Huawei’s newest smartphones feature big screens, small selfie-camera notches, and slim bezels. But the most interesting things about the Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro are on the back of the phones: each has a 3-camera system that Huawei says can snap excellent photos in low-light settings, support long exposures without a tripod, and offer optical zoom.
But those features don’t come cheap — both phones go on sale in select markets starting today, with prices starting at 799 Euros ($900) for the Huawei P30 and 999 Euros ($1130) for the P30 Pro.
The Huawei P30 features a 40MP wide-angle (27mm) lens with an f/8 aperture, a 16MP ultra-wide lens (17mm) with an f/2.2 aperture, and an 8MP camera with a 3X telephoto lens (80mm) and an f/2.4 aperture.
Huawei says if 3X zoom doesn’t get you close enough, there’s also a “hybrid zoom” mode that combines optical and digital zoom to offer 5X zoom.
And then there’s the Huawei P30 Pro, which has the following camera setup:
- 40MP wide-angle (27mm) f/1.6
- 20MP ultra-wide angle (16mm) f/2.2
- 8MP 5X telephoto lens (125mm) f/3.4
The phone uses Time of Flight technology for capturing depth information, enabling face recognition, bokeh-style photography with blurred backgrounds, and other effects.
According to Huawei, the telephoto lens on this model features a periscope design so that it fits inside a relatively compact phone… and the company says in addition to 5X optical zoom, the phone supports 10X hybrid zoom, and 50X digital zoom.
During the launch event for the new phones, Huawei showed a set of images of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In one image, you can see the whole tower. In a second image, which is said to have been taken using digital zoom, you can read the writing on a portion of the tower.
As for non-camera specs, the Huawei P30 Pro features a 6.5 inch, 2340 x 1080 pixel curved OLED display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, a 4,200 mAh battery, and IP68 dust and water resistance.
It also comes with a 40W fast charger and supports 15 watt fast wireless charging as well as reverse wireless charging (which means you can charge another Qi-compatible device by putting it on the back of the phone).
The standard Huawei P30 has a 6.1 inch, 2340 x 1080 pixel display, a 3,650 mAh battery, 22.5 watt fast charging, and an IP53 rating for dust and water protection.
Both phones have Kirin 980 processors and 32MP front-facing cameras as well as in-display fingerprint sensors and USB Type-C ports.
The Huawei P30 features 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while the P30 Pro has 8GB of RAM and will be available with 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB of storage.
Interestingly the P30 has a headphone jack, while the P30 Pro does not… but the P30 Pro does have an IR blaster if that’s something you’re looking for.