Honor 20 Pro vs Huawei P30

Honor has announced two new smartphones for its 20 series following the 20 Lite. The Honor 20 and 20 Pro are here and we've compared the latter with the Huawei P30 to help you decide which one to buy.

Before we begin, it's worth pointing out that although Huawei - and therefore Honor as a sub-brand - is having issues with access to Android due to a US ban. However, this doesn't affect the phones in question here as they were already certified by Google.

Price

The Honor 20 Pro comes in at £549. That makes it a decent amount cheaper than the flagship Huawei P30 which is £699.

As a side note, it also undercuts the OnePlus 7 Pro which starts at £649.

Design & Build

Like many Honor and Huawei phones, these two are pretty similar and it can be a bit confusing why they are competing against each other in the same market.

One of the most obvious design differences is that the P30 has a teardrop notch at the top of the screen in the middle to house the camera. The Honor 20 Pro, on the other hand, has a punch-hole style solution. Neither is necessarily better than the other so it depends which you prefer.

There are some more subtle differences such as the the P30 having an in-display fingerprint scanner and IP53 waterproofing. The 20 Pro isn't waterproof and has the fingerprint scanner in the power button on the side.

With a bigger screen and larger battery, the Honor 20 Pro is a bit more chunky than the P30. This might be fine for you but it's worth pointing out that it's 8.4- vs 7.6mm and 182- vs 165g. The weight being the bigger factor here if you ask us.

Specs & Features

As you can see from our detailed specs table below, the Honor 20 Pro is quite similar to the Huawei P30 in terms of hardware. For example, they have the same processor and front facing camera.

However, there are a number of other differences and despite it's lower price, the Honor 20 Pro outpaces the P30 in a number of areas.

For starters, it comes with a whopping 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage as standard where the P30 has 6/128GB. Only Huawei offers expandable storage here, but that shouldn't really matter when you're getting double the capacity with Honor.

The screens are a little bit different in size, but not a significant amount. The teardrop vs punch-hole notch is a bigger factor here really. As you can see above, the camera can be disguised with some clever wallpapers.

Those front facing cameras might be in a different position but they are the same in terms of specs. The rear is a different story though with the Honor 20 Pro having no less than four to the P30's three. They both have an 8Mp telephoto lenses but the other cameras have different resolutions. 

The 20 Pro wins on the main sensor at 48- vs 40Mp but the P30 wins on the wide-angle front at 20- vs 16Mp. Honor offers a fourth lens which is a 2Mp macro option.

Both have the same fast charging, but the Honor 20 Pro has a larger battery here at 4000- vs 3650mAh. They're both above average but if you want the longest possible battery life then the Honor could be the way to go.

See below for a full specs comparison of the Honor 20 Pro and Huawei P30:

	Honor 20 Pro	Huawei P30
Price	£549	£699
Available	August 2019	March 2018
Operating system	Android Pie 9 + Magic UI 2.1	Android Pie 9 + EMUI 9.1
Display	6.26in 2340x1080, 19.5:9 OLED display, 412ppi	6.1in 2340x1080, 19.5:9 OLED display, 422ppi
Processor	2.4GHz Kirin 980 octa-core processor	2.4GHz Kirin 980 octa-core processor
Graphics	Mali-G76	Mali-G76
Memory	8GB	6GB
Storage	256GB	128GB
MicroSD support	No	Up to 256GB
Connectivity	Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 5.0	Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 5.0
Fingerprint scanner	Yes - side	Yes - in display
NFC	Yes	Yes
Rear camera: Stills	48Mp with OIS + 8Mp telephoto (3x) + 16Mp ultra-wide angle + 2Mp macro	40Mp with OIS + 8Mp telephoto (3x) + 20Mp ultra-wide angle
Rear camera: Video	[email protected]	[email protected]
Front camera: Stills	32Mp, f/2.0	32Mp, f/2.0
Front Camera: Video	[email protected]	[email protected]
Audio	Mono speaker	Stereo speakers, 3.5mm jack
Waterproofing	No	IP53 rating
Battery	4000mAh	3650mAh
Charging tech	USB-C SuperCharge 22.5W	USB-C SuperCharge 22.5W
Dimensions	154.6 x 74 x 8.4mm	149.1 x 71.4 x 7.6mm
Weight	182g	165g

Verdict

These two phones have various pros and cons when put side-by-side.

For most people, the Honor 20 Pro will be the better choice considering it's cheaper and has more RAM, storage, four rear cameras and a bigger battery.

The P30 does have some things to tempt you though, including water resistance, a slimmer design, in-display fingerprint scanner and a headphone jack.

Whether those are enough to spend the extra money is up to you.

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Specs

Huawei P30: Specs

• Android Pie 9.1 + EMUI 9.1
• 6.1in 2340x1080, 19.5:9 OLED display, 422ppi
• In-screen fingerprint scanner
• 2.4GHz Kirin 980 octa-core processor
• Mali-G76
• 6GB RAM
• 128GB storage (supports Nano Memory Card)
• Cameras: 40Mp with OIS + 8Mp telephoto (3x) + 20Mp ultra-wide
• Front camera: 32Mp, f/2.0
• GPS + Glonass
• 4G LTE
• 3650mAh battery
• USB-C SuperCharge 22.5W
• IP53 rating

Honor 20 Pro: Specs

• Android 9.0 Oreo with Magic UI 2.1
• 6.26in 2340x1080 touchscreen, 412ppi
• Kirin 980 octa-core processor
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB storage
• Quad lens rear camera - 48MP f/1.4 + 16Mp f/2.2 wide + 8Mp f/2.4 telephoto + 2Mp f/2.4 macro
• In-screen front camera – 32MP f/2.0
• Fingerprint sensor in power button
• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi dual-band
• Bluetooth 5.0
• 4G LTE
• Dual nano-SIM (microSD shared with second SIM)
• USB-C (USB 2.0)
• 4,000mAh non-removable battery
• 154.6 x 74 x 8.44mm
• 182g