Huawei P30 Lite: a mid-range with exemplary finishes

Presentation

Updated 05/20/2019 at 02:20 PM

Attention, Google having ended its collaboration with Huawei / Honor, the future software of the launch mobiles is pending. We cannot advise you to invest in this mobile for the moment, its rating could be lowered soon.

After excellent P30 and P30 Pro, Huawei returns with a lighter version. Less ambitious, this P30 Lite is distinguished by a solid technical data carried by a premium design. Enough to make it a particularly interesting terminal on paper. Especially since it seems to display some pretensions on the side of the photo with its triple rear module, led by the famous 48 Mpx sensor.

Launched at € 369, this P30 Lite faces the Galaxy A50 from Samsung and the Mi 9 SE from Xiaomi, but also the Pocophone F1. Three major competitors.

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Ergonomics and design

With its P30 Lite, Huawei has refused to make aesthetic concessions. The terminal thus benefits from a finish that is as exemplary as it is pleasing to the eye. His back is the most beautiful effect. At the front, the 6.15 inch LTPS panel occupies 84% of the panel. On the upper edge, the teardrop notch is slightly smaller, allowing the screen to gain a few square millimeters.

Once in hand, the P30 Lite offers a completely satisfactory experience. The side buttons, located on the right edge of the smartphone are easily accessible, whether left or right handed. The same is true for the rear fingerprint sensor. If it's as reliable as the other P30s, it may be a little slower.

On its lower edge, the P30 Lite houses a USB-C connection, but also a 3.5 mm mini-jack socket. A significant presence because these sockets tend to disappear in favor of the USB-C. The terminal offers 128 GB of internal memory. Note that it is possible to give a little more space to all this, thanks to the port that can accommodate microSD cards up to 512 GB. Dual SIM, the P30 Lite is compatible with NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2 and 4G + (cat. 13).

Unfortunately, the P30 Lite is not waterproof, but it's hard to blame it, few of its competitors in its price range are.

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Screen

The P30 Lite offers a 6.15 inch LTPS panel, in 19: 9 format, displaying in 2 312 x 1080 px for a resolution of 415 ppi. It turns out to be of good quality. It is however necessary to take a quick tour in the parameters to get the best out of it. Once inside, click on "Display", then "Mode & Color temperature" before choosing the "Normal" profile and positioning the cursor yourself in the yellow.

This done, the P30 Lite panel offers impeccable colorimetry. Thanks to uniformly controlled tones, its average delta E is excellent (2,3) while the color temperature is positioned at 6,546 K flirting with the video standard of 6,500 K. Unfortunately, this beautiful table is marred by a rate fairly low contrast (997 : 1), IPS requires.

In terms of pure performance, the P30 Lite screen is one of the good students, with a maximum brightness of 472 cd / m² and minimum of 1 cd / m². What remain legible in all circumstances. Comfort well helped by the low reflectance of the slab (8%). Finally, its remanence time (18 ms) is satisfactory while its tactile delay (77 ms) places it slightly above the average.

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Performances

It is a Kirin 710 SoC based on eight ARM cores (4 x A73 at 2.73 GHz and 4 x A53 at 1.7 GHz) that drives the P30 Lite. A chip more than enough to run Android Pie. Enough also to juggle between applications without too many problems. In any situation, the smartphone manages to keep its cool and barely reaches 36.3 ° C after intensive use.

When launching a game, the iGPU Mali-G51 MP4 chip takes over. She manages, in front of greedy 3D games, to maintain a correct fluidity, without being transcendent on the side of graphics.

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Audio

Regarding audio, the P30 Lite arrives with good and bad news. The good thing is that it accommodates a 3.5 mm mini-jack connector. The bad news is that it turns out to be very average. If it takes advantage of a fairly wide dynamic range and confines its distortion to a minimum, this is unfortunately not the case for crosstalk. The stereo scene is therefore poor on the side of the P30 Lite. In addition to that, the output power of the socket is quite low, and it will be put in difficulty by the slightest headset, even if it is a little energy-consuming.

Located on the bottom edge, the P30 Lite's speaker is barely average. Its output power turns out to be weak while the delivered sound turns out to be tight.

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Photo

Like its brothers, the P30 Lite has a triple photo module on its back. However, it is arranged differently. Exit the 8 Mpx telephoto lens, instead, it is a module dedicated to the depth of field (2 Mpx), for portrait mode, which makes its appearance. The sensors are also different. There is thus a main sensor of 48 Mpx and an 8 Mpx sensor for the very wide angle. A slightly less hybrid configuration, but supported by an application that is still as fluid. This module combo places it as a direct competitor to the Mi 9 SE.

With the smartphone's default settings, the main module and its 48 MP sensor take 12 MP shots using the Pixel Binning technique. The goal is to combine pixels to capture more light. A process that we have already seen on the Mi 9 SE of Xiaomi or on the View 20 of Honor. Huawei's photo application also allows you to take photos directly in 48 MP. This allows you to gain slightly in detail and offers a certain latitude when cropping a photo.

By day, the main module of the P30 Lite takes a little too limited shots. The whole lacks sharpness, but especially of contrast. Fortunately, there is no deterioration at the periphery.

It is at night that the shoe pinches. The pictures are drowned in electronic noise and the colors, already bland by day, disappear. So we end up with a photo that is certainly readable, but not very usable, with areas that are completely blocked. Note, however, that it peaks at ISO 3,200, where Xiaomi's Mi 9 SE hovers at ISO 11,569. Anyway, under these conditions, the Galaxy A50 or the Pocophone F1 fare better.

It is when the landscape extends beyond the frame that the very wide-angle module is very practical. With its equivalent focal length 17 mm, its lens opening to f / 2.4 and its 8 MP sensor, it unfortunately offers photos of very average quality. During the day, the amount of detail and the contrast ratio are further reduced. We are also witnessing a real loss of quality at the periphery. What position it well below a Mi 9 SE.

At night, the result is this time close to catastrophic. Facing only 3 lux, the very wide angle of the P30 Lite loosens and offers a rendering buried under electronic noise, with a total loss of details. It's simple, you will not have to rely on its wide angle in the light of a candle.

A portrait mode is available on the P30 Lite photo application. Unfortunately, it turns out to be rather limited. Its impact is mainly felt on the back digital camera where the 2 MP module, dedicated to the depth of field allows to obtain a fairly successful progressive bokeh. On the other hand, this famous blurring effect which puts the subject forward is almost nonexistent on the front module. Too bad since this one, with its 24 Mpx sensor and its lens opening to f / 2.0, is quite good. The exposure is often well controlled and the backlights are fairly well managed.

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Autonomy

With its 3,340 mAh battery, the P30 Lite has average performance in autonomy. During our home autonomy test, which simulates normal smartphone use, the Chinese terminal lasted 15 h 48 min. In real conditions, this corresponds to just over two days of use. A good score in itself, but tarnished by those of direct competition. The P30 Lite looks very pale in front of Galaxy A50, Mi 9 SE or Pocophone F1 which offer a much better autonomy.

Note that 1 h 30 min is enough to fully charge the P30 Lite.

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Conclusion

With its P30 Lite, Huawei offers a frustrating smartphone. Its finishes are exemplary, its slab, although IPS, is of good quality, and its performance remains sufficient for most uses. Unfortunately, the smartphone stumbles on the key sectors of autonomy and photography. It quickly shows its limits, and that's a shame .-- /! \ Warning, the future software of this phone is uncertain given the sanctions taken by the United States against Huawei. /! \

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