Huawei unveils P30 smartphone series: Top-tier specs at affordable prices

Huawei Consumer Products division CEO Richard Yu presenting the new P30 smartphone in Paris on Tuesday.

Huawei on Tuesday unveiled its new flagship phone with the hope of making further gains in Europe.
The Shenzhen-headquartered company launched the P30 Series at a global launch in Paris, its first of traditionally two flagship launches annually. Huawei normally rolls out its bigger Mate Series towards the end of the year.
An executive at Huawei's product launch in Paris said the P30 would go on sale with a starting price of ?799 ($902), while the P30 Pro would have a starting price of ?999.
Huawei has been on an all-out offensive in the smartphone wars. Last year - "the year of Huawei", as described by Gartner - saw the company, also the world's top network gear maker, pip Apple as the No.2 smartphone vendor globally.
And while Apple has since reclaimed that position, Huawei's numbers were impressive: Gartner figures show that the company sold more than 60 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2018 alone, achieving the strongest growth among the top five vendors with 37.6 per cent.
"Beyond its strongholds of China and Europe, Huawei continued to increase its investment in the Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East, to drive further growth," said Gartner senior research director Anshul Gupta said in the data firm's latest report on the industry.
"Huawei also exploited growth opportunities through continued expansion of the Honor series in the second half of 2018, especially in emerging markets, which helped Huawei grow its market share to 13 per cent in 2018."
Two devices were unveiled at the event: the P30 and P30 Pro - Huawei's P30 premium version. All units continue Huawei's tradition of top-tier specs at prices below those offered by Apple and Samsung Electronics. The most premium of the lot, the P30 Pro, comes with a quad-lens camera system - the first such setup from Leica - which consists of telephoto, wide-angle, ultra-wide-angle and time of flight lenses. It has been improved to perform better on the stabilisation, zoom and low-light areas. The reverse-wireless charging feature, an industry-first in Huawei's own Mate 20 Pro late last year, is also back.
Smartphone makers are determined to reclaim lost glory as the sector posted its first-ever year-on-year decline in 2018. Huawei says it has continuously innovated to meet all points of the experience of customers, who are more informed on what they are buying.
"Several factors are at play here, including lengthening replacement cycles, increasing penetration levels in many large markets, political and economic uncertainty, and growing consumer frustration around continuously rising price points," Ryan Keith, programme vice-president with the International Data Corporation's worldwide mobile device trackers team, said in the firm's latest industry report.
If history is any indication, a local launch event will be held in the UAE for the P30 Series, with its availability expected in about two weeks.
- alvin@khaleejtimes.com