Rewrite the rules of smartphone photography

You see, in almost all modern digital cameras, there is an image sensor with a Bayer filter, featuring a repeating four-pixel grid that uses two green pixels, one red pixel, and one blue pixel to capture the light and colors. It's a fundamental system used by virtually all unnamed FujiFilm camera companies, but it's not perfect. For the P30 Pro, Huawei has changed the formula by replacing the green color filters of a Bayer filter with yellow color filters, the reasoning being that the yellow is a lighter color than the green, which allows for more light to pass through the filter and reach the sensor. behind. More light means brighter images, which is exactly what you want when you're in a hurry.

However, even though it may seem like a simple switch, it represents a huge workload. Once you've changed a camera's color filtering mode, you need to rethink its image processor (which interprets the data captured by the camera's sensor), the way these images are displayed on a screen , all of the various photo modes of the camera and heaps of other stuff. Have all Huawei's efforts paid off?

In fact, yes. With its new sensor, the P30 Pro in automatic mode can more or less match the excellent low-light capabilities of Google's Night Sight treatment, without any additional adjustments or special settings. It also means less hassle, as there is no need to pause and hold the camera still for four or five seconds, unlike most dedicated night modes. Just press the shutter button, try not to shake your hand for a moment, and that's it.

When you compare photos from the P30 Pro to phones like the Galaxy S10 or the Pixel 3, the difference is obvious. For example, when shooting a night in a nearby park, while a photo taken by the Galaxy S10 + looks good because the S10 had to adjust the speed of the camera. shutter on 1 / 9th of a second, even with the optical stabilization of the phone picture, the picture of S10 appears significantly more blurred.

Meanwhile, a confrontation between the P30 Pro on auto and the Pixel 3 without Night Sight shows just how far the new Huawei sensor really offers a run in advance. If I was not aware, it would have been easy to be wrong to say that the P30 Pro picture of this automatic scooter was taken on a sunny afternoon, not near midnight, when took the picture.

And even after activating Night Sight on Pixel 3, the P30 Pro image still contained more accurate details and captured an image more true to what I had seen with the eyes. Although the Night Sight mode of Pixel 3 removed color cast from nearby street lights, the photo of the P30 Pro is superior in almost every other way. Of course, Huawei also has its own night mode, which adds an extra level of detail to difficult shots in low light. Even though I found that the P30 Pro's automatic mode was so good, I did not feel the need to use it as much, compared to the Pixel 3, which essentially requires the use of Night Sight when the lights go out.

That said, the new Huawei sensor is not perfect. Although it has significantly improved the performance of the P30 Pro in low light, it seems to have a slightly negative impact on shooting in the bright light of the P30 Pro. Compared to the Galaxy S10 and Pixel 3, some P30 Pro flowers taken during the day had more vibrant highlights and darker colors in the surrounding greenery.

I suspect that Huawei will be able to improve this solution over time, because Huawei would be forced to change the design of its camera stack to adapt to this new sensor, but at least for the moment, a compromise is necessary. In addition, I should mention that Huawei only uses its custom RYYB sensor on the main unit, not the P30 Pro's ultra-wide 20 MP camera or its 8 MP telephoto camera. This is understandable, even if it can be a little shocking when moving from one goal to another, especially if you're shooting a video.

Now, if the only thing Huawei had done was to improve the P30 Pro's main camera sensor, that was enough. But that was not the case, because for the telephoto lens of the P30 Pro, Huawei added a new system with a 5x optical zoom, which, according to Huawei, is a 10x lossless zoom and a plump digital zoom up to at a magnification of 50x.

This level of magnification surpasses the competing phones that in recent years have been blocked with 2x or 3x zooms. The problem with phones is that, unlike a conventional camera lens, there is virtually no room for all the glass and optics needed for a very long zoom. So, to solve the problem, Huawei installed a periscope-like mirror to let the phone stall in the phone's body, allowing Huawei to use the length of the P30 Pro to insert the optics rather than its thickness.

Frankly, it's a development that I like a lot, because until now, the big zooms were something that was only found on autonomous autonomous devices. But with the 5x / 10x zoom on the P30 Pro, you have a lot of flexibility to get closer to the action. To test this, I took the P30 Pro and some of its rivals to Madison Square Park and then tried to take pictures of the Empire State Building about 10 blocks away. And the results? Well, they speak for themselves.

At a 5x and 10x zoom, the P30 Pro produces incredibly sharp images, but as you get closer to 50x, it begins to suffer from the problems inherent in digital enhancement. But what opens our eyes is how much more the offers of the telephoto camera of the P30 Pro are comparable to those of the 2x zoom that you get on a Galaxy S10 +. It's quite a shock.

OK, enough talk about cameras, what else does the P30 Pro like to use? At this point, this should not be a surprise, but the P30 Pro is a high-end device. The P30 Pro is packed with sophisticated technical solutions such as wireless and reverse Qi charging, IP68 resistance to dust and water, 15-watt fast charging (and reverse wired charging), and the best possible color options. get from any smartphone maker today. The P30 Pro even has an IR blaster, a feature that almost every other phone maker has dropped from their flagship devices.

However, if I can nibble a bit, I'm still frustrated by the fact that Huawei has not left room for a 3.5mm plug on the P30 Pro because it's a feature you get on the P30 vanilla. In addition to the useless bloatware, Huawei's EMUI 9.1 skin remains a relatively harmless version of Android, but it's also hard to love its somewhat cartoonish look and sometimes simplistic user interface.

And while the P30 Pro's 6.5-inch OLED display is incredibly bright and colorful, it suffers slightly from a lower overall resolution than a Galaxy S10. It's not a big deal, but with a screen as big as a phone costing nearly $ 1,000, if you have a good view, you'll sometimes notice that text and images are not as sharp as they are they could.

But the real disadvantage of the P30 is that it is not officially supported in the United States. Even if you can get an unlocked P30 Pro from third-party retailers such as B & H for just $ 900 ($ 100 less than the best-equipped Galaxy S10 +), the P30 Pro is compatible with CDMA networks such as Verizon and Sprint. And if you ever experience a situation where you need customer support, you can not expect the same kind of support you could get from an Apple or Samsung device.

But the impact of what Huawei did on the P30 Pro is undeniable. If you often take pictures in bars, restaurants, or similar environments, the low-light capabilities of the P30 Pro are quite convincing. Meanwhile, this 5x optical zoom periscope takes a new step in the magnification of smartphone cameras.

In addition, some of the technologies used in the P30 Pro zoom system come from Corephotnics, a company recently acquired by Samsung for $ 155 million. For the P30 Pro, Huawei has decided to push the limits of smartphone photography, not on one but on two points.

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• At 15 hours and 24 minutes, the P30 Pro has the second longest battery life ever tested.
• Although you can purchase an unlocked version of the P30 Pro from US resellers, the phone does not support CDMA networks such as Verizon or Sprint, and local customer support is not well developed.
• Huawei opens a new era of smartphone photography by putting a 5x optical zoom on a phone.
• Almost all the features that are found on other high-end phones – the P30 Pro too.