Huawei P30, P30 Pro launched with gradient glass body, 40MP primary rear camera and Kirin 980: Specs, features and everything to know

Huawei launched the flagship P30 and P30 Pro phones at a keynote event in Paris on Tuesday. Like the P20 and P20 Pro before them, the P30 and P30 Pro also focus on three aspects - design, cameras and performance. The P30 Pro, being the more premiere of the two, comes with a curved OLED display, four rear cameras, a larger battery with wireless charging and reverse wireless charging, as well as water-proofing. But the P30 with its flatter display, three rear cameras and smaller battery is also no less a flagship phone.  

Both the P30 and P30 Pro have the same design (the only difference is that the P30 Pro has a curved display) - which is a combination of glass and metal. Huawei is retaining its signature light-bending gradient finish - the P30 and P30 Pro use 9 layers of nano optical colour finish and will be available in five colours - Breathing Crystal, Amber Sunrise, Pearl White, Black and Aurora. Both the phones have a teardrop-style notch on the front - which is one of the smallest at 6.64mm according to Huawei.            

Both the P30 and P30 Pro come with in-display fingerprint scanners which are said to be 30 per cent faster than the one on the Mate 20 Pro. 

Both the P30 and P30 Pro are powered by Huawei's in-house Kirin 980 processor and run Android 9 Pie-based EMUI 9.1.             

Huawei P30 Pro 

Successor to last year's P20 Pro, the P30 Pro packs an upgraded quad camera setup on the rear, again fine-tuned by Leica. The P30 Pro has a 40MP primary rear camera (27mm f/1.6 with OIS) which uses a custom Sony sensor that uses an industry first RYYB array for up to 40 per cent more light intake - this sensor is said to be 125 per cent larger than the primary sensor onboard the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus. All of this entails in enhanced light sensitivity and enhanced low-light photography potential - the P30 Pro can shoot at ISOs over 409600. 

The P30 Pro has an 8MP 125mm telephoto sensor with f/3.4 aperture and OIS - Huawei is using a periscope lens that's capable of achieving 5X optical zoom, 10X hybrid zoom and 50X digital zoom. "The Galaxy phone can't shoot the galaxy," Huawei consumer group CEO Richard Yu took a subtle dig at Samsung at the P30-series keynote event, adding that the P30 Pro "can shoot seemingly clear photos of the moon in auto mode." 

The P30 Pro, in addition, also has a 20MP ultra-wide camera (16mm f/2.2) and a Time-of-Flight camera for 3D depth mapping purposes.  

As is customary with any Huawei keynote, the company was quick to quote DxO Mark numbers - the P30 Pro gets an overall score of 112 with a phot score of 118 and video score of 97 - besting the P20 Pro (which was also an industry leader at that time) as well as the best camera phones in the business. 

Huawei is also touting high-end video capabilities such as the ability to simultaneously shoot footage using both front and rear cameras - Huawei calls it Dual view video. 

On the front, the P30 Pro comes with a 32MP camera.

Moving on, the Huawei P30 Pro comes with a 6.47-inch curved OLED display with 1080p+ resolution and teardrop-style notch. The P30 Pro uses the display as the earpiece - Huawei calls it acoustic display technology. The phone is IP68-certified for water and dust resistance. It comes with up to 8GB RAM and up to 512GB storage which is expandable via Huawei's proprietary NM cards. 

The P30 Pro further packs a 4,200mAh battery with 40W fast charging and 15W fast wireless charging - the P30 Pro also supports reverse wireless charging. It does not have a headphone jack. 

Huawei has launched the P30 Pro at a starting price of Euros 999 (roughly Rs 78,000) for the base version with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage going all the way to Euros 1,249 (roughly Rs 97,000) for the top-end version with 8GB RAM and 512GB storage.

Huawei P30 

The P30 has less ambitious but as powerful cameras as the P30 Pro. The P30 packs a triple camera setup on the rear, consisting of one 40MP sensor with f/1.8 aperture (capable of shooting at ISOs over 204800), a 16MP ultra-wide sensor with f/2.2 aperture and an 8MP telephoto sensor for 3X optical zoom. On the front, the P30 comes with a 32MP camera.

Moving on, the Huawei P30 comes with a 6.1-inch OLED display with 1080p+ resolution and teardrop-style notch. The phone is IP53-certified. It comes with up to 8GB RAM and up to 256GB storage which is expandable via Huawei's proprietary NM cards. 

The P30 further packs a 3,650mAh battery with 22.5W fast charging but no wireless charging. Unlike the P30 Pro, the vanilla P30 keeps the headphone jack. 

Huawei has launched the P30 at a price of Euros 799 for the version with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage which roughly translates to Rs 62,000.