Huawei Mate 30 Pro is mighty, but questions about software remain
UPDATE: Sept. 19, 2019, 8:57 p.m. CEST The Mate 30 Pro indeed won't have Google services pre-installed, though it should be possible to install them manually. How well this will work in practice remains to be seen. As for availability, Huawei tells me it will be announced at a later date in individual regions and by individual channel partners.
Huawei's next generation flagship, the Mate 30 Pro, has been officially announced at an event in Munich on Thursday.
The smartphone is everything you'd expect from Huawei -- it has a powerful new chip, extremely versatile cameras, fast 5G and a big battery with fast charging. But we still don't know whether it comes with Google services, or will it launch in key European markets -- and the answers to these questions are arguably more important than tech specs. Notably, the company completely skipped any mention of these issues during the event and in its marketing materials.
You May Also Like
On the outside, Huawei Mate 30 Pro looks like a mix of various styles, with a sizable notch atop its screen, and a quad camera array inside a large circle on the back. But the phone does bring novelty to the table -- the 6.53-inch OLED display curves sharply down on both sides, more so than on Samsung phones. Huawei calls this the Horizon display. To accommodate for the design, Huawei has done away with the side buttons, replacing them with virtual ones on the display's sides themselves.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
In typical Huawei style, the Mate 30 Pro's specifications are almost over-the-top powerful when compared with the latest flagships from Samsung and Apple. It has Huawei's new Kirin 990 processor (read more about it here) and an impressive rear camera array, with a 40-megapixel main sensor with an f/1.8 aperture, a 40-megapixel ultra-wide sensor with an f/1.6 aperture, a telephoto 8-megapixel sensor with an f/2.4 aperture capable of 3x optical zoom, and a 3D depth sensor. The cameras should be able to take some great photos in low-light conditions and are capable of some nifty tricks, including ultra-slow motion, 7,680fps video recording.
On the front, the notch hides a pretty advanced camera array of its own, with a 32-megapixel selfie camera, a gesture sensor and a 3D depth sensor. This gives the phone 3D face unlocking capabilities, similar to the system used in newer iPhones, and the phone also has an in-display fingerprint sensor for additional security. Finally, the Mate 30 Pro has a 4,500mAh battery with fast wired, wireless, and reverse wireless charging.
The Huawei Mate 30 Pro is available in silver, purple, green and black, and there's also a vegan leather variant in green and orange. The price is 1,099 euros ($1,216) for the version with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and 1,199 euros ($1,326) for the variant with same specs but with 5G on board. There's no word on availability at this point.
The company also launched the Huawei Mate 30, a less powerful device with a slightly bigger, 6.62-inch screen without the extreme side curves and a smaller, 4,200mAh battery. It has a 16-megapixel ultra-wide camera on the back instead of the Pro's 40-megapixel one. It's powered by the same Kirin 990 chip found in the Pro model.
The Mate 30 comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and costs 799 euros ($884).
Topics Huawei
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
