On Monday, Huawei announced a new smartphone – the P30 Lite New Edition. It is a slightly newer version of the P30 Lite, which was released in 2019.
The reason for Huawei to re-release variants of the P30 series is because they have been certified for Google Mobile Services. So it can keep releasing P30 variants and put Google apps on them without any issues.
Huawei P30 Lite New Edition brings very few changes
With the Huawei P30 Lite New Edition, the company didn’t really make many changes to the device. It looks very similar to the Huawei P30 Lite, and even comes in the same colors: Midnight Black, Pearl White, Peacock Blue, and Breathing Crystal.
The differences are in the RAM and storage here. The P30 Lite launched last spring with the entry-level model sporting 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The P30 Lite New Edition is coming with 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Making it a pretty powerful device from Huawei.
It still sports a triple-camera on the backside of the device. With a main 48-megapixel sensor on the back. There’s also an ultra wide and a telephoto lens available.
This is Huawei’s way of getting around Trump’s ban
Last year was a pretty tough year for Huawei. Largely due to President Trump putting Huawei on its import list. Meaning that Huawei could not do business with any US companies. That includes Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Intel and many others. That makes it pretty tough for Huawei to make smartphones and laptops, seeing as they can’t work with the companies that make the software for those laptops.
Huawei is still technically banned from working with US companies. But it is still able to work with Google to push out updates to its existing smartphones. Which include the P30 and older devices.
Having said that, any P30 variant has already been approved by Google for using its Mobile Services. Meaning that it can keep releasing P30 models and still have Google apps on-board. The Mate 30 on the other hand, does not have Google apps.
This is why we are seeing Huawei continue to drop new variants of the P30. Even though this is mostly the same as the P30 Lite, but with more RAM and Storage, it’s a bit of a smart way to do things right now.
But this is just a band-aid for Huawei. It still needs to get onto the US government’s good side so it can start doing business in the US again.