Mate 30 Pro, in-depth analysis of Huawei's most "pro"

If you have been following us lately, you will have taken good note that we have had the Huawei Mate 30 Pro in our hands for approximately 20 days, enough time for us to have thoroughly tested its main features, having tested its cameras and above all, winning the experience necessary to bring you our in-depth analysis. We have here the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and we tell you all its details in depth, what we liked the most and what we liked the least. Discover with us in this in-depth analysis the Huawei Mate 30 Pro as well as its most interesting secrets, are you going to miss it?

If you missed our unboxing it is a good time to take a look, What better way than to experience the experience of taking this exclusive device out of its box with us live? As always, at the top we leave you our YouTube video where we analyze the device in depth, where you will be able to see how its most interesting features are executed.

Design: A smartphone that will turn many necks

Huawei has opted for the slight redesign of a terminal that we already praised at the time, the Huawei P30 Pro. Built in polished metal for the chassis and glass for the front. The magic begins precisely with the glass, between the back and front curvature of the screen to the side and side of the terminal we have to strain our eyes to find the thin metal frame, never has a brand made such an aggressive on-screen edge, and that's where a lot of eyes are focused.

Thanks to this, even though measures 158,1 x 73,1 x 8,8 mm, and weighs no less than 198 grams, We are in front of a comfortable terminal at hand. Unquestionably it gives a feeling of fragility (an unreal feeling) and is a magnet for footprints, but to show off you have to suffer as they say. At the bottom as it happened with the P30 Pro we have the USB-C, the speaker output, the microphone and the card slot. At the bottom, also flattened, we have an infrared sensor and a room microphone. For its radical rear we have that huge circular camera module that mounts four sensors. We have tried the black version, which in principle will be the only one available in Spain along with the mauve color. With its notch in the front (justified by an advanced facial scanner) it is necessary to focus on the side buttons, a single and small button that will act as a «lock» and the first big absence, we don't have volume buttons, which we will talk about later. This Huawei Mate 30 Pro has a delicate beauty, it looks like a piece of jewelry, and I don't want to sound pedantic but that's what it arouses me, I've never felt something like this with a smartphone.

Technical characteristics: Do not miss anything

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Brand, Huawei

Model, Mate 30 Pro

Dimensions, 158.1 x 73.1 x 8.8 – 198 grams

Display, AMOLED 6.53″ – 18.5:9 ratio and 1176*2400 resolution (409PPP)

RAM, 8GB

Storage, 128GB + NM Card

Battery, 4.500 mAh – QC 40W – Reversible wireless charging

Operating System, Android 10 AOSP + EMUI 10

Battery, 5.200 mAh (3 to 4 hours of use)

Extras, Dual-Band GPS – NFC – On-screen fingerprint reader – 3D Face ID – BT 5.0 aptX

Main Camera, 40MP Cine Camera f/1.8 + 40 MP SuperSensing f/1.6 OIS + Telephoto Lens 8MP f/2.4 OIS + ToF

Selfie camera, 32 MP f/2.0 + ToF

Price, 1.099€

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In this Huawei Mate 30 Pro we do not have great absences, the Kirin 990 7nm makes an appearance to remind us that we have power for a while, 8 GB of RAM that do not make an abusive boast but show enough and a battery of 4.500 mAh which causes a true heart attack. The "premium" functions, the design and the camera are going to be the true protagonists in this Huawei Mate 30 Pro.

An absorbing screen and the return to Full HD +

We find this 6.53 ″ AMOLED panel, 18.5: 9 ratio and 1176 * 2400 resolution (409PPP), it certainly meets the needs. The fit once again is pretty good, I've been using it with factory settings. It has a very high brightness, we have more than enough to use it in outdoor environments. Delivers a quality viewing experience thanks to HDR (and DolbyVision). Without a doubt, the festival begins with the 90º curvature of its two sides, it is absurdly beautiful, And it is absurd because of the dysfunctional, we found some chromatic aberrations on those sides with the usual viewing angles of edge screens and accentuated by the aggressiveness of this. Using it is quite comfortable, although you have to get used to it, that is if you don't end up gawking seeing how the content flows on that screen.

As for the sound, we have a powerful speaker at the bottom and a sound emission system through the screen. The combination of both offers a decaffeinated but sufficient stereo. The speaker behind the screen offers a very good experience in phone calls, but not so good when it comes to consuming multimedia content. This does not mean that the Huawei Mate 30 Pro sounds loud and clear, but it does not stand out in sound. Yes, I miss that Huawei has not bet on this Mate 30 Pro for the 90 Hz fashion, I would have loved it.

First of all, install the Google Play Store

I received an interesting speech about the Huawei App Gallery and its benefits. We have EVO Banco, WeChat and even Amazon (North American company), but I need the Google Play Store, and so do you. The first big obstacle to overcome in this Mate 30 Pro is the absence of Google Services and Google Play Store, the presence of Huawei's services does not satisfy the demand for a device. For this I went to the tutorial of the colleague EloyGomezTV and I elaborated my own that we leave you a few lines below. Five minutes later and with the arrival of the Google Play Store, this Huawei Mate 30 Pro goes from being a teenager to an adult and completes an experience that until then was only theoretical.

• Customizable gesture system
• Possibility of hiding the notch
• Possibility to hide the edges
• Always on display mode

We started with EMUI 10.0, redesigned to offer a better in-camera user interface, smoother navigation, and flatter menus in keeping with current trends. As always the customization layers either love them or hate them, I personally feel very comfortable with EMUI 10.0 and its extensive customization capabilities, And I'm sorry to repeat myself, but once the Google Play Store and Google Services are installed, the experience is absolutely enriching. It goes without saying that we run YouTube and WhtasApp without any problem, even receiving their updates like any other Android terminal. We found a slight problem with Netflix, which due to its security system forces us to install an old version compatible with the terminal, but just as functional.

Many extras, because it is "premium"

We start with the user experience of some of its peculiarities. The first absence is that of the volume buttons, replaced with a solution that until now has never been done so well before. Pressing two taps on the upper side of the screen (on the side that we want) starts the volume control menu, offering a haptic response and efficient performance, as soon as you use it twice it is as if you had had it all your life . The question is: Was necessary? In a scenario in which it is so difficult to innovate Huawei has taken a risk, it has negative points such as the difficulty of lowering the volume with TWS headphones and the Mate 30 Pro in your pocket, but I return to the mantra that to show off you have to suffer, and I am pleased to applaud these types of innovations that bring quality solutions.

We return again with 3D Face ID, a highly efficient facial scanner that accompanies this Huawei Mate 30 Pro and that differentiates it from its brother the P30 Pro. It unlocks very quickly in all lighting conditions that we can imagine and in my experience it is totally safe. To be thankful is also the possibility in settings to make it advance without having to slide on the screen, the best face unlocking experience I have had to date. This It is complemented by a fingerprint sensor on the screen, it is as fast and efficient as that of its predecessors, with a good range of action and speed, although if you have activated 3D Face ID I can assure you that you will not have time to use it. These types of details remind you that you are looking at a "premium" phone that does not lack any extras.

Cameras: Huawei's great leap in video recording

Video recording takes center stage in this edition of the Mate 30 Pro, the firm knew that it was the pending task and that has catapulted the Huawei Mate 30 Pro to the No. 1 in DXoMark, the best camera ever mounted on a mobile phone with 121 points. We start with the application, the arrival of EMUI 10 has been great for the camera application that now allows you to use the full screen, has adjusted the buttons so that they do not interfere with the experience and in the end it leaves behind those yellow tones that indicate the ON / OFF of its functions, the application is simple and effective, designed to capture every moment, and if you are looking for something more complex it has its own section. Not osbtante, We invite you to see our in-depth camera test

In traditional photography we find a sensor of 40 MP, f / 1.6 (1 / 1.54 ″), 27 mm and optical stabilizer, a photograph that mainly has three essential modes: Artificial Intelligence; Standard and HDR. Personally, each photograph has its moment, I usually prefer the standard mode since I tend to edit the photographs later, it offers well adjusted tones, without saturations and with an incredibly high lighting capture, whatever the conditions. It is difficult to see noise even in low light. By default the application takes photographs at 10 MP although we can configure it at 40 MP at will, the difference between one photograph and another is noticeable at the level of contrast and saturation, higher at 10 MP, while with 40 MP we obtain a little more of detail but much more processed. In the case of Artificial Intelligence, as always, it is responsible for plastering the predominant colors and making something more striking.

We went to portrait mode and wide angle, the former has good edge definition thanks to the ToF sensor and the telephoto lens. A well-defined blur, although somewhat aggressive (according to taste) and that also defends well indoors and that, as usual, decreases in the middle of the night. As for the Ultra Wide angle, we obtain good detail despite the "drop" of pixels, well-defined colors and essentially a result almost as good as with the main camera in broad daylight, but it can drop if we put it to the test. low light. Portrait mode can be supplemented with Aperture Mode for more "editable" results, offering a bit more quality, but complicating matters for the standard user.

Huawei's Night Mode It is more than contrasted, as always it has the problem of having to wait about seven seconds between shots to capture different exposures, but the final result is offered with enough detail and without noise. As almost always in these cases, the skies that were actually dark are lit. It will depend on the needs of the photo in question.

We move on to video recording that in this Huawei Mate 30 Pro has caught up with the leaders such as the recent "Pro" range of the iPhone 11. Image stabilization is very good even in 4K 60FPS shots, something in which its little brother, the Huawei P30 Pro, it faltered a bit. We find well-defined shots and a multitude of effects in the application, but once again the clarity and processing of the content we record is surprising, with a very good automatic focus and management of white balance and lighting. For a button, an example is that the 4K resolution videos that accompany this analysis are recorded with the Huawei Mate 30. Special mention deserves the possibility of recording in Super Slow camera at 7.680 fps That even makes the «El Hormiguero» team blush, the results are spectacular, but it is a mode that suffers in low light and in the hands of an inexperienced person.

In the selfie camera Huawei has thrown the rest, a 32 MP f / 2.0 sensor supported by ToF to offer a higher quality portrait. We find a definition selector, night mode and a lot of variety in EMUI 10.0 that we will generally end up without using. Even though that him beauty fashion affects the photo, we achieve incredible detail in the selfie, something that I had never seen to date. Portrait mode may seem a bit artificial and it suffers when we aggressively test it, but the quality of the standard selfie is so good you'll forget it.

Autonomy and user experience

I have been with this Huawei Mate 30 for almost a month, being one of the phones that has generated the most expectation in recent times. Huawei's Mate range has something special for those of us who like mobile telephony, even if you are not a customer of the product, you know that it is aspirational. As for daily use, I have found a barbaric 4.500 mAh battery that pulls the panel and functionalities very well, offering 40W of fast wired charging and 27W of fast wireless charging. The result is ease of reaching eight hours on the screen, and the ability to easily forget about the plug.

What I liked the most about this Huawei Mate 30 Pro it is undoubtedly the daring, an «edge» screen design that makes it a piece of jewelry, a differentiated and unusual camera module (as happened with the Mate 20), a leap in cameras that offers quality recording above all, something focused on us, professionals and proven hardware, which make it one of the "premium" terminals with Android more to take into account. Also, EMUI 10.0 is a slight but nice generational leap.

It also has its negative points From my opinion, the aggressiveness of its curvature creates chromatic aberrations that not all users will understand, and of course the most important thing, at the moment it lacks Google Play Store, and it seems to me completely unfair that the worst of this terminal is not a Huawei's failure, but the political vagaries that end up affecting consumers. The decision to veto Huawei has deprived this Mate 30 Pro of earning all the covers as a serious candidate for the best mobile device with Android of 2019 and from here (this is a personal opinion) I have to say that it seems to me a tremendous injustice.

This Huawei Mate 30 Pro, which It costs 1099 euros, it can be reserved until November 17 to buy it at the Huawei Space in Madrid, where will you receive € 299 on a check to buy brand accessories.

Editor's note: Since the Huawei veto seems soon to be lifted, and in the analysis we do not attend to political reasons, it would seem unfair to subtract points at the "software" level in this device for a reason that is not inherent to Huawei, therefore, I make the valuation as I have used it, with Google Play Store and Google Services.