Table of Contents
Update: After Google suspended Huawei’s future access to the Android Play Store and security updates, there are serious question marks over the future of Huawei and Honor phones. While Google and Huawei have promised to support phones currently on the market, it’s not clear how long they’ll receive Android updates or access to the Google Play Store, which would severely curtail their usefulness compared to the competition.
The Huawei Mate 30 Pro is the next major phone launch from the Chinese smartphone manufacturer after the Mate 20 Pro, with the covers expect to be lifted on the new handset (and the base Huawei Mate 30) in October.
And while there’s still uncertainty around the company’s future it looks to be on the more stable ground than it was earlier in 2019, so this is a phone that should still be worth considering.
That said, while the Huawei P30 and the Huawei P30 Pro have full access to Android and Google’s apps, there’s an outside chance that Huawei Mate 30 Pro may launch with the firm’s own operating system. We doubt it though as things stand at the moment.
Latest leak: A new report suggests Huawei may be ready to debut the fastest wireless charging on the market in the Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro.
Not much is known about the Huawei Mate 30 Pro yet, but rumors are starting to roll in, all of which you’ll find below. We’ll also update this article any time we hear any credible new information.
Could the phone come out, and if it does will it reach our list of the best Android phones? We’ll have to wait until launch to find out for sure.
It’s not just the Mate 30 Pro that’s worth keeping an eye out for though. The new iPhone and Google Pixel 4 are both hotly tipped to arrive in the coming months too, giving you plenty of new options to consider.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The successor to the Mate 20 Pro
- When is it out? Either September or October 2019
- What will it cost? Likely to rival other top flagships
Huawei Mate 30 Pro release date and price
Originally we expected Huawei to introduce the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro in October considering the company announced both the Huawei Mate 20 range and the Huawei Mate 10 in October of their respective launch years.
One rumor has suggested it may come earlier in 2019 though, with Russian news site High-tech Mail claiming that Huawei’s Consumer Business Software President said in a briefing that the phone will launch on September 19.
Huawei has yet to confirm that date in public, but it may well be we see the phone earlier than October. At the very least the Mate 30 Pro will likely be announced in the last few months of 2019, alongside the standard Huawei Mate 30.
There aren’t any price rumors yet either, but the Huawei Mate 20 Pro cost £899 / AU$1,599 (around $1,150) at launch, so it’s likely that the Mate 30 Pro will cost at least that much.
It’s worth noting also that given Huawei’s ongoing issues in the US, the Mate 30 Pro probably won’t be available there.
Huawei Mate 30 Pro news and rumors
One of the major Huawei Mate 30 Pro rumor so far comes from a Huawei patent, which shows a phone case with space on the back for extra camera lenses.
You can see the image below and based on that it looks like there could be room for five rear lenses, up from three on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and four on the P30 Pro.
Of course, patents don’t always become real devices, and even if this does get used it might not make it to the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, but it would make sense for Huawei to increase the number of lenses on its flagship, given that a number of other phones are doing the same.
We’ve also heard from Huawei itself that the Mate 30 range might support 5G, but that so far the company is only “considering” this.
Beyond that, we can be confident that the Mate 30 Pro will have a new generation of the company’s top-end in-house chipset.
The current top version is called the Kirin 980 and made its debut in the Huawei Mate 20 range. Based on previous names we can guess that the next one will be called the Kirin 990.
Another report suggests Huawei may be able to include 25W wireless charging, which should mean super quick recharge times for your phone when using wireless pads.
The Mate 30 Pro is also likely to have at least four rear cameras, given that the Huawei P30 Pro does, and it might have a similar design to that phone, including a tiny notch and hardly any bezel.
Having said that, multiple leaks have now shown a design with a larger notch, along with a curvier screen. The curves of the screen can be seen below.
But we’ve also seen an older set of renders supposedly showing the handset. The over-sized camera block matches the cutout in the patent leak above and appears to house at least four cameras.
On the front, this Huawei Mate 30 Pro leak suggests the handset will have dual front-facing cameras, surrounded by the screen in a similar fashion to the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus.
Big camera blocks are starting to become one of the major design points for phones set to launch in the second half of 2019, with both the iPhone 11 and Google Pixel 4 also tipped to adopt larger bumps.
We’ve actually heard an alternative to this large phone block, though, as a leaked render shows a circle camera block with the lenses aligned in an X shape. It’s a futuristic design for sure, but it’s rather surprisingly large, and could be obnoxious in physical form.
That circular block can be seen again in another leak (below), albeit without the ‘X’ configuration and oddly only seemingly housing three lenses. This leak also highlights the large notch, and seems to show a headphone port on the standard Mate 30, but not on the Mate 30 Pro.
As well as the actual design of the cameras, we’ve heard a tiny bit about the camera capabilities, thanks to Huawei trademarking the phrases ‘Cine Lens’ and ‘Camera Matrix’.
We’re expecting the former to be a lens with specific features designed for video recording, but the latter is a bit of a mystery at the moment, as it could refer to many things.
Elsewhere, a leak has suggested that at least one of the phones will have four rear cameras, consisting of two 40MP lenses, an 8MP lens, and a time-of-flight (ToF) depth sensor.
On the front of the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, leaked images of the display show screen cut-outs for many cameras – more than for a dual-lens front-facing snapper, as some smartphones have, so it’s possible that the device will have Apple-style facial unlocking.
What we want to see
The Huawei Mate 30 Pro is likely to be a powerful, impressive phone, but for it to really stand out it could do with the following things.
1. An improved camera
The cameras on the Mate 20 Pro are generally very good, but in our review we found that shots taken with the ultra-wide-angle lens would sometimes have warped edges.
We also noted that the phone’s HDR skills weren’t a match for some of its top rivals, such as the Google Pixel 3 and iPhone XS, so these are two things that we’d like to see improved for the Huawei Mate 30 Pro.
2. More lenses
While we’re on the subject of the camera, we’d also like more lenses. The three on the back is a good start, but with the likes of the Nokia 9 getting five lenses, there’s always room for more.
This may well happen too, as early rumors suggest that extra rear lenses could be a feature of the Mate 30 Pro.
Similarly, we’d like to see an extra lens on the front of the phone, especially if it can be used to power Apple-calibre facial recognition.
3. No notch
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is a good-looking phone, but one element that could start to look dated in 2019 is its notch since phones are starting to arrive with punch-hole cameras instead.
But ideally, we don’t even want that for the Mate 30 Pro, what we’d like to see is a truly all-screen design with the camera and sensors somehow built into the screen. That might not be possible, but Huawei is often among the first to show new technology in handsets, so you never know.
4. A slicker interface
One ongoing issue with all of Huawei’s phones is the heavy EMUI overlay the company sticks on top of Android.
We’d like to see the Huawei Mate 30 Pro stay closer to stock Android. Better yet, ditch EMUI entirely and use Android One – which would also ensure software updates could be offered rapidly.
5. An improved in-screen scanner
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro has an in-screen fingerprint scanner and it was among the first phones to sport one. It’s a cool feature but in the Mate 20 Pro’s case it’s not perfect.
It’s only on a small area of the screen, so can be hard to find without first turning the screen on (which brings up an icon). It also isn’t perfect at recognizing prints.
That’s all forgivable since it’s the first generation of the tech, but by the time the Mate 30 Pro launches, Huawei will have had another year to perfect it, so let’s hope it will use the time wisely.
6. A 3.5mm headphone port
Like many phones, the Mate 20 Pro lacks a 3.5mm headphone port, but we’re still not convinced that it’s time to abandon wired headphones.
There are lots of arguments for the convenience of wireless headphones and the fact that the space used for the port could better be used for other things.
This is all valid, but many of us still have wired cans that we don’t want to bury just yet. Some of us also don’t want to have to charge our headphones, and when it comes to sound quality wired can still have the edge.
7. Something new
Most of the things listed above are focused on perfecting the Mate 20 Pro, but what we really want to see for the Huawei Mate 30 Pro is something completely new and exciting.
Some sort of futuristic feature perhaps or a completely new, completely dazzling design. We’ll leave the specifics to Huawei, but in the face of the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the iPhone 11, it’s likely to take more than impressive basics for the Mate 30 Pro to truly stand out.
