Huawei has been serious about mobile photography for quite some time now, as can be seen in the Mate 20 Pro, but the company looks to change mobile photography again with rumors that it will utilize two 40-megapixel cameras (rear) in the upcoming Mate 30 Pro.
Mobile industry tipster, Ice Universe, tweeted that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 10 “has no chance of beating Mate 30 Pro in terms of camera hardware” on Saturday, showing off the 40-megapixel camera sensors of the Mate 30 Pro with the 12-megapixel rear camera sensor of the Galaxy Note 10.
Twitter user RODENT950 chimed in on information about the rumored 40-megapixel camera sensors on the back of the Mate 30 Pro. According to him, there will be a 40-megapixel sensor with an aperture between f/1.6 and f/1.4 and an RYYB (Red-Yellow-Yellow-Blue) pixel layout and cinematic videography features. The other 40MP sensor will be a 120-degree Ultrawide lens with cine lens features. Finally, the third camera returns to the Mate 30 Pro from its predecessor, the Mate 20 Pro: an 8-megapixel telephoto lens with 5x zoom.
The RYYB Pixel layout of the first 40-megapixel camera is designed to let in more light, as it is a known fact that yellow pixels allow more light in than blue or green pixels. Huawei debuted this RYYB pixel arrangement in its P30 Pro by way of its SuperSpectrum sensor.
The SuperSpectrum sensor replaces green pixels with yellow ones and provides more details even in lowlight situations. The P30 Pro proved to be a formidable beast in low-light (with few rivals, by the way). That doesn’t look to change in the upcoming Mate 30 Pro.
What can be known about the upcoming flagship (the “Mate” series is Huawei’s flagship series) is that it will have a unibody display and pronounced curves. The unibody display would merge the front and back covers with no metal display between them.
The phone is expected to have four curved, 90-degree edges, a more pronounced design than the Mate series has ever seen. The seamless design of the upcoming Mate 30 Pro is inspired, no doubt, by Vivo’s NEX smartphone
Alongside the design, the Mate 30 Pro will see a 90Hz refresh rate, a trend bump that rivals OnePlus’s 90Hz refresh rate in the OnePlus 7 Pro. Android-powered gaming smartphones are seeing 120Hz refresh rates at the moment, so with Android-powered flagships increasing their refresh rates to 90Hz, it’s clear that Android is also stepping up its “game” (pun intended) in the graphics and display departments. Refresh rates are designed to provide a more fluid viewing experience, whether for TV shows and movies or gaming.
The smartphone will have Huawei’s 7-nanometer Kirin 985 SoC and Balong 5000 5G modem for 5G connectivity. Other specs include a 6.71-inch OLED display with a metal and glass phone design, in-display fingerprint sensor, four rear cameras with a Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensor, 4,200mAh battery, 55W SuperCharge fast wired charging, and 10W reverse wireless charging.
The biggest concern for interested buyers is the mobile OS the Mate 30 Pro will have. Since Huawei’s Android license is set to expire on August 19th, the question comes down to what OS will Huawei offer its users.
Weeks ago, Huawei was discovered testing out its upcoming HongMeng OS on the Mate 30 — so it isn’t farfetched to think that Huawei would use HongMeng on the Mate 30 when it launches. At the same time, the company has said that it would only use it on low and mid-range devices at first, so it may choose to go with Android 9.0 Pie instead.
And yet, if Huawei does that, the device has no chance of remaining updated over two years unless Huawei opts for HongMeng OS and leaves Android 9 Pie alone. Some buyers will decide on the device based on its operating system. Since Google has yet to reverse its Android license revocation, Huawei doesn’t stand much of a chance to compete in the Android with other phones powered by Google’s OS.
Sources say that Huawei has held up well financially despite the rocky ban placed on the company in the States, but there’s no denying the financial loss it’s experienced in Europe, where the company has seen a 40-60-percent decline in smartphone sales. Some European users may not give the Mate 30 Pro a chance if it’s running HongMeng OS instead of Android, but Huawei really doesn’t have much of a choice at this point.
The Huawei Mate 30 Pro won’t arrive on the world market until October or November.