Zoom Zoom: Testing 10x Hybrid Zoom in Dublin with the Huawei P30 Pro and Oppo Reno 10x Zoom
by Ian Cutress on May 22, 2019 10:30 AM ESTClosing Thoughts
Ultimately my main use for zoom in the future is going to be at press events for AnandTech, just in case I don’t manage to get my usual front row seat. In those instances, where it is always a rush to get the photo and do the live blog, having presets for the zoom features is critical.
In this case, the Reno wins a point by virtue of having a 2x zoom preset. I should assume that adding a preset could be a simple addition for the Huawei device, or in fact, they could allow users to have custom zoom level presets in future. This would be ideal. But the large jump from 1x to 5x on the P30 Pro isn’t as seamless as perhaps Huawei would like it to be. Nonetheless, for me, any phone with any zoom feature in future should have a series of presets.
At a distance, in auto mode, the P30 Pro does make anything not in direct light a little darker than I would have liked. This isn’t a critical issue, given that a user can apply post processing, but ultimately I suspect only a few will. The Reno does this a little better, however the Reno certainly has difficulties in its 10x hybrid mode. A number of times we saw the images come out a little blurry, however text was easier to read compared to the P30 Pro. I’m not sure if this is a great trade off, however we were told by Oppo that the Reno 10x Zoom will be coming thick and fast with camera updates, so that may change in the future.
In the grand scheme of things, this is a tough comparison. The Reno has the slightly better interface, and the 6x optical zoom does have benefits over the 5x optical zoom in the P30 Pro. However, Huawei’s 10x mode is certainly better than Oppo’s, and it’s a mix up on which one is better with processing based on the situation of the photo at hand. One of the key differences here is going to be price, and the Oppo is nearly 30% cheaper than the Huawei P30 Pro. If one of the next battlefields of the smartphone industry is zoom cameras, then I hope these make their way into the more mainstream soon. We’re already seeing upper-mainstream phones come out with 3x optical / 5x hybrid zooms, and it will be interesting to see how the software adapts to improve the hybrid zoom modes.
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Foeketijn - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
It's hard to see what you are standing on without taking a step back. Future might tell if Huawei actually has bad intentions, or the US government just uses this american fear of the abroad to distract the people from what is actually is going on.It's a shame, only the story of the winning party will be told. And in this case, the west is really dependant on the mercy of the east. China has less of a problem when the export market collapses. So many valuable countries are being screwed over by dodgy western import rules, that if China is willing to enforce their right not to play along, we are not the ones writing history.
China has the rare metals, Venezuela and Iran would love to provide them with oil, Africa resources are already in their back pocket. If the West isn't able to "influence" OPEC, and doesn't have access to the materials to produce anything chip related.
I think in the long run, Huawei is not the thing we are going to forget.
wilsonkf - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
Chinese Government just cut the profit tax to zero for the whole IC and some related industries for two years, then half for three more years, though they still need to pay value added tax (which I think is also lower than other industries) and other government fees.BedfordTim - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
Saves on administration. Tech companies pay virtually zero tax in most countries.shing3232 - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
Dont be that so naive, American government will use whatever excuse to fight trade war. they provide no evidence whatsoever on this ban.Hrel - Friday, May 24, 2019 - link
Yet this site continues to push their crap spyware on all of us.That fact that Anandtech reviews Huawei, fucking HUAWEI, but not Sony smartphones, arguably the best value phones on the market for almost 10 years now, is a BIG PART of why I turned my ad blocked back on for Anandtech and spend FAR less time here than I used to.
Evil fuckbags, stop pushing communism!
lenghui - Friday, May 24, 2019 - link
Hi, must you be so vindictive and hateful?erple2 - Thursday, June 20, 2019 - link
Or, as has been previously stated, this site reviews devices that are sent to them by the manufacturer. As a result, if Huawei sends them 20 devices, and Samsung sends them 0, then I predict that there will be up to 20 Huawei reviews and no more than 0 Samsung reviews. Just sayin'...Sailor23M - Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - link
I have to agree, you cannot ban companies like google, facebook and expect Huawei to get a warm welcome internationally. There is no doubt that have played unfair and stolen technology from other companies. I personally know of other industries in the hardware space where Chinese companies have poached German talent and technology to build things locally in China.Isidore - Sunday, June 2, 2019 - link
so, they will survive about 2 years?duartix - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
To be honest, I find all results at 5(+) zoom are nearly useless.The Huawei P30 mushes all detail and texture to oblivion, while the Reno has either focus or stabilization issues.
Without looking at RAW files from the P30 (to see if the detail is there to be saved from their miserable JPEG engine) and at the same time without a stabilized sample from a production Reno, no conclusions can be drawn.
IMHO there is still nothing here that would differentiate this positively from the ubiquitous Sony IMX586.