Huawei Mate 30 Pro: Huawei’s «hold my beer» moment in spite of everything

Dominik Bärlocher

20.9.2019

Translation: Eva Francis

Video: Stephanie Tresch

It’s finally here – the Huawei Mate 30 Pro. Or maybe not. You might be able to see and touch the flagship phone in Munich but it’s not available to buy quite yet.

There’s been no word on any details about the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and its little sister, the Mate 30. This radio silence is down to the fact Huawei is caught up in a trade war between the US and China. At the moment, US companies are not allowed to trade with Huawei unless exceptions have been granted.

That’s why Huawei laid low for so long. Official device specs that I’d expect to land on my desk a few days before the launch have been noticeably absent. And while the launch event in Munich was a trendy affair, no one was too sure what exactly was being unveiled. Are the Mate 30s on hand for the launch? What’s on them?

While it was obvious that the Mate 30 launch was imminent, we didn’t know if it would happen at the Munich event. It wasn’t until Huawei released a video on 9 September that we were any the wiser.

But now we have some clarity. Not least because I’ve got my hands on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro in Munich today.

CEO Richard Yu seems certain of success

In spite of tribulations with the US that prevent American companies from trading with Huawei, the firm’s CEO, Richard Yu, appears confident on stage at Munich’s new trade fair. There are no signs to the contrary.

He has his «hold my beer» moment when he reveals more and more with every explanation. He doesn’t seem to care what the US bans or who does what to whom. He’s holding a phone that speaks for itself. One that he can be really pleased with. To emphasise this point, he keeps bringing up the iPhone. When he talks about the appealing design of the Mate 30 Pro, the iPhone 11 Max is displayed behind him.

Richard Yu is naturally charismatic and sure of himself. And he has every reason to be. This is the man who is known for being a tech nerd at heart; the man who is now holding a device that on paper makes the competition look a bit old fashioned.

What a screen

Even at first glance, the Mate 30 Pro screen really stands out. The horizon display pretty much covers every edge it possibly could. It does have bezels but the clever curvature and design of the front means the non-screen sections aren’t as noticeable. Then there’s the colours and the sharpness of them. I hope this comes across in the video because the screen really is spectacular – so much of the review comes from just picking it up for the first time. The colours and contrast are well set. And thanks to the AMOLED screen, the image you see looks vivid. What’s more, it features Touch HDR and looks pretty darn impressive.

Meanwhile, behind the 6.53-inch screen is Huawei’s new system on a chip (SoC). The Kirin 990 is based on 7 nm architecture, which is particularly energy-saving. The highlight has to be the 5G modem built into the SoC as standard. On paper at least, this propels Huawei ahead of the competition. Because while other manufacturers have launched 5G-ready smartphones, the modems were always upgraded. As yet, neither MediaTek, Samsungs Exynos nor Qualcomms Snapdragon have built a 5G modem from scratch. What’s more, the whole Kirin 990 platform is smaller. The nerds and engineers at Huawei managed to reduce the size by 36%. In terms of speed, the 5G in the Mate 30 Pro is also designed to be 50% faster than the Note10+ 5G thanks to 14 5G-antennae and clever software and hardware. And as Richard Yu likes to remind us, there are no 5G antennae or 5G modems built into the iPhone 11.

The space that’s gained is used for more neural processing units (NPU). Or rather, a different type of NPU. There’s a big NPU core, which deals with the heavy lifting, while the smaller core provides basic functionality with low power usage. The main work – as far as I understand – happens in the small core. The big core is only fired up for complex tasks. A type of green screen called «real time video AI re-rendering» was already showcased at the IFA in Berlin.

But what’s powering this device? The whole thing is run on a 4500 mAh battery that can be charged with 40 W. When it’s wireless, it boasts 27 W. Richard then starts to talk about the cooling system. He explains that a lot of people don’t really care about this system but it’s something that’s actually very important. Semiconductors perform a lot better in a device when they’re well cooled. Given that the Mate series is meant to have shiny, high-performing technology, a cooled device is all the more important. There’s also 8 GB RAM and 128 or 256 GB internal memory, which can be increased via a nano SD card. However, this will mean sacrificing your dual SIM slot.

In terms of improvements, reverse wireless charging is now reported to be three times as fast as the version in the Mate 20 Pro. Talking of which, Huawei is issuing a 40 W power bank with 12000 mAh capacity. There are also accessories for the car, which charge the phone wirelessly and automatically grip it when you place it in the holder.

The black eye

What’s particularly eye-catching about the Mate 30 Pro is the design on the back. The cameras aren’t arranged in a line or even a square. Instead they’ve been fashioned into a circle. Richard calls it the halo design and adds that it’s iconic and based on a camera lens.

1. 40 megapixel ultra wide-angle cine, f/1.8
2. 40 megapixel wide-angle, f/1.6, OIS
3. 8 megapixel telephoto lense, f/2.4, OIS, 3× optical zoom, 30× digital
4. 3D depth sensor

Behind that is a 40 MP RYYB sensor. According to Huawei, it’s 137% bigger than the one in the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Not forgetting all the elements on the top left of the phone:

1. A flash
2. A time-of-flight camera (ToF), which anticipates focus adjustment and distance measurement.

Calling all videographers

You can now film in 4K, 60 fps with a dedicated cine camera. Time lapses work in 4K HDR. Meanwhile, you can record slow motion with 7680 frames per second but only in 720p. There’s also a directional microphone.

But that’s just a side note. In good time, we’ll be testing it all.

But the CEO does give us a taste of what to expect and admits something on stage. He shows two shots of an exploding balloon: one filmed with expensive cine camera equipment and the other with the Mate 30 Pro. «The cine camera is still better. But the difference in price is just too stark,» he declares. And follows up with: «But our colours are more vivid.»

And that’s how Huawei earns its support.

When it comes to accessories, Huawei doesn’t fall short. There’s a DJI Osmo Mobile 3 gimbal, which has already been integrated into the Mate 30 Pro software. Then there’s Profoto C1 and C2, professional studio lights, which have also been integrated. The lights were developed with the Huawei CameraKit.

As for aesthetics, the back of the Mate 30 Pro comes in four colours:

1. Space Silver: white/silver
2. Cosmic Purple: purple
3. Black: black – finally… a phone colour that is what it says it is.
4. Emerald Green: green

There’s also a vegan option, which is made of synthetic leather and comes in orange and green.

No Google Apps but...

Google apps no longer run on Huawei Mate 30 Pro or its younger sibling. But it’s not the end of the world – no, really. There’s not been a catastrophe of epic proportions as a result quite yet. So in the meantime, Android 10 with Emui 10 runs on the Mate 30 Pro. But it lacks the Google Play Store and all the Google integrations.

However, the whole Google palette can be just be upgraded.

Huawei offers an easy method for doing this themselves. The reason being, neither Huawei nor any of its US partner companies are keen on stopping their collaboration. Industry portal TechCrunch reports that over 130 US companies have sent in applications to the US Commerce Department in an attempt to exempt them from trading with a blacklisted company. But the administration’s response was a resounding no. Thanks, US government.

Fortunately, the workarounds are simple to get well-known services back. I’ve given the standard workaround below, but I’m still to try it out on the Mate 30 Pro to check it’s the same:

1. Open the phone browser.
2. Download the Google Play Store.
3. Open the download.
4. Click «Yes», «Next» and accept all the permissions the browser asks for.
5. That's you done.

See? No big deal.

Hardware: what’s the Mate 30 Pro like to handle?

Now we know what’s inside the phone and how to get around the idiots from the US administration, it’s time to take a look at how the Mate 30 Pro feels. Does it sit comfortably in your hand?

Here’s the low-down. It’s slightly heavier than the P30 Pro, weighing in as it does at 198 grammes. The P30 Pro weighs 192 grammes without a SIM card. And it’s a difference I can feel when I hold it. Somehow there seems to be a weight boundary within those six grammes and once it’s crossed, you struggle not to notice it. The extra weight the phone carries makes it look a bit beefier but that balances out in terms of how it feels to use. But the ultimate question is, does it seem too heavy? No, and to be honest, only nerds like me will probably even feel the extra few grammes. To give you an idea, it seems more like the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ than the LG V50.

The phone is more ergonomic and slim.

When does it launch? Nobody knows

I always see the same question in the comments section under articles like this, namely when will digitec be selling the product? I can tell you one thing for sure. If the launch date hasn’t been mentioned within the article itself, it means even I don’t know. It’s not like I’m going to give you the scoop on all the details and then hide the one very important one everyone wants to know.

The good news is, this time I can give you a bit more information about when you’ll be able to buy the Mate 30 Pro and its sibling on digitec.

The bad news is, it’s not exactly good news.

What I know for sure is this: the Mate 30 Pro comes in a 4G and 5G version – the difference in price is about 100 euros. Unofficially, what I know is this: the Mate 30 series will go on sale some time in 2019.

The exact date is as yet unknown. In light of the political and economic confusion with the trade war with the US, Huawei has its work cut out at the moment and has to fight for licences, software and agreements. The company is not exactly happy with the «current solution», which means pushing back the launch date. But Richard just fails to mention a date and instead focuses on Huawei Mobile Services, the app store and implies that Google apps aren’t even really necessary. Not least because Huawei is investing a billion US dollars in their own ecosystem.

Dominik Bärlocher

Senior Editor

dominik.baerlocher@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.