The four-month-old Huawei P30 Pro has received some raving reviews from tech reviewers all across the globe, but many would be surprised to learn that less than one percent of the P30 Pro is American-made.
The Nikkei Asian Review has revealed the mobile components that make up one of Huawei’s most unforgettable smartphones, finding that the communication semiconductor from Skyworks, DRAM from Micron Technology, Cover Glass from Corning, MIPI switch from Texas Instruments, and Audio amp from Cirrus Logic are the five most essential, American-made mobile components for the P30 Pro.
There is also a Large IC that comes from the US, but Japan also shares the honor as well. Overall, the 15 US components in the P30 Pro cost $59.36, comprising less than 1-percent of the P30 Pro’s total 1,631 parts.
The majority of the P30 Pro’s smartphone components come from Japan, such as the front and rear cameras (Sony), Time of Flight camera (Japan), antenna switch (Japan), touch panel (Alps Electric and Alps Alpine), electronic compass (Asahi Kasei), crystal oscillator (Kyocera), crystal vibrator (Seiko Epson and Nihon Dempa Kogyo), and battery contact (Hirose Electric).
The honorable mention here comes from Samsung, who made the NAND flash memory for the Huawei P30 Pro. The few mobile components from the US in the P30 Pro demonstrate what Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei has said about his company: that is, they’re learning how to be self-sufficient and reliant on others outside of the US.
The few US components in the P30 Pro could be outsourced to others, such as Chinese manufacturers, if it comes to that thanks to the current Trump Ban. Huawei said that it hasn’t struggled to find the mobile components it needs because of the strength of Chinese companies it can turn to.
Of course, President Donald Trump just relaxed his position on the ban, allowing American companies to sell to Huawei once again, as long as it doesn’t threaten national security, but Huawei is still on the US Entity List and is still blacklisted, a US official told the Commerce Department. Getting American companies new licenses to sell to Huawei will be next to impossible seeing that Huawei is blacklisted still.
The Huawei P30 Pro features a 6.47-inch OLED display with an Full HD+ (2340 x 1080p) resolution, Huawei’s Kirin 980 octa-core SoC with two 2.6GHz Cortex-A76 cores, two 1.92GHz Cortex-A76 cores, and four 1.8GHz Cortex-A55 cores, and 6GB/8GB RAM configurations, with either 128GB/256/512GB of storage.
A Leica quad-camera setup is found on the back of the device with a 40MP Wide Angle Lens, 20MP Ultra Wide Angle Lens, and an 8MP telephoto lens. A 32MP selfie camera lies on the device’s front. The P30 also features the Time of Flight sensor mentioned above and comes with Huawei’s own “AI Image Stabilization.”
An in-display fingerprint sensor helps with biometric authentication. Huawei’s 40W SuperCharge technology, Huawei’s 15W Wireless Quick Charge technology, USB Type-C wire charging, IP68 water and dust resistance, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi round out the specs.
Keeping the lights on with the P30 Pro is a 4,200mAh battery that is said to provide a full two days of battery life. Keep in mind, however, that the two-day battery life is made possible by the Full HD resolution of the device; there is no Quad HD here, nor is there any resolution slider or adjuster to give users the option for such a resolution.
One Chinese tech reviewer says that the Huawei P30 Pro’s Moon Mode uses some serious AI to capture the moon so far away from earth, a feat that seems possible if P30 Pro users were a few miles from the sun. Being so many thousands of miles from the sun, however, makes the “Moon Mode” next to impossible.
The P30 Pro’s Moon Mode features a “Master AI” mode that “detects” when you’re taking a photo of the moon, leading some to think that the P30 Pro is “pre-painting moon details” onto photos rather than maintaining them as they’re taken. The P30 Pro’s Moon Mode has been assumed to be unique to Huawei, though it was taken from the Nikon Coolpix P900, announced back in March 2015.