Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro has landed on our sandy shores, but it comes during a turbulent time for the brand.
Last year Huawei suffered at the hands of a trade disagreement between the US and China and responded the only way it could – by ditching American products and services and going its own way.
The Mate 30 Pro is really Huawei’s first flagship phone to be properly affected by the trade spat, and is the first Huawei device in a while that makes use of non-US parts and services (yes, that means no more Google).
From a hardware point of view, the new Huawei Mate 30 Pro is a proper super-powered smartphone.
You get Leica lenses, a 40-megapixel main sensor that takes excellent night shots, a 40-megapixel wide-angle and a telephoto camera, as well as a new ‘laser focus’ sensor for super-fast picture taking. You also get 4K video recording at 60fps and an incredible 7680fps slow-motion mode.
The 6.53-inch screen curves around the edges of the device, and it packs a 4,500mAh battery. It also supports fast charging and – as its name suggests – 5G compatibility.
The new blower is available in two colours – orange and emerald green.
It also packs touch-sensitive volume buttons (on the side of that curved screen) and an under-screen fingerprint reader.
The Mate 30 Pro runs Huawei’s EMUI 10 operating system, which is built on top of Google’s Android. But that’s the only contribution from Google.
Services, such as Google Maps, YouTube, Google Assistant, and the Play Store will not appear on the device, forcing users to make use of competitor app stores (such as Huawei’s own) and other services.
While that doesn’t matter much in Huawei’s hometown of China (Google services have long been banned in the country) in markets where competitive Android devices come chock-full of Google’s best apps that might be an issue.
Regardless, the Huawei mate 30 Pro 5G is available for pre-order on January 15 for US$1,060 (AED3890), and those who do pre-order will get a DJI Osmo Mobile 3 stabiliser thrown in for free.
