Huawei P30 Lite (2019) review: still good value for money

Huawei P30 Lite release date and price

An unlocked Huawei P30 Lite 2019 is sold in several forms depending on your region but prices start at around the $250-$300 mark. The smartphone is available in black, blue and pearl white, and it's precisely the latter color that I think is the prettiest and most original.

Typically stylish Huawei design

The Huawei P30 Lite is very stylish thanks to its large 6.15-inch screen. It's a fairly well-made smartphone that doesn't abandon the features that many users consider essential: a headphone jack, NFC, USB-C port and microSD card support.

The fingerprint reader is placed on the back, which I think makes it difficult to access because you can't see where you put your finger. It's kind of old-school to have the fingerprint sensor on the back and personally I prefer to go without it. Speaking of the back, there seems to be a problem in the construction of the perforated camera dedicated to the three photo lenses. This camera bump is particularly thick and makes the phone wobbly when placed on a table, for example.

The physical keys are concentrated on the right side while the SIM+microSD box is on the top of the device. The sockets for headphones and for recharging the battery are, as is often the case, located on the lower part of the smartphone.

The Huawei P30 Lite is not a compact smartphone due to its dimensions (72.7 x 152.9 x 7.4 mm) and weight (159 grams). It can certainly be used with one hand, but being used to using smaller smartphones, I tended to use both hands during my tests. Overall, the Huawei P30 Lite is quite convincing from a design standpoint.

A 6.15-inch IPS display

The Huawei P30 Lite features a 6.15-inch IPS display with a resolution of 2312 x 1080 pixels. On the screen, the colors are bright and beautiful. Editorial content, such as an article or an app, for example, can be read pleasantly, but the quality of images, photos and videos is not very good. There is a real lack of sharpness.

Both minimum and maximum brightness work well. In the settings, and more precisely in the display section, you can customize the brightness level, choose the size of the display and/or text and activate the "Eye Comfort" mode that I particularly like. I strongly advise you to go to this menu to update according to your own tastes. I can't stress enough how important it is to take care of your eyes.

The only small negative remark I have is that after only a few days of use the screen protection film has been damaged. I promise, I didn't drop it on the floor and I didn't rough it up. A few days after starting the test, when I took it out of my purse, I discovered large scratches, located in different places on the screen, which seemed to be caused by rubbing with the other objects in my bag. If you want to buy this smartphone, make sure you buy a good quality screen protector film. In my experience, the one that comes with the smartphone is not worth it.

Android 9 Pie and EMUI 9.0.1

The Huawei P30 Lite has been released with the Android 9 Pie and comes with the EMUI 9.0.1 operating system from Huawei.

EMUI is an interface known to those who have already dealt with a smartphone of the brand. For those who don't know it, it's a custom iOS-inspired interface offering some interesting features such as the quick installation of many applications, and without impacting the performance of the smartphone. On the software side, I had no problem with the smartphone as a whole.

From a security point of view, this Huawei P30 Lite can be unlocked by both fingerprint and facial recognition, and both systems work without any problems.

Huawei P30 Lite performance

Despite its elegant design, the Huawei P30 Lite is a mid-range smartphone, and the spec sheet confirms it. Onboard is a HiSilicon Kirin 710 Octo-Core processor with a clock frequency of 4 x 2.2 GHz (CortexA73) + 4 x 1.7 GHz (Cortex A53). It is supported by 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. You can expand the internal memory up to 512GB with a microSD card.

In daily use, the Huawei P30 Lite can handle tasks without any problems. Don't expect this smartphone to be as fast and responsive as a top-of-the-line multitasking manager, but it's still capable of delivering good performance in line with the competition in this price range.

The Huawei P30 Lite offers a good audio experience, with sufficient volume to accompany games, videos, and music while on the move. It also works well when you make or receive phone calls. Finally, it connects to Bluetooth 4.2 and Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz) 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac.

Three cameras on the back

Mid-range smartphones are getting better and better, so they are moving closer to high-end devices. Even in this price range, brands are looking to improve by offering smartphones with beautiful design and photo quality features. The Huawei P30 Lite is no exception. The camera set up is as follows:

• Selfie camera (24MP, f/2.0)
• Rear main, 48MP, f/1.8
• Rear wide-angle lens, 8MP, f/2.4
• Rear 2MP macro lens, f/2.4
• Depth sensor, 2MP, f/2.4

Huawei has made the P30 Lite a versatile smartphone that leaves room for creativity. Even though the shots obviously can't compete with those taken with the cameras of the best smartphones, the P30 Lite 2019 offers good photo rendering in general, and more specifically in the representation of colors and contrasts. The only problem, in my experience with this camera, is the sharpness of the images. You can see this all the more when you zoom in on the photos. And this is precisely where the mid-range limit is. Generally speaking, the smartphone is good, at least for basic use, but when you push it a bit, you can see where the flaws are hidden: in the details.

To take pictures at 48 megapixels, you must select the dedicated function. The wide-angle works very well even when the brightness is not good. The camera application is intuitive and quite fast. You can see some example shots at the link below:

• Gallery of photos taken with Huawei P30 Lite 2019

A 3,340 mAh battery

Huawei has equipped the P30 Lite with a 3,340 mAh battery. This capacity is a bit disappointing because, by way of comparison, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T, which costs almost half as much, has a 4,000 mAh battery. With intensive use I was able to last one day, and with more moderate use it is possible to last almost two days without having to recharge the smartphone. As always, it all depends on how you use the camera: more intensive use of the camera and the movie function obviously puts a strain on battery life.

During the test, I had to work the device for about three hours, and after the two hours of use, the housing had already warmed up. I find this quite surprising and not a very good omen for the future of this device.

Please note, an 18W quick charger is provided with the purchase of a new Huawei P30 Lite 2019.

Huawei P30 Lite technical specifications