90 Hz screen, 40W fast charge, video recording at 7,680 fps or 3D facial unlocking are some of the most outstanding features of the new Huawei Mate 30 Pro. The Chinese company has managed to create the perfect tandem by combining the most innovative technologies of the moment with a truly iconic design (something we are already used to in the Mate range) and, however, it is also its least “salable” product. Huawei Mate 30 Pro is not for everyone , but it is the mobile that we would all yearn for.

This time it is not the price that puts a stop to your illusions, if not the absence of the famous Google Play Services. Is it really a useful smartphone in practice? Can you use it as normal? We have already tried it and we will tell you in this analysis in Spanish of the Huawei Mate 30 Pro how our experience has been, what are its strengths and weaknesses and if we can recommend it to you.

First moments with the Huawei Mate 30 Pro: contents of the box… and to touch its software: Huawei Mate 30 Pro: analysis of the most controversial smartphone of the year

We started this analysis by telling you about those first moments with the Huawei Mate 30 Pro. In my case, I was firmly convinced of using it as it comes from the factory, that is, with the HMS (Huawei Mobile Services) and the App Gallery as the center application download. It was not so.

The Huawei Mate 30 Pro box maintains the same aesthetic line as other high-end models of the company: black box and gold letters. Inside, we find the smartphone itself , in addition to the SIM spike, USB C to USB cable, 40W SuperCharge power adapter and USB C headphones , very modest, but very comfortable and with more than acceptable quality to come. as a gift in the box. Nothing more. We miss a case and do not know if the final unit for the public includes it. In our case, the press units do not have it.

We turn on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and we already begin to notice the first differences in the software with respect to other models of the competition. You must enter your Huawei ID and perform the basic configuration settings (WiFi, backup from another device if you wish, etc.). And our Google account? As we imagined, he does not ask us for it anywhere.

Once we have the mobile configured, we see that the main screen is full of Huawei’s own apps, as part of its HMS to offer a global service to users. We go to App Gallery and look for our header apps to start downloading them. Problem. Most of the ones we use in our day to day are not: neither those of my bank, nor WhatsApp, nor Telegram, nor Instagram … We try to resort to downloading the APKs through APKmirror , but in many of them, for their full operation, we note that we need Google services.

And this is when we realize the absurd dependence we have on Google , something that should make us reflect beyond whether this smartphone allows us to use these apps or not. Despite my initial purpose, in just two hours I give up and I understand that in order to use the smartphone comfortably, I need these GMS.

Although the Huawei Mate 30 Pro does not come with pre-installed Google services, they can be installed without any problem and thus be able to use our smartphone in an almost totally normal way . Almost. After following this guide to install Google Play Services in Mate 30 Pro I could summarize the experience in which the operation of the mobile has a “normality” of 90%. What am I missing?

After several weeks of use with the Huawei Mate 30 Pro I have found it impossible to use Google Pay, Voice Match (the voice control part of Google Assistant) and my bank’s app. I have had some problems with Netflix, which although it appears in the Play Store does not allow downloading it since the device is not certified by Google. In this case, if we install build 15145 of the Netflix 4.16.1 update, we get it to work. Of course, keep in mind that it is a version of May 2017, so some current functions are not available.

In summary, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro is a fully functional smartphone, which can have Google services with a small action on the part of the user, so this should not be an obstacle to enjoy it if you like the device. It has certain limitations in the software section, it is true, but it is in your power to assess whether it is vital or secondary for you.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro design: iconic and slippery: Huawei Mate 30 Pro: analysis of the most controversial smartphone of the year

Huawei has known how to design a beautiful smartphone , I would dare to say that it is one of the most beautiful of this year and possibly the most beautiful of its entire private catalog.

Its 18.4: 9 panoramic format makes us lose that feeling of “greatness” that always accompanied the Mate family and offers us a design more similar to the P30. The grip is very comfortable and natural, but be careful, because it slips. And a lot.

If we look at its sides, we find an almost total absence of buttons, keeping only one button , on the right side of the terminal and with a nice Valentine red highlight. Where are the sound buttons? They do not exist. They are accessed with a couple of taps on the sides of the device, a detail that we found very curious and that we liked very much. At the bottom we find the slot for nanoSIM cards and NM Card memory card , the USB Type C charging port and the speaker.

The rear is really pretty. Huawei has done an impeccable job in getting a device with an original design and very pleasing to the eye. As in previous models, the camera is once again the center of attention. It is located, this time, in the upper central part of the device, in the form of a large ring that houses the four lenses. Next to it, in the upper left corner, we find the flash and the Leica badge.

The camera ring of the Huawei Mate 30 Pro has a shiny effect called a halo that varies depending on how the light hits it and it is very very beautiful. It leaves a premium feeling of the terminal, as does its curved screen taken to the extreme, which we will talk about in more detail in the next point.

We have loved the design, but it is not perfect. The biggest point against it is found, once again, in its deficient oleophobic treatment. The back is full of traces from minute zero and although they are somewhat disguised by the shiny effect of the terminal, it is not enough.

Screen: 88 degree curvature

Huawei speaks of “immersive experience” thanks to its screen with 88 degrees of curvature on both sides (this is the reason why the physical buttons have been eliminated and they have been replaced by virtual buttons). And its screen is precisely one of the points that we liked the most about this smartphone .

The Huawei Mate 30 Pro has a size of 6.53 inches and a body / screen ratio of 94% . A real madness, to give you an idea, its main competitor, the Samsung Galaxy Note10 +, has a body / screen ratio of 91%.

It is an OLED type display , with lower consumption and brighter and more realistic colors. The resolution reaches 1,176 x 2,400 pixels, the aspect ratio is 18.5: 9 and the pixel density is 409 ppi. It has a Corning Gorilla Glass 6 protection .

One of its most positive points is that it reaches a refresh rate of 90 Hz, something that has advantages not only for gamers (the public with whom the advantages of higher refresh rates have been most related), but also for the rest of users, with a much faster interface. This causes a greater consumption of autonomy, but it is an aspect in which the Mate 30 Pro is more than enough, so it generates more advantages than disadvantages.

At the top we find a narrow and elongated notch , where the sensor for gesture control, the front camera and the 3D facial recognition system are housed.

Below the screen there is also life. Huawei has incorporated two fairly modern technologies. The fingerprint sensor on the screen , in which we noticed a very evident improvement compared to the one mounted on the Mate 20 Pro, much faster and more effective, and the speaker under the screen , as we already saw in the Huawei P30 Pro .

In addition, it is a very configurable screen. It allows the user to “activate / deactivate” the notch and borders through software, use the always on screen mode, use the dark mode, change the resolution to improve the efficiency of the terminal …

In practice, we find a high-end screen, one of the best that exists on the market today, and that leaves an impeccable user experience. Both indoors and outdoors, it behaves exceptionally, with good viewing angles, a brightness level that will cost you to maximize and a very very good image quality.

As extras, two functions that we have tested deserve special mention and that, although they are not perfect because they do not work 100% of the times they should, they are two very interesting technologies. We talk about the rotation of the screen according to the movement of our eyes (very useful, for example, if we are cooking and we have the mobile on the table, we will not have to touch it so that the screen rotates depending on where we are) and privacy if a notification comes in and the system detects that there are more eyes looking apart from ours . Do not be overconfident with this, as it does not always work and you can be upset.

Performance: Kirin 990 debuts and shines

As usual, the Mate family launches its own processor of the house and this time it mounts a Kirin 990, a 7 nanometer SoC with an architecture divided into three clusters (2 x Cortex-A76 @ 2.86 GHz, 2 x Cortex-A76 @ 2.09 GHz and 4 x Cortex-A55 @ 1.86 GHz). As a GPU, it uses a Mali-G76 MP16 and is accompanied by 256 GB of internal storage and 8 GB of RAM.

Can we expand the storage space? Yes, but beware, because it uses, as usual in its high-end, its own NM Card , up to an additional 256 GB.

Data aside, how does the terminal behave? Well, exactly as we expect from a smartphone of more than 1,000 euros: great fluidity, without problems in multitasking and the ability to move any app that is put in front of it. We have also tested different game titles (PUBG Mobile, Cluedo, Game of Life, Love Balls, Mario Kart) to see how it works with different scenarios and without problems with any of them. Yes, we have perceived a small warm-up in the central part after 30 minutes of play , however, nothing worrisome or annoying. In games the most annoying thing can be the sound, since the speaker is located in the lower part of the frame it is very easy to cover it with your hand without wanting to.

And since we know that you like the figures, we leave you, as always, your score in the AnTuTu test , in maximum performance mode.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro camera: the jewel in the crown

One of the best aspects of Huawei is its focus on mobile photography . In night mode and in zoom it is unrivaled and in this new device we have been pleasantly surprised by the progress it has made in terms of the video section.

In  video, there are many options for the user to shine and make artistic videos: with background blur, double recording with zoom and without it (two views), with filters and the best of all, super slow recording. Huawei has broken all the schemes by freezing time with its  recording at 7,680 fps . Useful? I could not tell you, beyond the initial curiosity. But the truth is that with this camera you can capture scenes never seen before. The flight of a bird, a drop of water falling … Spectacular.

In addition,  video stabilization and recording at night have been improved , two small aspects that lagged a bit in previous devices in the house.

Let’s go with the  camera. We briefly review its technical configuration and go to work showing you photos that we have taken with it during our analysis. The photos are in gallery mode and without retouching. You can click on them to see them in a larger size and if you read us from your mobile, slide to see the complete gallery.

Rear camera:

• 40 MP, f / 1.6, 27mm (wide), 1 / 1.7 ″, PDAF, OIS
• 8 MP, f / 2.4, 80mm (telephoto), 1/4 ″, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
• 40 MP, f / 1.8, 18mm (ultrawide), 1 / 1.54 ″, PDAF
• 3D TOF camera
• 2160p @ 30 / 60fps, 1080p @ 30/60 / 120fps, 1080p @ 960fps, 720p @ 7680fps, gyro-EIS

Frontal camera:

• 32 MP, f / 2.0, (wide)
• 3D TOF camera
• 1080p @ 30fps

In  daytime photography , we get almost perfect results. Good color reproduction, sharp images, no noise, and the ability to activate HDR and play with AI. As a general advice, HDR always improves photography, while AI recommend activating it for scenarios with many elements (for example, a landscape), but deactivating it in close-ups (a meal, some flowers …).

Here we leave you a sample so that you can see the photography with HDR and without  HDR .

We now go to the zoom tests  . Huawei Mate 30 Pro reaches 30x magnification, although it is true that the maximum amount does not give good results, up to 10x we are very happy with the result. It is unrivaled when it comes to zoom . Special mention also to its  wide angle , which allows us to take very good shots, especially in travel photography.

Night photography shift  , another of Huawei’s great allies. The Mate 30 Pro fulfills what we can expect from a night mode that dominates the market. In the first two pairs of photographs you can see the difference between activating night mode or not activating it. In the other two images, we have played with a natural scene and with another scene with strong lighting in the foreground and weak lighting in the second.

The point where it continues to weaken the most is in  portrait mode , especially with the front. Still, we see a lot of improvement over Huawei’s previous high-end devices. The colors are now more natural, the beauty mode is not so aggressive and the crop, without being perfect, complies. At night it takes a little longer not to create an overly artificial effect with the background. The back is much better than the front in terms of portrait, as you can see in these photos, sometimes you hardly notice the difference between with blur or without blur with the front. I leave you in the caption of each photo how it is made. Special mention to the aperture mode  , with which you can play to raise or lower the blur to take better photos and which is especially useful for playing with objects.

Connectivity, security, battery, resistance, sound and software: Huawei Mate 30 Pro: analysis of the most controversial smartphone of the year

This handful of “extras” is what can make the difference for a terminal to be complete or not quite fit. In this case, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro meets expectations perfectly.

In the connectivity section , it has dual-band 802.11 ac WiFi, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS, A-GPS, NFC, infrared port and USB 3.1 Type C. That is, it guarantees stable, efficient and fast connections. We have had no problems both connecting it to our main bluetooth devices and to the home WiFi network. Be careful with the NFC, because, although it comes standard, if you intend to pay with Google Pay you will not be able to do so due to the question of Google’s certification so, at least in my case, I have not been able to take advantage of it. A shame

In the field of security, it has improved a lot compared to its own previous generation and now allows us to unlock by fingerprint much faster and without the need to exert so much pressure, 3D facial recognition and the option to put secure unlocking to certain apps, something tremendously practical and what I am taking advantage of.

What about the battery ? Huawei is earning being one of the manufacturers that gives its users the best autonomy and in the case of the Mate 30 Pro it is no different. It has 4,500 mAh, which in practice is giving us around 9 hours of screen. That is, with intense use you will reach the end of the day without problem. If you use your mobile little, you can last up to a day and a half without going through the pits. But, in addition, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro has wireless charging, reverse charging (to act as a powerbank with other devices) and 40W fast charging. In 65 minutes we have our smartphone charged from 5% to 100%. I recommend you not to rush so much and put it to charge it around 20% to take care of its useful life.

Regarding its resistance , we have, as it could not be less, with IP68 certificate to make it resistant to water and dust. For my part, I have always worn it without a cover or protector and it is pristine. In any case, I always recommend the same: wear it with a better cover.

The sound is one of the weak points of Huawei and here again we see the same trend. It has a speaker in the lower part and another speaker in the notch, which cannot create the stereo effect that we would like. The lower one is easy to cover if we are using it and the upper one does not reach the volume level we would like. Crisp, clear sound, but not particularly outstanding. For my part, I have been using it with some Huawei Freebuds 3, their latest wireless headphones, and perfect.

And we go with the tricky point of this smartphone: the software . The question that you are asking me the most is whether or not it has Android, if it really works well or is it just a nice camera. Yes, it runs Android. What it does not have are the pre-installed Google Play Services as standard. The EMUI 10.0 customization layer has improved a lot compared to previous generations, especially in handling notifications and gestures. We also see a cleaner interface now and we really like it. Following this guide to install Google Play Services on Mate 30 Proyou can have an “almost” identical operation to any other smartphone with Google as standard. You will lack things, such as the possibility of paying with Google Pay, but it is nothing for which you should throw your hands at your head or discard your purchase. If everything else convinces you, it is a lesser evil.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro Feature Summary: Huawei Mate 30 Pro: analysis of the most controversial smartphone of the year

Conclusions, availability and price of the Huawei Mate 30 Pro: Huawei Mate 30 Pro: analysis of the most controversial smartphone of the year

Huawei Mate 30 Pro at Amazon

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The Huawei Mate Pro is now available , with an official sale price of 1,099 euros for the 256 GB version . It is usually accompanied by a gift product that makes the price much more interesting (for example, we have seen it with a gift coupon of 299 euros or with a MediaPad M6 tablet).

Huawei does not disappoint  and offers us a product that lives up to expectations (and what we expect from a smartphone that exceeds the 1,000 euro barrier). We recommend it to those looking for a smartphone with a very good screen, photography and battery. It is a high-end device that has some weaknesses in software, but that does not mean it stops being on the  podium of the best smartphones of the year . Of course, if you are one of  those who prefer easy things, this Huawei Mate 30 Pro is not for you. In that case, we can recommend the  Huawei P30 Pro , another of the best smartphones of this 2019 and that can already be obtained for just over 600 euros .