The Huawei Mate 30 Pro Review: Top Hardware without Google?
by Andrei Frumusanu on November 27, 2019 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Huawei
- Kirin 990
- Mate 30 Pro
Video Recording
Video recording on the Mate 30 Pro is said to have been significantly improved, and the inclusion of the new 40MP “Cine” camera that also serves as the new ultra-wide sensor. Huawei was very keen on the new video recording capabilities of the phone, so let’s set out to test new modules.
Starting off with 4K30 on the main sensor, we notice that the image looks quite flat and lacking contrast. Throughout the various parts of the recording we see that this actually changes quite a bit depending on the lighting. Recording against a brighter background we however see a fundamental limitation of the camera and processing: it’s not able to deal that well with high dynamic range scenarios. The sky is either too blown up, or the foreground is too underexposed.
Zooming in while recording, the phone has issue with balancing exposure correctly and it takes a long time for the telephoto lens to focus, if at all.
Using 60fps recording I feel like the picture quality is actually better. This isn’t because it’s 60fps or somehow the bitrate is higher, in fact the bitrate of the resulting videos is seemingly capped at 28Mbps in the HEVC recording mode, no matter if it’s 30 or 60fps. The 60fps mode looks better because the EIS is disabled and the phone is just better able to hold details.
In the higher rate recording mode, you can only use the sensor with which you start with and not switch around. On the main camera I noted focus issues in this mode as the phone had trouble to autofocus on near objects, either taking a really long time or not doing it at all and requiring a manual tap in the viewfinder.
On the ultra-wide-angle, we see a similar slow focus. This time around, the camera is very slow in focusing out in far objects and takes up to a second to realise it needs to change. At 4K30, image quality in terms of detail is similar to the main camera, which I feel is a bit bitrate bound, the 4K60 footage looks better as less detail is blurred by the EIS.
Unfortunately, the exposure handling in switching between the main camera and the ultra-wide is just quite terrible in the scenes I shot, with extremely uneven exposures and slow switching between the modules.
Huawei always had weaknesses in regards to video recording, but I expected them to be able to achieve more this generation. The Mate 30 Pro just really isn’t competitive with what Samsung and Apple are able to offer in terms of quality.
Speaker Evaluation - Pretty Bad
Speaker quality on the Mate 30 Pro isn’t very high end. The phone only has a single mono bottom firing speaker for media playback – while it does have an under-screen speaker vibrator which uses the display panel as a speaker membrane, this can’t be used for general audio.
In terms of the audio quality of the main speaker, it’s very mediocre. While the unit has good lows, it’s lacking in the higher frequencies and thus sounds quite muted compared to what we’re used to from other flagship devices. It’s also doesn’t get nearly as loud as what we see from the competition, and seemingly is also quieter than what we saw from some previous generation Huawei devices.
Overall, audio quality on the Mate 30 Pro isn’t very up to par. The fact that Huawei still continues to leave out the headphone jack on the more expensive “Pro” models and choosing to integrate it in the regular models such as the Mate 30 still boggles the mind as to what exactly they’re thinking. Well, don’t answer that, I guess the company’s offering of wireless headphones is self-explanatory.
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invinciblegod - Wednesday, November 27, 2019 - link
What you say is true, but there is also no international law that says US has to do business with Huawei if the US doesn't like what Huawei is doing. As such, the US decided to ban Huawei so that other companies will do what the US wants them to do (or not do). Basically, if you want to do business in China, you must in general follow China's instructions. If you want to do business in the US, you must follow US instructions. To do both you must be able to balance the two without angering either, which I guess is becoming harder.airdrifting - Wednesday, November 27, 2019 - link
I was replying to the previous post which implies no one is buying from Huawei except Iran.invinciblegod - Wednesday, November 27, 2019 - link
Also, like it or not, the US is currently the center of the world, otherwise US ban of Huawei would have literally no effect. No one cares if say Iran bans your product, but many people do care if the US bans your product (or hinders it in some way).obama gaming - Wednesday, November 27, 2019 - link
except... it doesn't really have that much of an effect. Huawei still remains as the largest telecommunications company and their stocks haven't drastically crashed either...invinciblegod - Wednesday, November 27, 2019 - link
Didn't they say they have a year supply of parts? If that is the case, then it would be a year at minimum for there to be any major effect. Also, to amend my previous statement, the US has not actually banned Huawei yet because they keep giving them 3 month exemptions which basically pauses the ban. Because the exemptions keep happening, people are more relaxed and think it will continue forever, sort of like Brexit.s.yu - Thursday, November 28, 2019 - link
You are completely correct, without continuously running for over a year, the ban is almost entirely symbolistic.webdoctors - Wednesday, November 27, 2019 - link
LOL, that's because the expectation is they'll get a reprieve like ZTE did. If USA went nuclear and just banned Huawei from the SWIFT banking system, Huawei stock would be worthless over night.USA has a huge number of ways of damaging a corporation, much more than China. China can only ban you from selling in China, USA can essentially ban you from doing business in the entire world using their 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon if they want to go nuclear.
s.yu - Thursday, November 28, 2019 - link
"China can only ban you from selling in China“Don't underestimate the Party, they stalled anti-trust probes of other companies twice(Motorola and Qualcomm) in retaliation to investigations into Huawei's IP theft and each time did a lot of damage. Their unique advantage is that they could hit you in ways you never thought possible.
s.yu - Thursday, November 28, 2019 - link
"There is no international law says you can not sell phones to Iran, US can whine and moan all she wants but Huawei is free to do business with whoever they want because they are not a US company"Says the Huawei drone?
Then who gave the CCP the right to block the Motorola-Nokia Siemens and NXP-Qualcomm mergers incurring hundreds of millions of damages when all the rest of the world gave the green light? None of those companies are Chinese.
alufan - Wednesday, November 27, 2019 - link
whole Family have been Huawei users for the last few years however not any more the mate 20 pros curve was just tolerable this one seems way to much and yes lack of banking apps etc is a total deal breaker for us