A Huawei smartphone bearing the model number MAR-AL00 was recently greenlit by China’s 3C authority and a variant of the same handset with the model number MAR-LX1M also showed up in the database of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC). It is believed that the model number MAR-XXX pertains to the Huawei P30 Lite, a mid-ranger from the upcoming P30 series, which would also include the high-end P30 and P30 Pro. The development suggests the P30 Lite could be launching as early as next month.
Judging by previous leaks said to be depicting the Huawei P30 Lite and its plastic case, the phone will most likely come with a waterdrop notch. Although numerous reports claim the same, it is a little surprising to see Huawei stick with a notch and not go for a punch-hole display as it did with the Nova 4 released last month. The presence of a waterdrop-like notch also indicates that the phone will have a single camera on the front. Aside from that, the phone will most likely have really slim bezels, hence offer a high screen-to-body ratio.
The Huawei P30 Lite is expected to sport a 6-inch IPS LCD module with full HD+ resolution. Apart from that, it is also believed that the P30 Lite, allegedly code-named “Marie Claire,” will come with a conventional rear mounted-fingerprint scanner, but that is hardly surprising as most mid-range phones had one for several years now. The phone will most likely feature a vertical triple-camera system on the back, consisting of a 20-megapixel, 16-megapixel, and 2-megapixel sensors.
The Huawei P30 Lite is expected to be fueled by the Kirin 710 chipset, the same chip that powers the previously released Nova 3i. While the chip can admittedly not provide flagship-level performance, it is a powerful SoC in its own right and a big leap over older mid-range silicon. Keeping the memory configuration of Huawei’s other mid-rangers in mind, the Huawei P30 Lite might offer up to 6GB of RAM. It is also expected that the phone will support will support 18W fast charging. The handset is speculated to ship with Android 9 Pie, i.e. Huawei’s proprietary implementation of Google’s OS called EMUI.
Other details about the phone are sparse at the moment but it is being alleged that it might be marketed in some regions as the Huawei Nova 4e, particularly in the tech giant’s home country of China. Huawei might officially announce the P30 Lite in late February or early March. There is no word on the pricing details of the phone just yet. As for the P30 and P30 Pro, the upcoming Android flagships will most likely make a debut by the end of March.
It is also being reported that Huawei is readying another phone with a triple rear-facing camera setup which will be released in China. While that description could point to an upgraded version of the P30 Lite, no concrete details on the matter have yet been revealed in any capacity. What’s certain is that Huawei’s incoming Android smartphones won’t be coming to the U.S. given the firm’s latest legal clashes with Washington.