| 2-minute Review [Positives] |
- Beautiful, aesthetic, dual-glass-with-metal-frame design
- Stunning gradient color options, something that's now becoming a bit of an industry standard, but was first introduced by Huawei itself
- Nice ergonomics, even for such a large screen device - because of all the curves it feels smaller and thinner than it actually is (the front and rear glass pieces are both curved towards their longer sides)
- The under-display fingerprint scanner is arguably the fastest sensor of this type yet (matching speeds of physical sensors), and works pretty much flawlessly
- There's also quick face unlock available, if you prefer to use that
- IP68-rated for dust and water resistance
- Excellent, sharp, large 6.47-inch HDR AMOLED screen with a tiny cut-out notch, and skinny bezels
- The display is also quite bright, and sunlight legibility is excellent
- The display of the P30 Pro has two Color modes - Normal and Vivid - each of those also has three sub-modes - Default, Warm, and Cold - allowing for a lot of customization, according to your taste
- EMUI is a pretty polished and refined Android UI now, after years of Huawei's software team working on it
- One of the new things with this EMUI version is the ERO file system that offers 3x increase in Random reads, 10% improvement in app startup, and also frees up the storage taken by system files by 20% - all of it means even snappier general performance
- Other useful add-ons include GPU Turbo 2.0 mode (supported games run at higher frame rates, and consume less battery than usual), Password vault, Huawei Share (share files with a PC and print documents wirelessly), Digital balance app (tells you how much time you are spending on your phone and gives you the option to limit yourself or your kid), iPhone-like gesture navigation, smart rotation, lift to wake, extensive theme support, mobile optimiser app, Health app (Google Fit syncing and step counting), and an improved AI-powered gallery
- Flagship-grade performance backed by the top-end Kirin 980 chip by HiSilicon - that runs butter smooth under all work-loads
- The Huawei P30 Pro also has an improved cooling system with a combination of graphene film and a heat pipe with vapor chamber - which means that even with prolonged gaming, the phone will warm up significantly lesser
- To put it very simply, the camera setup on the P30 Pro is extraordinary, and doesn't just make the P30 Pro the new camera phone king leaving the iPhone XS, Pixel 3, Mate 20 Pro, and Galaxy S10 behind, but actually challenges a lot of dedicated digital cameras
- For the quad rear camera setup at the back, starting top to bottom - the first snapper is the 20MP one with the ultra-wide lens - then comes the 40MP sensor with OIS - and finally you can see the end of the periscope zoom lens for the 8MP sensor, also with OIS - and, next to the triple main setup sit the dual-tone LED flash and the ToF camera which replaces the laser autofocus on the P30 Pro and also improves the edge detection accuracy in portrait shots
- Main camera: Photos from the main camera are among the best photos a smartphone camera can produce today - there is very high-level detail even in complex areas, exceptional dynamic range, accurate colors, superb contrast, and, overall very mature processing
- Ultra-wide camera: Photos from this camera too have enough resolved detail, color rendition is excellent and true to life, while the noise levels are still low - the dynamic range is often superb, probably due to the multi-frame stacking magic - the ultra-wide-angle cam can also do macro shots just like the other cameras
- Tele-photo camera: Without a doubt, the hero of the piece, and what makes the P30 Pro extra special, is the 8MP telephoto lens with spectacular '5x' zoom - the zoomed pictures are very detailed and the extra reach is really quite impressive for a smartphone - the color, contrast, and dynamic range are also very good - that's not all, you can also go up to 10x hybrid zoom, and 50x digital zoom (effectively you can use the camera as a portable binocular)
- TOF camera: When taking portraits, the P30 Pro uses the main 40MP camera and the ToF snapper - the results are quite impressive - the subject separation in the portrait shots are one of the best, if not the best that you will see on a smartphone - the resolved detail is excellent, and the blurred backgrounds look nice
- All shots also get a boost from a well-optimized AI system which recognizes and tunes settings for up to 1, 500 different scenes
- Low-light performance is another big highlight here and low-light images from all the rear cameras, with and without the night mode, leave you surprised - they are all perfectly usable and blur-free - the images have an even exposure, well preserved highlights, and over all great dynamic range - noise is never an issue even in the shadows and night-time colors are retained very well too - overall, even in low light performance, the P30 Pro leaves every other smartphone camera behind
- The front selfie camera is very good too - the dynamic range is excellent for a selfie shooter enhanced by that AI HDR+, and you will never have to think about the light source position - the colors are good as well and there is plenty of detail
- Video recording via the rear camera setup is excellent too, giving you the freedom to zoom in or out in any video resolution, with some excellent stabilization at that - something that a full-blown camera will have a hard time matching, let alone with the same level of convenience - plus the footage has stellar dynamic range, the colors are true to life and contrast is excellent - there is of course slow-mo, and super-slow-mo recording as well
- Low-light video footage is also excellent, and once again, class-leading - the level of resolved detail is high, the noise is kept under control, the exposure is even and the colors are just brilliant
- The camera app also has the handy HiVision smart assistant as part of the camera app - it's basically a smart lens, which automatically recognizes landmarks, art, and food - a la Google Lens
- Fairly loud, bottom-firing speaker (it's a single speaker though, not stereo)
- Excellent, rich call quality - the front panel of the P30 Pro also doubles as an earpiece - the whole thing is "acoustic" and vibrates to create sound - the tech is really impressive, and works flawlessly - in fact because of the bone conduction technology sound can be heard in much noisier environments when compared to a traditional earpiece - even if you are in a club, you will hear the other side quite clearly - there is no sound leakage either
- Very good battery life from a large 4200 mAh battery, an efficient chipset, and some good software optimization - you will comfortably get 1 and a half days of use
- There is also support for 40W Super Charging - the bundled cable and charger can fill a flat battery up to 70% in just 30 mins, 90% in 45 mins and 100% in 60 mins - super impressive given the battery size, and probably the fastest charging on a mainstream phone
- There is also 15W wireless charging support, as well as the reverse wireless charging (you can use the phone to wirelessly charge other devices, quite like the Galaxy S10)
- Huawei has really hit its stride with the P30 Pro and will once again have the rest of the phone makers playing catch up, especially in terms of the brilliant camera tech - for now, the P30 Pro is by far the best camera smartphone you can get for your money - and while photography is the Huawei P30 Pro's forte, it still excels at everything that you'd need from a modern smartphone - design, screen, performance and gaming, even battery life - you simply can't go wrong with the P30 Pro, if you have the money to spend
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- Clean and simple design - manages to look and feel like a high-end device (though, it uses a 'Glastic' polycarbonate back)
- The front looks striking and modern, thanks to the single punch-hole 'Infinity-O' panel with very narrow bezels and a thin chin at the bottom
- Relatively light-weight at 186g for a phone this big
- Both the in-display fingerprint sensor & face recognition are quick at unlocking the phone
- Excellent, crisp and bright 'Super AMOLED+' display with Full HD+ resolution - it excels at producing punchy colors and has good viewing angles
- The panel also supports HDR 10+ and Widewine L1, which makes the S10 Lite an absolute delight to stream HD movies and shows on popular OTT platforms such as Hotstar and Netflix
- Samsung's second generation of its One UI based on Android 10 is one of the better, more clean and streamlined Android UIs around, and is well optimised for large modern displays (like this one)
- Apart from facilitating fluid animations and gesture controls, the UI also brings support for Samsung’s ecosystem of apps and services, including Bixby (Vision, Lens Mode, Routines), the full version of Samsung Pay and Samsung Health - there’s also support for the defense-grade security platform Samsung Knox
- Blazingly fast, power packed performance with the super fast flagship Snapdragon 855 - the device is arguably even more powerful than the company’s current flagship Note 10 and S10 series - opening apps or loading a game, the phone feels snappy, and even heavy-duty games such as PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty run at the highest graphic settings on the device
- Very good triple camera setup - at the heart of its above par optics performance is a 48MP primary lens + a 12MP ultra-wide lens + a 5MP macro lens
- For all intents and purposes, the primary lens is the star of the show here - it is capable of clicking some stunning shots during day time - the shots produce impressive levels of detail and dynamic range, under well-lit situations, putting this camera at least on par with the flagship devices from Samsung
- Low light performance is equally capable of surprising the user - shots come out looking crisp and with a good amount of detail and colour accuracy, this might be because of the Super Steady OIS which helps save low light shots which would have otherwise been ruined by a slight movement of the hand
- There is also a wide-angle and a macro-lens - both perform quite well during situations where the lenses are fed with enough light, the images look vivid and capture accurate colours and details - the two cameras provide the user with extra framing options which are high in quality
- Portrait mode or Live Focus works well, with good edge detection, detail and colours - you can change the background bokeh effect for some interesting results
- The 32MP front camera captures 8MP oversampled photos, which look good, with punchy colours and good amounts of detail - Live Focus is available here too, so you can play around with different bokeh effects - the front camera is pretty capable under artificial light too
- Video quality is also good and the Super Steady mode help in recording very smooth videos
- Overall, the Galaxy S10 Lite offers very capable cameras and the image quality on par with other phones in this price segment
- Brilliant battery life, thanks to the optimised OneUI and the flagship Snapdragon 855 - on moderate use, the S10 Lite will easily give a day and a half’s worth of use
- Very Fast Charging with the impressive 25W Charger (and support for an insane 45W Fast Charging), it tops up the phone’s battery to the brim in about 70 minutes
- The Galaxy S10 Lite represents great value for money, something that you won’t generally get to hear about Samsung’s devices too often - from the cameras to the battery and overall performance, the phone impresses every step of the way, making it one of the best buys in the smartphone market right now
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Individual Review
Individual Review
