against the competition, and for those who don’t want to spend top dollar for a smartphone, the P30 is worth considering.

Plus, you do get some of the P30 Pro’s impressive zooming capability with the standard P30, not to mention the fact that these two devices share pretty similar set of hardware too. Without further ado, let’s see what the P30 has to offer at a lower price point.

First things first, camera. Unlike the P30 Pro’s more elaborate quad camera configuration, the P30 features a Leica triple camera system instead. It consists of a primary 40MP shooter, a 16MP wide-angle sensor, and an 8MP telephoto camera, minus the periscope-style prism. It’s not quite as sophisticated as the Pro’s camera system, but hey, the P30 is still a versatile shooter.

Besides, the P30 can do up to 30x digital zoom too. Check it out below.

Not quite as impressive as the P30 Pro’s 50x zoom, but still very respectable zoom performance. Also, much like the shots I took with the P30 Pro, these images are captured with a pre-production unit of the P30. You may get different camera performance on a retail unit of the device.

Of course, the P30’s camera comes with night mode too. Here are two shots taken with and without night mode enabled.

Just like how it was with the P30 Pro, enabling night mode on the P30 returns a better, brighter, and more appealing shot. Even though the second shot is taken with a six-second exposure, it still looks plenty sharp, despite the fact that I took the shot handheld without the assistance of a tripod.

While the P30 doesn’t have its Pro counterpart’s more sophisticated camera system, it still has very respectable camera performance. On top of that, the P30 also has the same 32MP front-facing shooter.

Okay, now that we’re done with the P30’s camera performance, how are other aspects of the phone? Equally good. The P30 I got my hands on is the “Breathing Crystal” variant, and it looks very, very sleek. It changes colour depending on what angle you’re looking at the phone from, and this colourway definitely gives the phone a unique look.

If this colour is too flashy for you, don’t worry: it also comes in black for those who want a more low-key design.

Looks aside, the P30 is a comfortable phone to hold too. The glass and metal construction feels premium, and even though it doesn’t have the Pro’s dual curved display, the phone as a whole still looks and feels great. Yes, the P30 has a more conventional flat display.

Flat or curved, the P30’s 6.1-inch 1080p OLED display looks great anyway. It’s an OLED panel, so you get excellent blacks, great viewing angles, and vibrant colours. The bottom bezel of the phone has been shrunk quite a bit too, but unfortunately…it also has a notch at the top.

In the performance department, the P30 is also powered by Huawei’s Kirin 980 chipset like the Pro model. It’s the company’s fastest SoC to date, so rest assured, performance will not be an issue with this smartphone. For what it’s worth, I didn’t notice any slowdown when I was testing the phone.

Because the P30 is a smaller phone, it also has a smaller battery than the P30 Pro. That being said, its 3,650mAh battery is still pretty darn big for a phone this size. Chances are, it should be able to deliver above average battery life.

Rounding out the specifications of the P30 are 8GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, an in-screen fingerprint sensor, support for dual 4G, and an NM card slot; Huawei’s proprietary Nano Memory card. Surprisingly enough, unlike the P30 Pro, this phone has a 3.5mm headphone jack – no such feature on the former.

The Huawei P30 may not be as groundbreaking as the P30 Pro, but it is a very respectable flagship smartphone. It still has some of the Pro’s camera features, it has the same chipset and OLED display, and more importantly, it is more affordable – this reason alone may be enough for consumers to opt for the standard P30.

Much like the P30 Pro, the P30 will also be launched in Malaysia next week on 2 April. We don’t know yet how much these phones will cost in Malaysia, but you can expect the P30 to be more affordable than the Pro.

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