Huawei Mate 30 is a line of Android-based

phablet A phablet (, ) is a mobile device combining or straddling the size formats of smartphones and tablets. The word is a portmanteau of ''phone'' and ''tablet''. Phablets feature large displays that complement screen-intensive activity such as mo ...

s manufactured by

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...

as part of its

Huawei Mate series The Huawei Mate series (previously the Huawei Ascend Mate series) is a line of high-end HarmonyOS-powered (formerly Android based) phablet smartphones produced by Huawei, and is one of the flagship smartphones along with the P series. Under the ...

, and the successor to the

Mate 20 Huawei Mate 20 is a line of Android phablets produced by Huawei, which collectively succeed the Mate 10 as part of the Huawei Mate series. The flagship models, the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro, were unveiled on 20 July 2018 at a press conference in ...

. The Mate 30 comprises the Mate 30/5G, Mate 30 Pro/5G, and Mate 30 RS Porsche Design, which were unveiled on 19 September 2019 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Due to ongoing U.S. sanctions against Huawei that prevented it from licensing the

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

-certified Android with

Google Mobile Services Google Mobile Services (GMS) is a collection of proprietary applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) services from Google that are typically pre-installed on Android devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. GMS ...

for new devices, international models of the Mate 30 run an

Android 10 Android 10 ( codenamed Android Q during development) is the tenth major release and the 17th version of the Android mobile operating system. It was first released as a developer preview on March 13, 2019, and was released publicly on Septembe ...

-derived operating system utilizing a Huawei-provided software stack and

application store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...

(similarly to other Chinese smartphones sold domestically, as Google does not do business in mainland China).

Specifications

Design

The Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro have a similar design, with an aluminum frame and glass backing, and are available in Black, Space Silver, Cosmic Purple and Emerald Green colours, with artificial leather options also available. Both displays contain notches, with the Mate 30 Pro using a larger tab concealing additional infrared sensors used for a

facial recognition system A facial recognition system is a technology capable of matching a human face from a digital image or a video frame against a database of faces. Such a system is typically employed to authenticate users through ID verification services, and wo ...

. The Mate 30's cutout for the front camera resembles the P20 and P20 Pro, and is larger than the Mate 20's, in order to accommodate a time-of-flight sensor. The camera arrays on the Mate 30 and the Mate 30 Pro are circular, as opposed to the squarish design of the

and

Mate 20 Pro Huawei Mate 20 is a line of Android (operating system), Android phablets produced by Huawei, which collectively succeed the Mate 10 as part of the Huawei Mate series. The flagship models, the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro, were unveiled on 20 July 201 ...

, and the flash is now offset to the left, separate from the camera housing. The Mate 30 Pro's display has curved edges at 88-degrees with no physical volume buttons; virtual controls are used instead. Edge detection and palm rejection are implemented to prevent accidental touches. The Mate 30 Pro also lacks an earpiece, opting to use the same "electromagnetic levitation" speaker as on the P30 Pro.

Hardware

Both models utilize the Kirin 990 system-on-chip, an octa-core SoC featuring Cortex-A76 and Cortex-A55 CPU cores, Mali-G76 MP16 GPU, and a pair of AI accelerators. Six of the Kirin 990's cores are overclocked on the 5G and Porsche Design models. The Mate 30 is available with 128 GB of storage and 6 or 8 GB of RAM, while the Mate 30 Pro is available with 128 or 256 GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM. Both have up to 256 GB of expandable storage via Huawei's proprietary Nano Memory format, which also serves as a hybrid SIM tray. The Mate 30 Pro is rated

IP68 The IP code or ingress protection code indicates how well a device is protected against water and dust. It defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) under the international standard IEC 60529 which classifies and pro ...

for dust and water resistance (up to 2m for 30 mins) while the Mate 30 has IP53 for dust and splash protection. An

OLED An organic light-emitting diode (OLED or organic LED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light i ...

panel is used for both displays. The Mate 30 uses a 19.5:9

1080p 1080p (1920×1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the screen vert ...

display, while the Mate 30 Pro has a 18.5:9 1080p+ display with curved edges. The Mate 30 Pro's display also supports hovering gestures and Huawei's M-Pen. The Mate 30 is powered by a 4200mAh battery while the Mate 30 Pro has a 4500mAh battery, and both are capable of fast charging at 40W wired and 27W wireless. Both models support Qi inductive charging and can charge other Qi-compatible devices from its own battery power. USB-C connectors are present on both, but only the Mate 30 includes a headphone jack. Both have an optical in-screen fingerprint reader as well.

Camera

The Mate 30 has three rear cameras: a 40 MP main camera, an 8 MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and a 16 MP ultrawide lens, along with a 24 MP front camera; the Mate 30 Pro has four rear cameras: a 40 MP main camera, an 8 MP telephoto lens, a 40 MP ultrawide lens and a 3D ToF camera. The Mate 30's camera design is the same as the Mate 30's, and has the laser-autofocus in place of the time-of-flight sensor. The front cameras on both are assisted by a 3D ToF camera, but the Mate 30 Pro has a higher resolution 32 MP sensor compared to the Mate 30's 24 MP sensor. OIS is present on the telephoto lens for both, but the Mate 30 Pro also has OIS on its main lens unlike the Mate 30. While the resolution of the ultrawide-angle lens has been increased, the Mate 30 Pro has a regular telephoto camera and can only achieve 3x optical zoom, 5x hybrid and 30x digital zoom, compared to the P30 Pro's 5x optical, 10x hybrid and 50x digital zoom. The P30 Pro's camera modes have been carried over to the Mate 30 Pro. Night Mode has been improved, and the Mate 30 Pro can take 4K HDR Plus time-lapse and ultraslow-motion video, shooting 720p at 7680 frames per second. Like its predecessor, the Mate 30 series uses Leica optics.

Software

The Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro ship with EMUI 10, which is based on the

source code. Due to ongoing United States sanctions against Huawei, international models of the Mate 30 do not ship with or support

— the proprietary software suite (including

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android (operating sys ...

-branded software) shipped on certified Android devices, and Huawei is not allowed to market the device using the Android

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

. Huawei is promoting the use of its own in-house platforms as a substitute, including the

Huawei AppGallery Huawei AppGallery (abbreviated AppGallery onscreen) is a package manager and application distribution platform, or marketplace 'app store', developed by Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. for the Google-developed open-source Android operating sys ...

store (which is already used on Chinese models of Huawei's devices due to Google not doing business there). Huawei stated that it would make a US$1 billion investment in promoting software development and growth of AppGallery. As with other Android devices, third-party apps can still be sideloaded via APK files, though full compatibility is not guaranteed if the app depends on Google services. A Huawei executive stated that the company had planned to allow

bootloader A bootloader, also spelled as boot loader or called boot manager and bootstrap loader, is a computer program that is responsible for booting a computer. When a computer is turned off, its softwareincluding operating systems, application code, an ...

unlocks for the Mate 30, which could have promoted the development of custom operating system ROMs that do support Google's apps. However, the company later stated that it had "no plans" to do so. In late-September 2019, a tool named "LZPlay" surfaced, which allowed the Google Mobile Services apps to be installed on the Mate 30. The app was found to use undocumented permissions within Huawei's

mobile device management Mobile device management (MDM) is the administration of mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers, and laptops. MDM is usually implemented with the use of a third-party product that has management features for particular vendors of m ...

APIs. On October 1, 2019, after the publication of an article that revealed these mechanics, the app's website abruptly went offline, and devices that had used LZPlay began to fail Google's SafetyNet verification checks. In June 2020, Huawei announced the EMUI 10.1 update (originating from the P40), which includes new first-party apps such as

virtual assistant An intelligent virtual assistant (IVA) or intelligent personal assistant (IPA) is a software agent that can perform tasks or services for an individual based on commands or questions. The term "chatbot" is sometimes used to refer to virtual ...

Celia and the video calling service MeeTime, multi-window mode, and various user interface tweaks.

Model variations

Mate 30 RS Porsche Design

The Huawei Mate 30 RS

Porsche Design Porsche Design is a German product design studio and brand founded in 1972 by F. A. Porsche, the designer of the original Porsche 911, known for its high-end accessories including sunglasses, pens, and watches. The current legal instantiation of ...

is a special edition of the Mate 30 Pro; its rear cover has a black or two-tone black and red

racing stripe Racing stripes, also called Le Mans stripes or rally stripes, were originally applied to racecars to help identify them in the field during races. The term "racing stripe" is also used to refer to diagonal lines painted on watercraft hulls, usua ...

inspired glass/leather design, while it features 512 GB of storage and 12 GB of RAM.

Mate 30E Pro

The Huawei Mate 30E Pro is a version of the Mate 30 Pro exclusive to China. The device runs on EMUI 11, is powered by the Kirin 990E 5G which has less GPU cores compared to the Kirin 990 5G, and has no 512 GB model.

Reception

Engadget ''Engadget'' ( ) is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. ''Engadget'' manages ten blogs four of which are written in English and six have international versions with independent editori ...

'' called the Mate 30 Pro "a device with staggering imaging and video capabilities that is hamstrung by its poor, or nonexistent, app selection", while ''

Digital Trends Digital Trends is a Portland, Oregon-based tech news, lifestyle, and information website that publishes news, reviews, guides, how-to articles, descriptive videos and podcasts about technology and consumer electronics products. With offices i ...

'' concluded that the Mate 30 Pro is "the best smartphone you can't buy". Andrew Williams of ''

Wired UK ''Wired UK'' is a bimonthly magazine that reports on the effects of science and technology. It covers a broad range of topics including design, architecture, culture, the economy, politics and philosophy. Owned by Condé Nast Publications, it is ...

'' was more critical of the device, giving it a 5/10. He praised the cameras, battery life, design and hardware, while panning the lack of Google apps, the gesture volume control and screen vignetting. Huawei Mate 30 Pro received an overall score of 121 from ''

DXOMARK DxOMark, currently stylized as DXOMARK, is a commercial website described as "an independent benchmark that scientifically assesses smartphones, lenses and cameras". Founded in 2008, DxOMark was originally owned by DxO Labs, a French engi ...

'', overtaking the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G. The device had a photo score of 131, a video score of 100, and a selfie score of 93.

References

External links

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Huawei Mate 30
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Huawei Mate 30 Pro
{{Android tablets Smartphones Android (operating system) devices Huawei mobile phones Phablets Mobile phones introduced in 2019 Mobile phones with multiple rear cameras Mobile phones with 4K video recording Mobile phones with infrared transmitter Discontinued smartphones