Huawei P30 is out, an iPhone XR and Galaxy S10e rival with low-light camera creed

Huawei just took to the stage to announce its spring flagships phones, and what handsets it had prepared for us. While the attention seeker here is undoubtedly the P30 Pro with its 10x hybrid zoom camera and stellar low-light abilities, its P30 sidekick is not a mere humble workhorse available at a lower price because Huawei cut a lot of the specs' corners. It actually is as souped-up as last year's P20 Pro in the camera department, and as powerful as the Pro as far as chips are concerned. The best part - it's a very good value for money, here's the full scoop.

If you have still been in your winter sleep, you might have missed all the leaks and flesh shots of the P30 and P30 Pro, so here they are, with seven layers of translucent nanocoating creating shimmering, chameleon-like rears. A "symmetric ultrasmall" waterdrop notch adorns the front, and Huawei didn't hesitate to say that the side bezels are slimmer than on the iPhone XR, which is not a hard thing to achieve. 

Huawei uses Acoustic Display Technology to eschew the traditional earpiece and have the display serve as a boombox via the underlying magnetic suspension. The P30 is IP53-rated for water splash-resistance, while the Pro goes all in with IP68 waterproof rating. Both share an in-display fingerprint scanner, though, and Huawei hinted that it is mich faster than the one it placed in the Mate 20 Pro.

The Huawei P30 has a smaller 6.1-inch flat (woohoo!) OLED display but keeps the same 1080 x 2340 resolution and 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and its 3650 mAh battery pack can only be thankful for that 1080p screen. Add to this the rapid 22.5W charging, and the P30 should both last long and be topped up faster than most of its peers.

The Huawei P30 is powered by the Kirin 980 SoC, which happens to be the same chip that runs the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. This unit will carry a little less memory than its big brother (6GB of RAM), but offers the same amount (128GB) of storage. It also will have only three cameras on the back, with the same 40MP, 20MP, and 8MP sensors configuration, and the whopping 32MP front camera. 

You still get the wide-angle lens and the telephoto zoom, but the P30 will not include the ToF sensor. Well, something had to give, but if the P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro are any indications, the P30 will manage to create great portrait and bokeh shots as it is, even without the time-of-flight sensor on the back.

Huawei demonstrated a few sample shots against the top iPhones and Galaxies that had them beat at the low-light camera game thanks to the new sensor. Needless to say, since the P30 also sports 3x optical zoom, it also beats them in the magnification department, so you are getting a lot of camera for your money, even if you are not going to shell out the money for its more camera-endowed sibling, the P30 Pro.

The P30, in five shimmering colors, with the new Super RYYB Sensor, Android 9 Pie and Huawei's EMUI 9.1 interface pre-installed will be available for pre-order immediately. Shipments of the duo should then begin the following week on Friday, April 5. 

Like its premium sibling, the P30 smartphone also includes a considerable 128GB of expandable storage. Paired with it will be 6GB of RAM rather than 8GB, but this drop is reflected in the smartphone’s price – according to today’s report it’ll cost €799 in most European markets.