Huawei P30 Pro: Rumours | Pricing | Specifications

Huawei's next premium smartphone is shaping up to be an exceptional camera phone.

Huawei has two primary flagship phone lines, with the more productivity-centric Mate series typically launching later in the year. The first half of the year belongs to its style-centric P-series phones. In 2018, that saw the release of the Huawei P20 Pro, an exceptional camera phone that was really only bested by the release of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro later in the year.

That sets a very high bar for the Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro to leap over. While there's only a small quantity of rumours swirling around now, they do serve to suggest where Huawei's going to pitch its next premium flagship.

Design

• Teardrop display
• In-display fingerprint sensor likely on the P30 Pro

• Read more on the Huawei P30 Pro's design

  

  An early leak from Mobilefun suggests that the P30 Pro will feature a teardrop-style notch design, making it visually similar to the Huawei Mate 20 from the front. If that's accurate, it will be a departure from the "punch hole" front-facing camera design Huawei's using on the newer Huawei Nova 4.

  Those leaks also suggest vertically mounted cameras at the rear, and they're working from the assumption that Huawei will at least offer standard black and twilight variants of the Huawei P30 Pro. Given Huawei's taste for colours, it seems likely that there will be more than just that, especially for such a style-centric phone.

  We've heard nothing specific about it, but we'd be very surprised if there wasn't a new, even more premium-priced Porsche Design variant of the Huawei P30 Pro as well.

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Camera

• 3 or maybe 4 cameras
• Rumours suggest 38MP primary sensor
• Possible larger sensor size

• Read more on the Huawei P30 Pro's camera

  The Huawei Nova 4 stands out for the inclusion of a 48MP sensor, but the current rumours suggest that the Huawei P30 Pro will step that back to a 38MP primary sensor, paired with either 2 or 3 secondary sensors. The current rumours point to 4 rear cameras on the Huawei P30 Pro and just 3 on the regular Huawei P30.

  Where it's suggested that the Huawei P30 Pro might bring added photo quality is via the use of camera sensors with larger individual pixel sites. That should give it even better low light performance, as larger sensor sites allow a camera to capture more light even in challenging situations. We've not heard much about what that 4th camera might enable, but we're hopeful that Huawei might shift back to the use of a dedicated monochrome sensor, given it shifted away from that with the Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

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Performance

• Kirin 980 processor expected
• Will Huawei continue its nano memory experiment?

• Read more on the Huawei P30 Pro's performance

  The Huawei Mate 20 Pro saw the introduction of the exceptional Kirin 980 processor, and we'd expect that this home-grown processor will form the heart of the Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro as well. That's the model that Huawei's adopted for the past couple of years, with the Mate series introducing a new processor line later adopted by the P-series phones.

  It's a given that the Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro will run on Android 9, but what's not clear is what kind of memory expansion we're likely to see. The other new feature of the Mate 20's hardware story was Huawei's own nano memory (nm) card format. Huawei could make the P30 Pro expandable only via nano memory, or possibly not at all, as it did with the Huawei P20 Pro.

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Battery life

• No solid rumours yet about capacity
• Wireless and wired charging expected
• Reverse wireless charging likely

• Read more on the Huawei P30 Pro's battery life

  There's no real detail just yet around the Huawei P30 or Huawei P30 Pro's battery life to speak of, although we can take some hints from the Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro. Huawei's well aware of the importance of battery endurance, and in the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro it managed two of the very best phones in this respect in 2018. We're expecting big battery life out of the P30 Pro as a result.

  Premium phones really can't do without wireless charging, so that's all but given, but what might be a P30 Pro-only feature is the capacity for reverse wireless charging. That's a feature on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, allowing you to use it as a battery pack for other Qi-enabled devices. It's a bit of a gimmick, but it's a fun one.

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Early outlook

• Price and style will be key to the P30 Pro's success

• Read our early Huawei P30 Pro verdict

  Huawei went from strength to strength with its 2018 phone line-up, but that creates something of a challenge for the Huawei P30 Pro. Where in previous years the Mate series were very serious, not particularly stylish phones, the Huawei Mate 20 and especially Huawei Mate 20 Pro were much more stylish affairs. That's meant to be the P30 Pro's playground, meaning Huawei may have to pull out some further spectacular design ideas to really stand out.

  Pricing is also going to be key to making the Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro a success. Huawei priced the Huawei Mate 20 Pro at a premium level, but the Mate 20 is – for a flagship phone – relatively affordable. Unless there's some really compelling extra camera features or fun gimmicks on the Huawei P30 Pro, it might struggle if Huawei prices it significantly above the price point of the Mate 20 – and even more so if it's at a similar price point to the Mate 20 Pro.

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Pricing and availability

• The Huawei P30 Pro is expected to launch in February 2019
• Expect pricing around the $1,000 mark

Huawei launched the Huawei P20 Pro in February 2018, and yearly release cycles make a lot of sense to hook in buyers of earlier phones, especially those on contract. There's no official word from Huawei as to when it will launch the Huawei P30 Pro as yet, but rumours do point to February being the month when it will officially reveal it to the world.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro

Huawei's flagship camera phone

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro combines the power of Huawei's own Kirin 980 chip, an exceptional battery and a class-leading triple camera array.

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