[News] Honor View 30 Pro GSMArena Review

Good morning all

While we continue to wait for the View 30 series to be officially launched in the UK, that doesn't stop intrepid review sites like GSMArena getting hold of the device to review.

And because I know we all want to see the follow up to the amazing View 20, let's see what they think. As always with reviews from external sources, I am only posting a few excerpts. Please support the people who reviewed the View 30 Pro by clicking the source link!

Just like its predecessor, the Honor View 20, the Vera 30 Pro aims to deliver full-fledged flagship experience without charging a price premium. And that’s not all. The Vera 30 has some unique features that make it stand out - for example the so-called Cine Lens dedicated to shooting 16:9 videos with focus on low-light performance, stabilization and color accuracy. Another cool thing about this phone is the main 40MP RYYB sensor also found in last year’s Huawei P30 Pro and Mate 30 Pro so expect similar performance on the cheap.

Honor V30 Pro specs

• Body: Front and back glass, metal side frame


• Screen: 6.57-inch IPS LCD, 20:9, FHD+ (1080 x 2400px), ~400ppi


• Rear camera: Primary: 40MP, 1/1.7" sensor size, f/1.6 aperture, OIS, Laser AF; Ultra wide-angle: 12MP, f/2.2 aperture, 1.4µm pixels; Telephoto: 8MP, f/2.4, 1/4" sensor size, OIS, 3x optical zoom; LED flash; 2160p@30fps video recording


• Front camera: Primary: 32MP, f/2.0 aperture; Ultra wide-angle: 8MP f/2.2


• Chipset: HiSilicon Kirin 990 (7 nm+): Octa-core (2x2.86 GHz Cortex-A76 & 2x2.36 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4x1.95 GHz Cortex-A55), Mali-G76 MP16


• Memory: 8GB/128GB, 8GB/256GB; UFS 3.0 storage;


• OS: Android 10; Magic UI 3.0


• Battery: 4,100mAh, 40W wired charging; 27W wireless charging


• Connectivity: Dual SIM (5G), Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, USB-C;


• Misc: Side-mounted fingerprint reader, NFC, IR blaster, reverse wireless charging

Of course, features like wireless, wireless charging and fast wired charging are also on the list while the performance isn't neglected since the V30 Pro runs on the powerful Kirin 990 chipset with support for 5G connectivity. A generous 4,100 mAh is also on board to keep the lights on throughout the whole day.

Triple rear camera setup with an emphasis on video recording

The Honor V30 Pro comes equipped with three cameras offering the standard FOVs - like every flagship phone should. However, two of those cameras are everything but ordinary. The main one comes straight from the Huawei P30 Pro and Mate 30 Pro - 40MP sensor (1/1.7") with Quad-Bayer technology (combining four adjacent pixels into one) outputting 10MP image. The sensor is paired with an f/1.6 aperture and OIS. And instead of using the standard RGB matrix, this particular sensor relies on a RYYB arrangement, which according to Honor and Huwei increases the light sensitivity and improves low-light performance.

Daylight samples

When using the main camera for daylight photography, you can expect excellent results. The colors seem true to life, dynamic range is excellent, contrast is nice and well-lit scenes look sharp with plenty of detail. Photos taken during the day are definitely flagship-worthy.

Low-light samples

Once again, the 40MP main camera did just as well in the low-light scenarios. We observed nice colors, adequate sharpness and detail, noise is kept to a minimum, colors are punchy and the dynamic range is downright impressive - even without resorting to Night mode, the HDR algorithm is quite competent. The standard Photo mode handles light sources pretty well too. You really have got to do some serious pixel-peeping to notice any issues at all.

Verdict

Previous Honor flagships were lucrative alternatives to the expensive high-tier offerings from the big smartphone makers giving you all the performance and camera advancements Huawei has in a more affordable package. But with the sudden rise of “flagship killers” and premium all-rounders in 2019, the Honor V30 Pro has to fight off fierce competition like the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, Realme X2 Pro and the OnePlus 7T. Which, by the way, all have Google Services.

Nevertheless, the Honor V30 Pro does excel in several areas like photography (mainly thanks to its primary 40MP camera), battery endurance, fast charging (wired and wireless), great raw performance and feature-packed software. It’s one of those good phones you can’t really get right now. We hope that changes in the near future before the handset becomes irrelevant.

Of course, for those who do not know, political disputes between the US and Honor's parent Huawei have made it so the Google Services suite (The Play Store, Gmail apps, Maps etc) will not be available on this device, and is the primary cause of the delay. While this is exceptionally annoying from a customer POV, it also means that the preceived value of these devices are hit, despite the fact that this is something that can be fixed, and of course isn't a situation Honor wants to find itself in either.

What's more, Honor have put themselves in bother here. The View 20 was the first Flagship phone with the IMX 586 48MP camera sensor. This is still being used today over a year later. This, along with the great Kirin 980, and unique at the time hole punch design, launched before the likes of the Galaxy S10 put it as one of the finest budget flagships ever.

Since then, the likes of Xiaomi, OnePlus and others have noticed, and Honor have a lot more competition in this price bracket now. It means that the View 30 Pro, while a great phone, has to launch, and soon, to get noticed, with or without the Google suite. Someone please, please, get this launched, and price it well, because it will get noticed thanks to the amazing camera and design. Remember not everyone likes curved displays and the View 30 is one of the last flagships not to succumb to this trend.

Anyway, what do you all think? Let me know in the comments, and let Honor know that we want this phone! :)

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/honor_v30_pro-review-2056p6.php