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Today Honor took the wraps off their latest flagship phone. Like many others, they have switched from launching two variants to now having three with a Plus model. I wonder how many variants we will have in a few years from now.
With Honor being an offshoot from Huawei there was always going to be comparisons to be made to the P40 series, they share the same chipset, and the OS is very similar, with neither range of phones being able to use Google.
The star of the show is obviously the highest specced model the Honor 30 Pro+ and looking at the phone and specs it shares a little more in common with the P40 series than just the chipset and political issues.
Software – No Google is not officially there.
Honor uses Magic UI 3.1, and the Huawei has EMUI 10.1. Neither has Google due to the current issues with the US and President Trump. Instead, Huawei/Honor are developing their own suite of software to replace Google, while also doing their best to lure developers into their own App Gallery.
While App Gallery has been around for quite a long time, it is only recently started to get decent apps in it. It is possible to transfer over most of your none Google apps via Phone Clone, you can also install many (none Google) apps via APK Pure or other third-party app stores. During my review of the Huawei P40 Pro I managed to get the phone doing all the things I wanted to, replacing apps when needed, but it was a bit of a chore.
Huawei Mobile Services and App Gallery are a work in progress. There is no getting away from that. It absolutely will get a lot better.
Thankfully, if you don’t mind jumping through dozens of hoops, there are ways to get Google on there. I wrote a guide on how to install Google on the P40 Pro, and this should work just the same for the Honor 30 series.
Chipset, RAM and Storage
As you would expect from a flagship phone, this has a flagship chipset which is the HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G just like the P40 Pro. It is not quite the most powerful chipset at the moment, but it is superb, and I found it to be particularly good for battery efficiency.
The Honor has either 8GB/256GB or 12GB/256GB storage options upgradable via nano memory.
The P40 Pro is only available in the UK with 8GB/256GB upgradable via nano memory.
Display & Design
The displays look very similar, the Honor has a slightly lower resolution and doesn’t use the quad curve but just curves to the side. It looks very good, though. The resolution is 1080 x 2340 pixels with a 90Hx refresh rate while the P40 Pro is 1200 x 2640 pixels also at 90Hz
The displays are almost the same size at 6.57 inches for the Honor and 6.58 inches for the P40 Pro. They are also very similar in overall dimensions with 160.3 x 73.6 x 8.4 mm for Honor and 158.2 x 72.6 x 9 mm for Huawei.
Honor has opted to skip any subtlety in the branding and now have HONOR written across the entire rear side of the phone. I like the overall look but I am sure it will be contentious.
Camera
For Honor you have:
- 50 MP, f/1.9, 23mm (wide), 1/1.28″, 2.44µm, omnidirectional PDAF, Laser AF, OIS
- Periscope 8 MP, f/3.4, 125mm (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 5x optical zoom
- 16 MP, f/2.2, 18mm (ultrawide), AF
- 2 MP, (depth)
Then dual selfies with:
- 32 MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8″, 0.8µm
- 8 MP, f/2.2, (ultrawide)
The P40 standard has:
- 50 MP, f/1.9, 23mm (wide), 1/1.28″, 2.44µm, omnidirectional PDAF, OIS
- 8 MP, f/2.4, 80mm (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
- 16 MP, f/2.2, 17mm (ultrawide), AF
This then has the same selfie setup as the Pro:
- 32 MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8″, 0.8µm
- IR TOF 3D, (biometrics sensor only)
The Pro has:
- 50 MP, f/1.9, 23mm (wide), 1/1.28″, 2.44µm, omnidirectional PDAF, OIS
- Periscope 12 MP, f/3.4, 125mm (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 5x optical zoom
- 40 MP, f/1.8, 18mm (ultrawide), 1/1.54″, PDAF
- TOF 3D, (depth)
So the Honor 30 Pro sits in the middle, all the phones have that superb 50MP RYYB lens which a gigantic sensor.
The Honor has a better periscope zoom lens than the P40 and has a 2MP depth sensor.
Battery
The Honor has a 4000 mAh battery with 40W fast charge and 27 wireless which is almost the same as the P40 Pro though that has slightly larger 4200mAH battery
The P40 Pro has a smaller 3800 mAh battery with 22.5W charging
Price
The Honor 30 series has only launched in China so far, so there is no word on how much it will cost in the UK or when it will arrive here.
There are three color options – Black, Green, and Silver with the frosted letters. There are two price tags for both RAM choices – the 8/256GB is CNY4,999, the 12/256GB is CNY5,499. Pre-orders begin today at 5 PM local time, while actual sales are scheduled for April 21.
CNY4,999 works out as £564.79. The normal Huawei P40 is £699.99 while the Pro is £899. I would expect the price of the Honor 30 Pro to be around £699.99
Overall
With a lot of similarities with the P40 series, this will no doubt be a superb phone. How good it is depends on the price, if it comes in under the standard P40 pricing it could be a superb option.
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Specification Comparison Table
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