The Huawei P30 and P30 Pro took center stage when the brand’s latest P-series was announced. Lost amidst the shadow of both smartphones was the quiet launch of the Huawei P30 Lite. While not as technically striking as its brethren, the Huawei P30 Lite aims to do battle in the ever-competitive mid-range market.
| Chipset | Kirin 710 |
| Screen | 6.15-inch, 2312 x 1080, 19.3:9 |
| RAM | 6GB |
| OS | Android 9.0 with EMUI 9.0 |
| Rear Camera | 24MP f/1.8, 8MP f/2.4 ultrawide, 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor |
| Front Camera | 32MP f/2.0 |
| Storage | 128GB expandable up to 512GB via MicroSD slot |
| Network | Dual-SIM, 4G LTE |
| Connectivity | WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual band, Bluetooth 4.2, USB Type-C |
| Battery | 3,340mAh, 18W Fast Charging |
| Others | Fingerprint Scanner |
| Colors | Peacock Blue, Midnight Black, Pearl White |
The Huawei P30 Lite shares the same design language as its bigger brothers. Huawei has opted to use their Dewdrop design instead of completely removing the notch as we’ve seen in recent smartphone outings.
Its display is a 6.15-inch screen with an aspect ratio of 19.3:9 for a total resolution of 2312 x 1080. There is still a bottom chin although Huawei has minimized its presence by integrating the navigation keys onto the display.
While there’s no noticeable anti-glare coating on the display, it is bright enough to let you use it under bright light. Color performance is no slouch either. The 6.15-inch display is able to reproduce well-saturated colors and deep blacks granting you the ability to thoroughly enjoy visual content.
Resting on the Huawei P30 Lite’s Dewdrop notch is a 32MP f/2.0 front-facing shooter, which supports Face Unlock. Just above the camera is a speaker grille. Huawei has cleverly hidden the notification and charging LED just at the left-hand side of the speaker thus allowing more real estate to be taken by the display.
A shiny, blue exterior can be found at the back of the Huawei P30 Lite. The brand is using a two-tone design. In the Peacock Blue variant a lighter shade of blue is designated at the top portion while slowly cascading into a darker Blue hue at the bottom.
Protruding out of the rear plate of the Huawei P30 Lite is a triple camera setup: a 48MP f/1.8 main camera, an 8MP f/2.4 ultrawide shooter, and a 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor. Just below the cameras is the smartphone’s LED Flash. At its side, meanwhile, is a fingerprint scanner.
Popping the SIM card tray reveals that the smartphone has support for Dual-SIM. Unfortunately, there’s no dedicated MicroSD slot. You can sacrifice a SIM card slot in order to expand the 128GB internal storage.
While the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro removed the 3.5mm jack, we’re happy to say the Huawei P30 Lite still comes with everyone’s favorite audio connection. Just beside the audio port is a USB Type-C connection and the smartphone’s bottom-firing speakers.
As far as design goes, the Huawei P30 Lite sticks with the overall design that the brand has been pioneering for a few years now. While the two-tone color scheme of the rear is great to look at it is a fingerprint and dust magnet.
It’s also nice to see that Huawei is moving away from the rather large screen notch that plagued the previous generation of smartphones. Although the notch has been minimized we’re excited to see as to how the company will completely remove the dreaded notch.
The Huawei P30 Lite runs on Android 9.0 Pie with the EMUI 9.0 OS. The OS is rather standard with support for accustomed features such as split-screen apps.
The traditional app drawer has been removed. Huawei has opted to put all the apps on the home screen of the smartphone. Aside from this, there’s very little that redefines the Android experience in terms of the UI.
The Huawei P30 Lite’s camera is app gives you all the necessities you would need for a smartphone. Of course, established features such as Photo, Video, Portrait, Night mode are included in the package.
Scrolling to the “More” tab on the camera app reveals more features such as Panorama, HDR, 3D Panorama, Slow Motion, Light Painting, several filters, Aperture Mode, Pro Mode, Time-lapse, and stickers.
While not as impressive as the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro in the camera department, the Huawei P30 Lite’s triple rear camera arrangement can stand up to most smartphones in its category.
The 24MP f/1.8 main camera is able to capture well-defined photos with decent color reproduction and deep blacks. Even in harsh lighting, the camera was able to capture scenes without blowing up the highlights or drowning the darker spots on the image.
Zoom of the Huawei P30 Lite maxes out at 6x. Although not as insane as the other entries in the P30 range or previous models in the P and Mate series, it’s no slouch either.
Images are not as sharp as photos taken with the native focal length of the main camera but it’s good enough that you can get away with digital zoom some of the time.
The 8MP f/2.4 ultrawide camera does a decent job of capturing wide-angle shots most of the time. Under certain conditions like harsh lighting, however, some of the colors get less-saturated compared to the primary camera.
The Huawei P30 Lite is powered by the Kirin 710, the same chip found on the Honor 10 Lite, with 6GB of RAM. It’s not as fast as other processors in its price range like the Snapdragon 660, however, it can still deliver a reasonable performance without any downtime.
Benchmarks ran on the Huawei P30 Lite and its Kirin 710 produced acceptable numbers. The smartphone was able to reach a score of 5675 in PCMark Work 2.0 and 100817 in AnTuTu.
The smartphone get its power from a 3,340mAh non-removable battery. It’s the largest battery capacity in its range but the Huawei P30 Lite is able to run fairly efficiently on its battery.
With medium use, we were able to get around a day of usage with the P30 Lite. Charging from 0 – 100% takes just around an hour and a half thanks to its 18W Fast Charging via the USB Type-C connection.
Despite being the runt of the litter in the Huawei P30 series, the Huawei P30 Lite does have a trick or two up its sleeves. Its impressive camera performance makes its lineage proud. Whilst not as feature packed as its siblings, the color reproduction and detail that its shooters capture are still impressive.
The Kirin 710 chipset on the Huawei P30 Lite is a bit dated especially in the recent outings of its rivals. In spite of that, the smartphone still performs quite suitable given its price. With no noticeable lag and downtime between intensive tasks, the chip will perform up to its expectation.
Priced at PhP 16,990, we believe that the Huawei P30 Lite deserves the same spotlight as the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro. Given its absolutely splendid camera performance, we’re giving it our 100% Satisfying Mid-range smartphone award.
If you’re looking to upgrade your two-year old smartphone or move on from the entry-level handset you have, then the Huawei P30 Lite is a smartphone worth considering.
