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
System Performance
System performance of the new P30s is expected to be excellent. In essence, there shouldn’t be any large difference to the Mate 20’s and the recent Honor View20. All of the aforementioned devices sport the same Kirin 980 chipset as the P30s, and there shouldn’t be any major software differences in the new flagship phones.
Indeed, in PCMark, the P30 and P30 Pro tie in with the recent Huawei flagships, showcasing only minor deviations in the scores.
Interestingly, we see a slightly larger uplift in the web benchmarks, however I found this not to be caused by an increase in performance of the devices themselves but rather seemingly an update in the OS WebView of Android, as re-testing the Mate 20 again showcases the same increased performance figures.
Overall, the P30 and P30 Pro perform identically to the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro – excellently. There’s still instances where Qualcomm (& new Exynos S10) devices perform notably better, such as app opening or activity switching. I think this is due to Huawei’s possible lack of framework boosters.
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jabber - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
I have to remind myself...these are phones?StrangerGuy - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
Gotta really see the reaction from the DSLR diehards on this one.philehidiot - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
I don't understand. DSLR photography is a totally different ballgame to mobile phone photography. I'd say phones like this make compact cameras almost totally irrelevant.DSLR photography is a different kettle of fish - can you even alter the aperture on these phones? Now if you're buying a DSLR for casual photography and never plan to change from the kit lens and just keep it on auto, then yeh... these phones are kind of a kick in the teeth. To those of us for whom using a DSLR is an art and we have insane macro lenses, tripods and occasionally attach them to a telescope.... a good DSLR is going nowhere.
Also, the qualitative beauty of the dynamic range of a DSLR is something subtle and can make or break a photo. Phones tend to go for brash, impactful but ultimately flat photos. You go "wow" when you see them but you can't compare them to the subtle beauty created by a DSLR sensor when used properly by someone who actually cares to do more than point and shoot.
emn13 - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
DSLR's are almost certainly dead in the medium to near term, even for professional use. What I *really* can't wait for is the kind of imaging that's going to possible once this kind of advanced processing is *combined* with higher-end optical systems, as should be possible even on compacts and mirrorless systems. Full-frame is all hyped up and stuff, but the optical sweet spot is almost certainly smaller; the kind of apertures possible even on aps-C and 1-inch sensors are quite sufficient for almost impractically small depth of field; and really, that's optically the *only* advantage there is (at least - assuming people would bother to sell high-end lenses for smaller sensors, which they currently do not).I mean, can you imagine something like this on even just an rx-100 style body? Ideally available in versions with zoom or prime? It would be completely bonkers, and portability isn't that much worse than a modern smartphone.
Frenetic Pony - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
Ahh, the usual internet "experts". The hilarious part is even thinking SLR's are somehow cutting edge, which shows how behind everyone here is. Every camera company now has a mirrorless version, which actually different as it's not an SLR at all, for one!I'm just a casual, hobbyist photographer. But my older, APSC mirrorless camera absolutely CRUSHES my Galaxy s8 in terms of image quality, even with the custom Pixel camera APK installed. And I want a newer camera as I'm severely limited in dynamic range, lowlight image quality, and what resolution I can get good images at (4k just isn't doable). Not to mention my image edges are still soft even with a nice prime lens.
Maybe in a few years, when those smartphone and "Light" partnerships show up, and they pair up like 5 cameras into one image successfully, then big sensor mirrorless cameras time will be limited. But for now, there's no contest.
philehidiot - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - link
How arrogant. So we are using DSLR as a descriptor for brevity and you decide to use that as some way of proving we are all wrong. No, there just isn't a handy accronym for mirrorless big ass camera with interchangeable lenses. You know perfectly well what we were discussing so why not add to that discussion rather than being picky for the sake of it? And yes, a decent large sensor will, in the right hands, destroy a phone but they are different propositions.tuxRoller - Friday, April 19, 2019 - link
https://petapixel.com/2018/03/14/death-dslrs-near/s.yu - Friday, April 19, 2019 - link
I advise you to stop reading Petapixel, those people are more amateur than GSMArena (who do a pretty good job despite the name) and Androidauthority (who are real amateurs) when it comes to image quality review so I don't know if they're actually qualified.jabber - Friday, April 19, 2019 - link
I think I've been reading 'the death of DSLRs' for at least 12 years. If it is a death its a very loooooong one.zodiacfml - Monday, April 22, 2019 - link
No. emn13 knows what he's talking about. I'm I die hard RAW shooter of APSC cameras but high end smartphones definitely comes close considering the size, features, and cost. I did not expect smartphones to come this close so soon as I always believed size is everthing in image quality.Limited to a 4k display, it is really close to an APSC camera with a kit lens.