Hands-on with the Huawei P30 Pro
Huawei has launched the P30 Pro a new Android smartphone powered by a Kirin 980 chipset and 8GB of RAM — and we’ve gotten our hands on it for a closer look.
Images, which are captured on an impressive quad-camera array, can be viewed and composed on a 6.47-inch FHD+ OLED display with very thin bezels, keeping the overall dimensions of the IP68-certified device at bay. The large 4,200mAh battery packed inside should provide plenty of run time and comes with quick charging. The P30 Pro also features reverse wireless charging and an in-display fingerprint reader.
As impressive as all the specs are though, it’s the camera that has caught all of the attention, and rightly so — it’s packing a lot of camera tech into a considerably small package. Click through the gallery to dig through the details of the device and its imaging capabilities. In the coming days we’ll have a sample images and a follow-up article on the details of its photographic capabilities.
Quad-camera
The P30 Pro comes with three camera modules and a single time-of-flight (ToF) laser sensor — Huawei counts the ToF sensor when calling it a quad-camera. The ToF-sensor is used to measure subject distance for better AF performance and more precise depth maps in bokeh mode. The primary camera features a 1/1.7-inch 40MP sensor that puts out 10MP images.
The lens is optically stabilized and features a fast F1.6 aperture. The equivalent focal length is 27mm. The primary module is accompanied by a 20MP 16mm-equivalent super-wide-angle (not stabilized, F2.2) and a 125mm equivalent 8MP tele with folded optics, OIS and F3.4 aperture.
Folded optics
OPPO has been teasing a similar concept for a couple of years now but with the P30 Pro Huawei is the first manufacturer to bring folded optics in a smartphone to market. The system allows to squeeze a much longer zoom reach into a thin smartphone body than would be possible with a conventional lens design.
Like with OPPO, the image sensor is placed vertically in the phone and the optical axis of the lens runs across the phone body instead of outwards. A mirror is used to reflect incoming light into the lens and onto the sensor at the right angle. This allows for a 125mm equivalent focal length – more than any other current smartphone and approximately a 5x zoom factor over the primary camera. With the help of clever software this can be expanded to a whopping 50x magnification.
Field-of-view fusion
The Huawei does not only rely on innovative hardware for zooming, however. Computational imaging methods play an important role as well. Field-of-view fusion combines the optical zoom with super-resolution algorithms that stack multiple frames for increased levels of detail.
The system intelligently adapts to the zoom factor selected by the user. Up to a 3x zoom factor it only uses super-resolution on the primary camera. At zoom factors between 3x and 5x an image is captured with the tele lens for best possible detail. The areas around the edges of the 5x frame are then filled in using image data recorded with the primary camera. Detail in those areas is improved by reconstructing textures and fine detail using a deep learning algorithm.
This is quite impressive as white balance, focus and other camera parameters have to be in perfect sync for good results. At a 5x zoom factor only the tele camera is used. For even longer reach super-resolution is applied to the tele camera for a maximum 50x zoom factor.
Low light capabilities
The image sensor in the primary camera is of the RYYB type and according to Huawei offers 40 percent better light sensitivity than a conventional RGB sensor. A fast F1.6 aperture and optical image stabilization, which is an industry-first for a sensor of this size in a smartphone, also allow for better light gathering in dim conditions. Huawei says in default mode the camera is capable of delivering good exposures at extremely low light levels of 1 lux and can reach astronomic equivalent ISO values of 409,600.
Improved bokeh mode
Like virtually all high-end smartphones these days the P30 Pro comes with a background-blurring portrait mode. Huawei’s camera engineers have implemented a couple of solutions that should provide better than usual results, however.
Super-resolution is used on the primary camera to capture good detail at a 2x zoom factor, providing a field of view that is more suitable to portraiture than the primary camera’s native 27mm.
An initial depth map of the scene is then generated using data from the primary and super-wide-angle cameras. The ToF-sensor, which can precisely measure subject distance in all light conditions, is then used to refine the depth map, providing better subject isolation and blur gradient and therefore a more realistic overall result.
Video improvements
There’s no 4k video recording at 60fps available on the P30 Pro but the device comes with a range of improvements for its video mode. Huawei says image stabilization has been improved significantly, making the phone usable as an action-cam replacement. Video capture in low light has been improved as well, with the P30 Pro achieving good video exposure at candle light.
There are a couple of other new video features as well. On the main camera adaptive frame rates have been implemented to ensure good sharpness and smooth footage in all conditions In bright light and when the device´s gyro detects camera motion footage is recorded at 60fps. In lower light, when longer shutter speeds are required, and/or the device is held in a very stable fashion, frame rates drop to 30 fps. We’ve previously seen a similar feature on the Google Pixel 3.
Additionally the 32MP front camera is capable of recording HDR video. Currently Apple’s iPhone XS Max is the only other device with this feature. The P30 Pro front camera used a quad-sensor and a single-frame HDR effect is achieved by using different exposures on different pixels on the sensor.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
