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 - Low Light Evaluation
Low-light photography is where Huawei’s strengths lie. Starting with the P20 the company was a pioneer in terms of computational photography, not only was the company able to improve low-light capture on smartphones with “regular” camera sensors, it also marked the start of customised camera sensor hardware that was able to achieve much higher ISO sensitivity than any other phone camera on the market.
Huawei’s rationale for adopting the RYYB sensor was in order to improve the low-light capabilities of the phone, promising 30% increased light capture. The P30 Pro in particular we’re expecting some massive low-light capture improvements, not only due to the new sensor but also thanks to the wider aperture as well as the integration of OIS in the sensor – something we haven’t seen in Huawei devices in several years.
[ 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 ]
As a note, shooting in 40MP mode in low light is pretty much a futile exercise, as the sensor just isn’t able to capture enough light without help of pixel binning down to 10MP.
Huawei had already a lead in low-light capture with its previous devices, and the only viable competition was the new Pixel’s Night Sight mode. With the P30s, Huawei now extends this lead. While not exactly reaching the level of detail on the Pixel 3’s Night Sight mode, the P30s both show very large improvements over their 40MP predecessors all while being leagues ahead of other traditional camera sensors.
It’s to be noted the Pixel 3’s Night mode was way off in terms of colour temperature, and the Huawei phones had a more correct representation of the orange illumination of sodium street lamps.
At certain brightness levels such as in this scene, Night mode on the Huawei phones can have a detrimental effect and results in blurred details, even though it produces a brighter image.
Both wide angle modules struggle in low-light, however Night mode can help out a lot. Again between the four wide angle shots between the P30 Pro and P30 we’re getting very different results, with the smaller P30 producing brighter results for some reason.
[ 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 this parking lot, again in regular shooting mode the P30s are ahead of the competition, with the only real contender being Google Night mode. Switching on the P30’s we see better exposure and shadows, although Google continues to retain a detail lead.
On the wide-angle camera, Huawei’s Night mode remains unchallenged. LG’s G8 comes near in terms of exposure, however it lacks details and is very noisy. Samsung’s new cameras are lagging far behind in this aspect.
[ 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 ]
This shot is quite challenging due to the high dynamic range between the illuminated truck cabins and the dark lower parts of the image. In the default mode, both P30s produced too dark images with not sufficient dynamic range, however on the P30 Pro the phone captures an evident HDR processed picture. I didn’t do anything special between takes, and this is something I’ve experienced in the past with Huawei devices. Unfortunately the phone has like a dozen capture modes which get triggered depending by scene, and one has little control over it and the result can only be determined by the resulting EXIF information in the image.
When in Night mode, the P30’s produce better shadows than the Pixel, however the latter continues to have an advantage in terms of detail. The Pixel is also a tad too saturated with the blue of the trucks, while the Huawei phones are too undersaturated.
Camera - Extreme Low-Light Evaluation
Moving on to extreme low-light conditions, these are scenarios we traditionally didn’t expect smartphones cameras to be effective at all. Most phones here will produce a dark image and are at their limit in terms of light capture. To be able to perform here, you need help of specialised sensors or sneaky computational photography.
[ 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 our playground shot in the night, the P30 Pro pulls in some incredible amount of light. The auto shot comes in at ISO25600, however due to the noise reduction you’re hard to notice any noise at all.
The smaller P30 had issues in terms of focusing correctly, and thus it resulted in a blurry shot.
Switching on Night mode, the P30 Pro is able to capture some outstanding results far ahead of any other device. The inclusion of OIS on the P30 Pro really augments the Night mode, and while in past devices we saw more blurred details in this mode, on the P30 Pro things actually get a lot sharper.
The Pixel 3’s Night mode can’t keep up here as even if it’s algorithmically superior, the sensor just isn’t able to capture enough input data.
Comparing the P30 Pro to say the iPhone XS really showcases the massive differences that we’re currently seeing in the competitive landscape, and the differences are absurd.
[ 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 this last in-door shot, the absurdity continues as the P30s are just in a different league. Again between the P30 Pro and the P30 we see the former take advantage of OIS and a resulting sharper picture.
Both phones in the auto mode area already ahead of the pack in terms of capture ability, but turning on the Night mode further widens the gap, achieving even more detail. I was actually aghast to see how natural the resulting image was, yet the actual room was much darker than what’s represented here.
P30 Pro & P30 Low-Light Evaluation Conclusion
Overall, Huawei here hit it out of the park in terms of low-light capture. The new sensors as well as the new optics on the P30 Pro really put the devices far ahead of the curve in terms of what they’re able to produce.
OIS for the P30 Pro in particular has notable benefits, especially when paired together with the Night mode. Huawei’s processing for Night mode is a lot brighter than previous devices. Google still seems to have the better algorithms and resulting Night Sight pictures can be a lot sharper and more detailed than Huawei’s Night mode, however under a certain threshold of low light even the Pixel 3 can’t keep up with Huawei’s new camera modules.
The P30 Pro is the best low-light camera smartphone on the market, with the P30 closely following behind. The competition really needs to scramble to improve their computational photography abilities, and be at least be able to match Google’s implementation. If we’ll see other vendors employ special sensors such as employed by Huawei is to be seen, but for now the company’s cameras are in a class of their own in low-light.
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hawkie - Friday, April 19, 2019 - link
So advanced and yet still unable to adjust notifications volume separate from ringing volume.s.yu - Friday, April 19, 2019 - link
I know that the volume control of some apps are just broken, for example Wechat will destroy your hearing passing the ringtone through the earphones at maximum volume if somebody calls using the VoIP function while you're wearing IEMs listening to music. This app probably has a billion users, it's ****ing ridiculous and extremely annoying.amosbatto - Friday, April 19, 2019 - link
Let's see whether the P30 and P30 Pro pass my standard for what is important in a smartphone:1. Removable battery: No.
1A. If not removable, how hard is it to crack open the case to replace the battery:
Pretty hard. iFixit gives the P30 Pro a repairability score of 4/10. It is very hard to pry open the case without breaking the glass back. In other words you are probably going to throw away this device after 2-3 years when the battery is degraded.
2. How well will it survive drops? Probably not well.
2A. How hard is it to replace the screen and the glass back panel if broken? Hard and expensive.
3. MicroSD slot for memory expansion: No. It has expensive proprietary memory.
4. Can I root the phone? No
5. Can I unlock the bootloader? No
6. Can I install LineageOS? Never. All info on the Kirin SoC is proprietary.
7. How long will Huawei offer updates? 24 months with updates every 2 months, which is decent for Android, but not as good as the Pixel 2 and 3 which will get 3 years of updates or Apple which is 4-5 years.
In other words, I can only expect to use the P30/P30 Pro for 2 years and I can only do what Huawei wants me to do with the phone. I'll pass. Strange how little attention Anandtech pays to these issues in its reviews.
I am now so fed up with the mobile industry, that I preordered the Purism Librem 5, because at least Purism respects my rights as a user.
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, April 19, 2019 - link
> 4. Can I root the phone? No> 5. Can I unlock the bootloader? No
> 6. Can I install LineageOS? Never. All info on the Kirin SoC is proprietary.
> Strange how little attention Anandtech pays to these issues in its reviews.
Speaking as somebody who used to compile his own kernels on his smartphones; it doesn't matter. I don't even root nowdays. The vast majority of readers will not, and I say that they should not care about these things. There is simply no benefit to the user experience.
> It is very hard to pry open the case without breaking the glass back.
I've opened plenty of glass back phones and replaced the batteries, it's not terribly hard. The glass backs are also a lot tougher than you think.
> 2A. How hard is it to replace the screen and the glass back panel if broken? Hard and expensive.
Glass back is very easy. Screen is something that no phone of the last few years will be easy to replace anymore.
> 7. How long will Huawei offer updates? 24 months with updates every 2 months, which is decent for Android, but not as good as the Pixel 2 and 3 which will get 3 years of updates or Apple which is 4-5 years.
Fair enough and true. All Android vendors do lag behind Apple.
Quantumz0d - Friday, April 19, 2019 - link
>The vast majority of readers will not, and I say that they should not care about these things. There is simply no benefit to the user experience.Wrong, I've seen so many people commenting on the articles here about the Bootloader unlock for Huawei phones specially and also how the Android is devolving with killing hidden APIs to disable all developer powerful programming skills, for instance Devcheck by Elemental X dev needed to go full Root else the app wont work. Nova Launcher needs root for D2W functionality.
Draw over other apps is dead, Clipboard access is dead officially, and so many other ton of restrictions how about you read up on Scoped Storage mentioned here by a hardcore Android Developer on the Google's intent on dumbing down Android ?
https://commonsware.com/blog/2019/03/28/death-exte...
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/128591846
Anandtech technical insight "write-ups" are not some YouTube mainstream pleb "talk" instead they focus on extremely geeky stuff. This is exactly what power users care for. As an XDA member every thread there focuses on EAS and other kernel optimizations which go perfectly in line with the AT pieces done by you and Matt.
Root users are less indeed and it's becoming more scarce that doesn't mean you can write off that part entirely. Android by it's right uses GNU GPL V2 and the abusers like MediaTek are left in a dumpster oblivion without a lending hand to make the software patching for the end users like how the community does it for *FREE* when the OEM abandons them and how Qcomm CAF contributed which made them so popular and welcoming for the developers, Running RR 7.1.2 with latest patch thanks to community else that OS was outdated and left in dust.
And I have an LG V30S as well go to WTF thread on XDA and see how many people root that phone, that's not even a OnePlus or Xiaomi phone which are mostly customization centric and root friendly devices. And LG screwed up the DTS X patch in their Official Software update for US998, and guess what ? Community helped it by modifying the Build.prop with ROOT and enable that functionality. Same goes for the G7 EQ app on the V30, with Magisk. So this is not user experience ? and the ESS HiFi mode as well. All this is for one phone.
I think you underestimate AT readers with normal Mainstream people. Sad
Andrei Frumusanu - Saturday, April 20, 2019 - link
> Wrong, I've seen so many people commenting on the articles hereThat's just a loud minority, you have a warped view of general users.
> Anandtech technical insight "write-ups" are not some YouTube mainstream pleb "talk" instead they focus on extremely geeky stuff. This is exactly what power users care for.
Deep-dives such as on Apple's SoCs and µarch are not for power users, they're for the technically curious. There is overlap in this audience, but you're overestimating it.
> Android by it's right uses GNU GPL V2 and the abusers like MediaTek are left in a dumpster
*Android* isn't GPL. The kernel is, and MediaTek VENDORS (they have the responsibility) largely adhere to it.
> I think you underestimate AT readers with normal Mainstream people.
I think I have a good view on who most AT readers are, they're not mainstream people, but they're also definitely not persons like yourself.
Quantumz0d - Saturday, April 20, 2019 - link
Okay. I may have overestimated. But that doesn't explicitly give an impression that Root / BL unlock / Custom ROM are completely useless / lacks any UX improvement because there is a fair share of people using Lineage OS (1.73 Million active installs as we speak -> stats.lineageos.org) and quoting AT articles directly at XDA for new devices.Another instance apart from my own device, the MIUI OS it has tons of Ads. How do you block it ? you need root or BL unlock to improve the user experience be it root or flashing another custom ROM OS or the Pixel GCAM mods with Magisk modules without breaking stuff here and there because system app locations and etc are complicated for even an intermediate user when uninstalling or etc.
Rooting is like getting the keys to your castle back and own it and feel responsible, not handling the keys to the corporations and rely on other entities, which most of us enjoy this part doesn't matter just wanted to mention it.
I think, a little mentioning of BL unlock and acknowledging it (for ownership of the HW one paid) doesn't hurt anyone (Idk if it hurts AT from Huawei POV like how Samsung avoided you out for showing the truth, if that's a case then it's an unfortunate situation that consumer is put in dark)
Thanks
jabber - Saturday, April 20, 2019 - link
Yeah rooting is so 2012. I did it back then (Nexus 4 days) and nightly builds and to be honest it was a waste of life.I do not know ANYONE now personally that roots their phone or puts custom builds on it. Just not worth the effort.
It's only important to a small minority on tech forums. Unfortunately, those kind of people have little perspective of 'normal life' and 'normal people'.
BabelHuber - Monday, April 22, 2019 - link
I think you are confusing rooting with "permanently messing with a device" 😎Also for me the days of custom ROMs and nightlies are over, but I still have a rooted Pixel 2 XL and could hardly use it without root, even though I am on the stock ROM.
The blinding white UI of Android 5 to Android 9 I couldn't stand, so I painted it black with Substratum for years. Night and day difference for me.
My phone had a multitouch bug for months, but there was a Magisk module to fix this.
Google switched off Pixel 3 camera features which my phone is perfectly capable to handle (they gradually added them, though). No need to mess around with hacked Google cameras, a simple build.prop change fixed this.
System-wide add blocking FTW!
So each month I apply the new patch now, then I flash TWRP and Magisk. Afterwards, it's Substratum's time to turn everything black again. Finally, I activate the ad blocker again and quickly change some values in the build.prop.
This is 20 minutes of time every month, and I think it's well spent.
Andrei Frumusanu - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link
Everything you mention Samsung had for years, out of the box, without root.