Bigger Picture - Huawei P30 Pro

A worthy high-end flagship phone.

- Kunal Gangar

When it comes to smartphones in the entry and mid-range segment, a customer is spoilt for choice. However, when you look at the top-most tier, this scenario is completely different. Apple and Samsung have ruled the roost but Huawei has been challenging them with its devices in the last few years. The Mate 20 Pro was our favorite Android device last year that even bagged our coveted Flagship Smartphone of the Year award and now the Chinese company has come up with the P30 Pro that promises better camera performance along with other bells and whistles.

There’s not much to differentiate the P30 Pro from the Mate 20 Pro because the phone looks and feels very similar, design-wise. It’s not a bad thing though. Mate 20 Pro was a good-looking phone and Huawei has refined the P30 Pro to make it even better.

A large OLED display dominates the front, which is a result of some interesting design and tech decisions. The wide notch has now been replaced with a dewdrop notch; the fingerprint scanner resides under the screen but the most interesting part is the integration of Huawei’s Acoustic Display Technology that creates an electromagnetic sound levitation to project sound from the vibrations in the display to the ear, instead of a traditional top-front speaker. In simple words, there’s no front speaker to listen to when on a call but the audio is generated from the back of the display.

The back boasts a nine-layer nano-optical color finish that gives the phone a unique look. In India, Huawei is selling the phone in two color variants - Breathing Crystal and Aurora and while both look amazing in their own way, we would appreciate if Huawei brings in other color options, even the subtle black.