Huawei P30 Lite hands-on: it looks the part
The P30 series is making waves in the smartphone world, especially the P30 Pro with its impressive camera. But a Huawei flagship can also be cheaper, even much cheaper, in the form of the Huawei P30 Lite. We took a close look at this in our hands-on review.
Good
- Value for money
- Nice design
- Snappy performance
Bad
- Lack of sharpness in photos and videos
- Battery life could be better
Huawei P30 Lite with pre-order promotion
The Huawei P30 Lite has a pretty attractive price; the smartphone costs 369 euros. While confirmed for a UK launch, we still don't have an official price, though a straight conversion would put it at £230. Huawei offers three color variants: Peacock Blue with a chic color gradient, Midnight Black, and Pearl White for those who like it a bit simpler.
The launch of the P30 Lite happens on May 8. However, Huawei has put together quite an attractive package for pre-orderers, as they receive the Huawei Freebuds Lite free of charge. Not a bad deal, because the true wireless headphones in the Apple Airpods design regularly cost 129 euros. The offer is valid until 7 May and only for the colours Peacock Blue and Midnight Black.
P30 Lite with a chrome look instead of metal feeling
Two or three years ago, the Huawei P30 Lite with its 6.15 inch screen diagonal would have been one of the largest smartphones on the market. But thanks to narrow edges, drop-shaped mini notch and generally larger smartphones on the market, the smartphone is now considered to be medium-sized. The ratio of display size to total front area is 84.1 percent, which is pretty good. With its rounded edges, the P30 Lite sits well in the hand.
The frame and bezel around the camera shine with a chic chrome look, but are made of plastic and not metal. On a second glance you can see it. The back is also made of plastic, but looks almost as good as the glass on the P30 Pro. Huawei has succeeded quite well in processing it, only the SIM carriage is not completely flush with the frame. The transition between display, frame and back isn't as smooth as on the P30 Pro, but it's still well done.
The display needs fine-tuning
Huawei has given the P30 Lite an IPS display. Its resolution is 2,312 x 1,080 pixels, slightly more than Full HD. This results in a pixel density of 415 ppi. This is more than sufficient and provides for a sharp representation. The colors are pleasantly restrained in the default setting, those who like it more glaring can regulate this in the settings. I advise you to use the "warm" display here, because the display has a slight blue tint. It's worth experimenting a bit with these settings and finding the best ones for you.
While the sharpness is absolutely sufficient, it should have been a bit more in two places: the brightness and the viewing angles. In bright sunlight, the display of the Huawei P30 Lite reaches its limits in the test, and the viewing angle stability is better with more expensive smartphones. For the price class, however, the overall performance is alright.
Latest Android with little bloatware
The Huawei P30 Lite with Android 9 Pie runs with the EMUI 9 as you would expect . The Huawei interface has a lot of functionality to offer, but also does many things differently than stock Android. You gotta like that. Huawei is reluctant to use pre-installed apps from third parties, only Amazon, Booking and Facebook can be found here. Interesting: The P30 Lite doesn't have its own browser, which Huawei gives the P30 Pro on its way - well, Chrome is perfectly sufficient at this point.
Enough power even for a Lite
With the Kirin 710 from Huawei house brand HiSilicon, the P30 Lite has a classic mid-range chip on board that can make use of 4 GB of RAM. That's not bad, but it doesn't necessarily cause a lot of cheering. Especially with graphically complex games, it should get tight despite the GTP Turbo 2.0, which is supposed to increase the graphics processing efficiency and prevent lag.
However, with normal operation, the Huawei P30 Lite responds quickly and easily, albeit not quite as fast as real top smartphones. But they also cost more than twice as much. The memory capacity is 128 GB, which can be expanded via microSD and not Huawei's own NM Card.
More megapixels than all the others
The Huawei P30 Lite's triple camera consists of a 48-megapixel wide-angle lens, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens and a 2-megapixel telephoto lens. The latter allows lossless 2x zoom. The front camera has 24 megapixels. Video enthusiasts will enjoy the Super Slow Motion function, which offers 16x slow motion and UHD recording, and can let off steam creatively with the Huawei P30 lite.
Above all, the ultra-wide angle lens is outstanding in this price class , as is the high resolution of 48 megapixels in the main camera. The first shots look appealing in good light, but most smartphones now do that well. If you zoom into the exceptions, you will notice that the software of the P30 Lite sharpens the images quite a bit, but in the normal view this is no problem.
With selfies it is recommended to switch off the artificial beauty effects directly. The detail richness of the front camera shots in the Huawei P30 Lite is very good in the test, but the HDR effect exaggerates it a little in some lighting situations with the halo effects, which are reminiscent of the first HDR photos from a few years ago. That's better now, but it is still too early for a final verdict.
3,340 mAh of battery capacity but no wireless charging
The Huawei P30 Lite has a battery with a capacity of 3,340 mAh. The lithium polymer cell is expected to achieve up to 293 hours of standby time or 21 hours of talk time - we will of course check this in the test of the Huawei P30 Lite. QuickCharge with matching power supply is on board, but not the huge 40-watt charger of the P30 Pro. Wireless charging is not supported.
Huawei P30 Lite technical specifications
A good value for the mid-range
For the price of 369 euros, the Huawei P30 Lite has a lot to offer, that's for sure. Especially with the camera, other mid-range smartphones might have a hard time keeping up. It is logical that in this price class not all that glitters - or in this case: metal - is gold. The final review of the Huawei P30 Lite will show whether the battery life meets higher demands and how the display can perform in everyday life.
Do you have specific questions about the Huawei P30 Lite that we can answer for you? Then put it in the comments.
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