The Huawei P30 & P30 Pro Reviews: Photography Enhanced
by Andrei Frumusanu on April 18, 2019 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Huawei
- P30
- P30 Pro
Camera - Daylight Evaluation
Moving on to the camera evaluation, we’re arriving at the main part of this review and certainly the reason most will be reading the article.
As noted in the introduction, the P30s come with vastly different camera hardware, including a new RYYB 40MP main camera sensor. The changes in the sensor colour filter structure are meant to improve light gathering capabilities, but the change to a non-Bayer structure could also have side-effects as in the past we’ve seen camera sensors attempting to employ new structures always fail in regards to artefacts or detail preservation. The sensor is still a 1/1.7” unit, which makes this among the largest sensors employed in smartphones right now, employing 1µm pixel pitches which double up to an effective 2µm pixel size when doing binning in the 10MP capture mode.
Naturally, the new 5x optical zoom module of the P30 Pro will also be an extremely interesting addition to the phone, however the concerns here is exactly how useable it is.
Daylight Evaluation: 3x & 5x Optical Zooms
First off, for the sake of brevity and readability, I’ll be focusing on analysis of the new zoom modules and be revisiting the main sensor in the next page.
[ P30 Pro ] - [ P30 ]
[ P20 Pro ] - [ P20 ]
[ Mate 20 Pro ]
[ S10+ (S) ] - [ S10+ (E) ] - [ S9+ (S) ]
[ G8 ] - [ G7 ]
[ V40 ] - [ View20 ]
[ OnePlus 6T ] - [ Pixel 3 ] - [ iPhone XS ]
Diving in directly into the 5x zoom images of the P30 Pro, we see levels of detail before unseen in a smartphone camera. The P30 Pro is the only phone with a telephoto module performant enough to be able to clearly read the text on the memorial, which is quite insane for a smartphone.
The P30 and past Huawei devices like the P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro do have a 5x zoom factor, however this is a hybrid zoom achieved by their 3x optical modules along with the 40MP main unit. The P30 Pro’s handily beats its predecessors in the resulting detail.
The P30 Pro allows one to go higher in magnification, having even a 10x discrete zoom factor, however under closer inspection of both shots we see that this is merely a digital crop and zoom with no added detail. I would actually even say it’s slightly blurrier due to compression. We’ll get to see that it makes no sense to zoom in further than the 5x optical magnification allowed by the module.
The P30’s 3x optical zoom also isn’t shabby, it’s still far ahead in detail compared to the 2x optical zoom of other smartphones. However both the P30 and P30 Pro’s telephoto modules lack in terms of exposure and colour, resulting in pictures akin to scenarios under cloud-cover, yet these captures were taken in full broad daylight with no cloud in sight. The Galaxy S10s are much nearer to the brightness and contrast of the scene.
[ P30 Pro ] - [ P30 ]
[ P20 Pro ] - [ P20 ] - [ Mate 20 Pro ]
[ S10+ (S) ] - [ S10+ (E) ] - [ S9+ (S) ]
[ G8 ] - [ G7 ]
[ V40 ] - [ View20 ] - [ OnePlus 6T ]
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ iPhone XS ]
In the next scene, we’re again amazed by just how far the P30 Pro’s camera can see, there is really no contest by any other device.
Again, while there’s an incredible amount of detail, the composition is quite flat with not much resulting contrast. Here we have to take into account the sensor merely has an f/3.4 aperture which doesn’t allow for much light. While lacking in the same amount of detail, the Mate 20 Pro’s 5x HZ picture has much better exposure and colours than both the P30s, and odd result as at least the P30 should have been able to get the same result.
[ P30 Pro ]
[ P30 ] - [ P20 Pro ] - [ P20 ]
[ Mate 20 Pro ] - [ S10+ (S) ] - [ S10+ (E) ]
[ S9+ (S) ] - [ G8 ] - [ G7 ]
[ V40 ] - [ View20 ]
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ iPhone XS ]
In the next shot, I’m doing a full sweep on the P30 Pro’s cameras, going from wide to 10x digital zoom with intermediate steps. What I was looking for here is how the P30 Pro fares in intermediate digital zoom factors such as 2x or 3x, before it is able to switch over to the telephoto lens. At a 2x digital zoom / crop, the 40MP sensor of the P30s still manage to get excellent detail rivalling the 2x optical modules of the competition.
It’s only at 3x digital zoom where the P30 Pro evidently falls behind the P30 and Mate 20 Pro’s 3x optical modules. However what this means is that between 3x to 5x zoom factors, the P30 Pro will take worse pictures than its siblings, only regaining the upper hand after going 5x.
I think this very much limits the real-life advantages of the P30 Pro’s 5x optical zoom, as you don’t always want to have such a large magnification. Although not completely perfect, I was surprised how the phone handled 2x and 3x even though it doesn’t have dedicated modules at these levels. It’s a striking difference to look at the P30 Pro’s 3x zoom compared to the Pixel 3’s 3x digital super zoom – both are just cropping on their main sensors, but Huawei’s 40MP unit is just captures that much more detail.
[ P30 Pro ] - [ P30 ] - [ P20 Pro ]
[ P20 ] - [ Mate 20 Pro ]
[ S10+ (S) ] - [ S10+ (E) ] - [ S9+ (S) ] - [ G8 ]
[ G7 ] - [ V40 ]
[ View20 ] - [ OnePlus 6T ] - [ Pixel 3 ] - [ iPhone XS ]
Moving on to talk more about the wide-angle sensors, we see the P30 Pro and P30 as being great additions to the capture experience.
It’s to be noted that on the above shot I saw again very large processing differences between the P30s and the Mate 20 Pro. The latter here has significantly better dynamic range and textures, even though the highlights are a tad too reduced. Extremely high brightness scenarios such as this sun-lit day are extremely tough on the camera processing as the algorithms need to decide what to expose for – in this case it was better to expose for the darker regions in the shot, such as on the Mate 20 Pro. Here both P30s also fare worse than LG’s or Samsung’s wide angle lenses.
[ P30 Pro ] - [ P30 ]
[ P20 Pro ] - [ P20 ] - [ Mate 20 Pro ]
[ S10+ (S) ] - [ S10+ (E) ] - [ S9+ (S) ]
[ G8 ] - [ G7 ] - [ V40 ]
[ View20 ] - [ OnePlus 6T ] - [ Pixel 3 ] - [ iPhone XS ]
While the P30s failed in the last shot, in this scene with the sun in direct view, the Huawei devices are doing much better. While not showing the same dynamic range as the S10s, they both have better detail in their wide camera modules. The P30 Pro in particular seems to be able to have great optics as it avoids any lens flares, on the opposite side of the spectrum LG’s wide angle modules have extremely noticeable optics related flares.
[ P30 Pro ] - [ P30 ] - [ P20 Pro ] - [ P20 ]
[ Mate 20 Pro ] - [ S10+ (S) ] - [ S10+ (E) ] - [ S9+ (S) ]
[ G8 ] - [ G7 ] - [ V40 ]
[ View20 ] - [ OnePlus 6T ] - [ Pixel 3 ] - [ iPhone XS ]
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
85 Comments
View All Comments
Quantumz0d - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
Good camera review, their auto mode looks good at night but the low light photography in smartphone arena is heavily faked. Be it Google insane algorithm for creating unnatural light or th damn Huawei night mode with HW. I think its too fake and perhaps they do have advantages in some situations but going from a dark room to a lit room is bad in my book.Next up the stupid curved glass copy they did from Samsung needs shaming. Plus its a waste that distortion of image is horrible and the damn construction is weak, see Jerry rig for it.
Then the worst parts - NanoSD ? WTF, please call them out for this, proprietary storages ? That's anti consumer, I use my SGS with 200GB SD card yes the 10Yr old phone with replaced battery and Fat32 works. And same in my iPods and V30S, and it works in PC without any stupid gimmicks or bloat.
Finally Andrei, I know your contribution to Samsung Exynos S9 disaster, it was only possible because it allows Bootloader unlock. That's the most powerful feature of Android and its principles of GNU GPL.
This Huawei junk is blocking access to that officially and in India I read the service centers demand DL for their Honor subsidiary, XDA portal people sold their soul to Huawei and OnePlus now their contract expired for OP and Huawei I guess. This is another massive hole in Huawei devices. I have every doubt about the firmware and SoCs from this CPC company I would really wish to have a Bootloader unlock for all their portfolio subsidiaries and themselves. Its bad, no ownership choice is horrible given how their EMUI blocks lot of stuff and notorious for its control over background processes.
You should include that in your reviews, please.
Thank you.
Quantumz0d - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
Also thank you for mentioning the 3.5mm jack and the stupid mono speaker in 2019. LG is Audio champion since a long time and hopefully they will retain that with their top class ESS Sabre implementation moving ahead. Also to note, LG and their new G8 has zero bumps which is a feat along with the Crystal Sound they call. Looking forward for piece.zeeBomb - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
You guys should take a look of MrWhoseTheBoss and his videos about this amazing phone. Such a shame you can't get it in carriers in the Americas, but man oh man.Ian Cutress - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
>You guys should take a look of MrWhoseTheBoss and his videos about this amazing phone.Any specific reason? You haven't exactly said why.
zeeBomb - Monday, May 6, 2019 - link
My bad. Sorry for the late reply too, he talks primarily about the sensor of the P30 Pro and its usefulness in Low Light. Just a suggestion to take a look.bogda - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
I think this statement: "...Huawei continues the senseless design choice of including a headphone jack on the smaller model while skipping it on the larger and more expensive P30 Pro.", makes much more sense if it is changed just a little bit into:"Huawei continues the senseless design choice of skipping a headphone jack on larger and more expensive P30 Pro while including it on the smaller model."
Awful - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
Great review but still missing half the picture when it comes to the camera. Time-of-flight sensor? Graduated blur based on depth map? Portrait/face lighting? People are the most photographed and most interesting subjects. Even if it's a mannequin with a wig for repeatability!s.yu - Friday, April 19, 2019 - link
Portrait lighting has been gimmicky for a few generations now. Regarding ToF, IIRC only the Nokia 9 has the proper implementation. Still there are pixel grade deviations and some people aren't satisfied. Personally if I were to add fake bokeh that precision would be enough for me.Awful - Saturday, April 20, 2019 - link
Yeah, they weren't really meant to be separate concerns- they're all factors contributing to portraits. I.e. how the exposure is chosen, how the depth is mapped to the bokeh/blue, how edge detection is done and masked for blurring, how AI/ML is used to make adjustments etc. All great computational photography stuff...that this review is silent on.Lau_Tech - Friday, April 19, 2019 - link
Hi Andrei, as a s10 exynos owner, was interested to see your updated comparison pics between the snapdragon and exynos. Looking at the pics from ur S10 review and now, it seems to me that the gap has closed substantially especially in daytime photos? What do you think?