HUAWEI P30 Pro gets EMUI 10, new colors and camera features

In addition to the 5G-capable Kirin 990 processor and FreeBuds 3, Huawei today also announced a mild refresh to the P30 Pro, including new two-tone colorways and improved camera features. Interestingly, HUAWEI calls this refreshed version the “New P30 Pro,” in an effort to bring the 6-month-old phone back into the spotlight. HUAWEI is expected to delay the Western release of the Mate 30 Pro, so a P30 Pro facelift could fill that void.

A visual refresh

Similar to some of HUAWEI’s other colorways, the new Misty Lavender and Mystic Blue don’t look as you’d imagine they would. Misty Lavender leans more heavily toward pink than purple, while Mystic Blue appears teal from certain angles. The two-tone back is very Pixel-esque and features a matte bottom and glossy top.

Also read: HUAWEI Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro: All the rumors in one place | HUAWEI Mate 30 series likely to launch without Western release date

Misty Lavender and Mystic Blue aren’t as bold as the original Breathing Crystal or Amber Sunrise versions, but the new colors still look very sharp. They also have a reserved look to them that isn’t ostentatious, yet still grabs your attention.

Misty Lavender and Mystic Blue will be available September 20 in Europe. Because these are new colors and not new HUAWEI smartphones, they are unaffected by the U.S. government’s ban. It’s a smart move for HUAWEI to boost sales of its flagship smartphone without stepping on the U.S. government’s toes.

A great camera gets better

The P30 Pro won plaudits for its powerful camera system, and now HUAWEI is building it up with new features.

“Super Night Selfie” improves on what the name says — it’s supposed to brighten and beautify self portraits taken in low light, while lowering the intensity of background illumination to make the details in dark areas more prominent. It sounds a lot like an adaptation of HDR for low-light selfie applications.

HUAWEI added an AI-powered feature that creates vlog-like videos from the images and videos in your image gallery. The AI angle sounds interesting, but the feature may be just a glorified slideshow maker. We’ll have to see it for ourselves.

HUAWEI also talked about improvements to the P30 Pro’s Portrait mode, though it’s not clear what’s actually new.

Some of these camera features have been previously launched on the Chinese versions of the P30 and P30 Pro.

EMUI 10, the same hardware specs

The “New” HUAWEI P30 Pro will run the Android 10-based EMUI 10. The latest version of the HUAWEI skin includes a lot of visual refinement, an improved dark mode, and a revamped camera app. You can read more about EMUI 10 in our hands-on.

HUAWEI also announced it would open a public beta for the EMUI 10/Android 10 update for the P30 Pro later this month.

The rest of the P30 Pro is exactly as you remember. That means a 6.47-inch OLED display with Full HD+ (2,340 x 1,080) resolution, an in-display fingerprint scanner, a 40MP+8MP+20MP triple rear camera system, HUAWEI’s in-house Kirin 980 processor, up to 8GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, a 4,200mAh battery, and Android 9 Pie currently underneath EMUI 9.1.

In his review, our own Bogdan Petrovan considered the P30 Pro one of the best all-around smartphones currently available. He was particularly impressed with the phone’s image output and battery life.