Introduction
The Huawei P30 Pro and OnePlus 6T are flagship offerings from their respective companies. The Huawei P30 Pro is newer, that is true, but it is fueled by the Kirin 980 64-bit octa-core processor which was announced last year, and which fuels the Huawei Mate 20 flagships as well.
In that regard, and in many other ways, these two phones are ideal for a head-to-head comparison, even though the OnePlus 6T is considerably more affordable now. The OnePlus 6T will be replaced by the OnePlus 7 series devices really soon, but for the time being, it is still the company’s flagship. We’ll start this comparison with a spec comparison, as per usual, and we’ll go from there.
Specifications
Display
Both the Huawei P30 Pro and OnePlus 6T ship with OLED displays which are similar in size, and even have the same display aspect ratio. The Huawei P30 Pro includes a 6.47-inch fullHD+ (2340 x 1080) curved OLED panel, while the OnePlus 6T comes with a 6.41-inch fullHD+ Optic AMOLED display with the same exact resolution.
Both of these displays are really solid in terms of output, and the largest difference between the two of them comes to the form factor, as the panel on the Huawei P30 Pro is curved, which is not the case with the OnePlus 6T’s display. Both of those panels are amongst the best 1080p displays around, they both offer those deep blacks that you expect OLED panels to deliver, viewing angles are great, and both displays get bright enough and dim enough for most users.
Colors are punchy, but if you prefer more subtle, realistic colors, you can alter that in the settings. All in all, when it comes to these two displays, there’s only one question you should ask yourself, do you prefer curved or flat displays, because in every other aspect, these two panels are quite similar.
Winner: Tie
Performance
Both the Huawei P30 Pro and OnePlus 6T come with powerful specs, and considering these are flagship offerings from their respective manufacturers, you’d expect them to perform really well. That is the case with both of these phones, though they have a completely different set of features to offer. Both phones come with plenty of RAM, as both are available in 6GB and 8GB RAM options (not counting special edition models), while both the Kirin 980 and Snapdragon 845 are really powerful chips. On top of that, both of these phones come with fullHD+ displays, which is an added performance bonus, as neither of them have to push pixels on QHD displays.
The OnePlus 6T does ship with software that we prefer, software that is based on stock Android with some added functionality. OxygenOS is often considered to be the best iteration of Android, or at least one of the best, while Huawei’s EMUI has come a long way in the last couple of years, but it still doesn’t feel to hit the sweet spot. Both phones are insanely fast, and it’s more a matter of preference rather than anything else here, as neither of the two devices will disappoint in the performance department.
Hiccups are not present on the OnePlus 6T even months after its announcement, and the Huawei P30 Pro is brand new, so such issues are not present nor expected. This is yet another category in which we cannot really decide which phone to opt for, as both deliver stellar performance. We can say that EMUI can be a bit finicky at times, and thus far, OxygenOS has been more reliable in terms of performance, but that opinion is not based on the P30 Pro, but its predecessors.
Winner: Tie
Battery Life
If battery life is of utmost importance to you, neither of these phones will disappoint, as these two devices are amongst the best performers in this regard that you can get at the moment. The Huawei P30 Pro includes a 4,200mAh battery on the inside, while the OnePlus 6T comes with a 3,700mAh unit.
Most users will be able to get well over 6 hours of screen-on-time on both devices in a single day, in fact, even over 7, depending on your usage. The Huawei P30 Pro does have an advantage here, though, as it was able to provide a bit more extra juice than the OnePlus 6T in most occasions. Please keep in mind that this opinion is based on default settings, if you mess around with battery-saving options, you can get way more than that.
Both phones also ship with incredibly fast wired charging, the Huawei P30 Pro includes 40W fast charging that can get you from 0 to 70-percent in 30 minutes, while the OnePlus 6T incorporates 20W fast charging which is not far behind, but still not as fast.
The Huawei P30 Pro also includes fast wireless charging (15W), and reverse wireless charging, while the OnePlus 6T only has wired charging. Taking all this into consideration, it’s safe to say that the Huawei P30 Pro is the winner of this category.
Winner: Huawei P30 Pro
Cameras
It is not exactly a secret that there is one category in which OnePlus needs to improve with the upcoming OnePlus 7 series smartphones… yes, you guessed it, it’s the camera department. The OnePlus 6T’s camera output is not bad, by any means, but it’s not on the level of today’s flagship smartphones, that’s for sure.
The Huawei P30 Pro, on the other hand, is one of the best performers in that regard, and its cameras are its main weapon, pretty much. The OnePlus 6T includes 16 and 20-megapixel cameras on the back, both include wide-angle lenses, while the Huawei P30 Pro features a 40-megapixel main camera, 20-megapixel ultrawide angle one, and an 8-megapixel “Periscope” camera which enables insane zoom capability. On top of all that, a Time of Flight (ToF) camera sensor is also included on the Huawei P30 Pro.
During the daytime, both of these cameras are really solid, though the P30 Pro does have a slight advantage due to dynamic range, at least as far as the main lens is concerned. Both phones offer a dedicated night mode, but the Huawei P30 Pro’s works far better than the one on the OnePlus 6T, in fact, we were often able to get better nighttime shots without activating Nightscape.
The Huawei P30 Pro also provides you far more options when it comes to picture-taking, with its ultrawide sensor (which is fairly good in the dark, surprisingly enough), and its crazy periscope camera which enables zoom up to 50x. Neither of the two phones are the best around when it comes to video output, but they’re good enough, even though the P30 Pro does have a slight advantage in that regard as well.
All in all, the OnePlus 6T cannot really compete with the Huawei P30 Pro in the camera department, so if you’re getting a device for its camera capabilities, the Huawei P30 Pro is the better choice.
Winner: Huawei P30 Pro
Conclusion
Before we get to the conclusion itself, let’s just say that neither of these two phones have a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you will have to use a dongle if you’d like to hook up wired earphones / headphones to either of these phones. Neither of the two devices have stereo speakers either. The Huawei P30 Pro comes with Dolby Atmos sound, though, while the OnePlus 6T includes Dirac HD sound. The Huawei P30 Pro has a slight advantage in audio output, at least in our opinion, that goes for both its loudspeaker and sound through proper headphones. Now, taking into consideration everything that we’ve mentioned above, it’s safe to say that the Huawei P30 Pro is the winner of this comparison, even though the OnePlus 6T is more than a compelling phone and keeps up with the P30 Pro in many of these categories. It will be extremely interesting to see how will the OnePlus 7 (Pro) compare to the Huawei P30 Pro, as the two will compete one against the other directly in the market. The OnePlus 6T is a compelling phone, but it was released about half a year ago, and the next-gen OnePlus devices are expected to be much more of a challenge for the P30 Pro.
Winner: Huawei P30 Pro