Chinese smartphone maker launched its next Mate 30 series phones, the Huawei M30 Pro, a 5G version and the Huawei M30 at an event in Germany. While the normal Google apps have been replaced with inhouse offerings, the main operating system is the EMUI 10 built on the Android 10.
Huawei has also put in a lot of focus on the camera section trying to outscore other players in the field.
The Huawei M30 Pro sports a 6.53-inch OLED display panel that curves beyond the front surface into the edges. Huawei calls it “Horizon Display”. The physical buttons normally placed on the edges have been replaced by touch-sensitive options to regulate volume levels etc. The screen resolution is 1176x2400pixels.
The main processor is the inhouse Kirin 990 chipset while for graphics, the Mali-G76 MP16 GPU does duty. RAM support is 8GB and the onboard storage 256GB.
As mentioned, the optics section in this Huawei phone is the highlight with a quad camera setup having two 40MP sensors, one of which is a wide-angle lens. Then there is an 8MP telephoto lens as well as a 3D depth sensor. There are a host of features packed into the photography and video recording functions to make the user experience superior. For selfies, the front camera is a huge 32MP shooter. Huawei has added a 3D scanner to the front setup with a Da Vinci NPU developed by Huawei which can recognize hand gestures which the market has been waiting to see in the upcoming Google Pixel 4 phones next month.
The battery is 4500mAh in the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and comes with a 27W wireless charging capability while the wired charging is rated at 40W. The phone is being issued in six colours, Silver, Green, Purple, Black and a couple of leather options, Green and Orange.
The 5G variant is almost identical in terms of the specs, except that the main processor has an added EUV process to handle higher speeds.
The Huawei Mate 30 sports a slightly larger 6.62-inch display and it is flat, shedding the curves seen on the Pro version. In the camera section, one 40MP camera has been left out, replaced by a 16MP sensor. The 3D depth sensor also gets replaced by a focus sensor. The battery is 4200mAh. The RAM has been kept at the same 8GB but the storage dropped to 128GB.
Now, the Google Play Store will not be available on any of these Huawei phones, nor will there be Google Photos or Google Drive. You have the Huawei AppGallery. Huawei Mobile Cloud will have to be used to store photos and data.
On pricing, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro sells in Europe at €1,099 (approximately Rs 86,600) and the 5G variant €1,199 (≈ Rs 94,500). The Huawei M 30 will retail at €799 (≈ Rs 63,000).
Globally, these phones are expected to be available from October, though there is no separate announcement on when they will come to the Indian market.