What you need to know
- Honor has unveiled three phones in the Honor 30 series: the Honor 30, Honor 30 Pro, and Honor 30 Pro+.
- The Honor 30 Pro+ is the most interesting of the lot, featuring two 50MP cameras and 50x hybrid zoom.
- Like Huawei's P40 series, Honor's latest devices miss out on Google Mobile Services.
Honor hasn't faced the same amount of scrutiny as Huawei, but it was hit with the same restrictions from the U.S. Entity List, preventing the brand from using Google Mobile Services on its phones. After a forgettable 2019, the brand has launched its latest flagships in the Honor 30 series.
There are three phones at launch: the Honor 30, Honor 30 Pro, and the Honor 30 Pro+. If that naming sounds familiar, it's because that's the same lineup that Huawei used for the P40 series. And the similarities extend to beyond the similar names.
The Honor 30 Pro+ features a curved 6.58-inch 90Hz OLED panel, and has three cameras at the back, with a 50MP RYYB sensor joined by an 8MP zoom lens that delivers 50x hybrid zoom, and a 16MP wide-angle lens. The phone can shoot 4K video at 60fps, and has an in-screen fingerprint sensor.
The Honor 30 Pro has the same screen but is locked to 60Hz, and it comes with a 40MP primary camera, with the rest of the modules identical to the Honor 30 Pro+. The standard Honor 30, meanwhile, has four cameras: a 40MP primary lens, 8MP zoom module, 8MP wide-angle lens, and a 2MP macro shooter. While the Honor 30 has the usual Honor logo at the back, the 30 Pro and Pro+ feature rather large Honor branding running almost across the length of the device.
Up front, the Honor 30 Pro and Pro+ have dual cameras housed in a cutout on the left side, with a 32MP primary lens joined by an 8MP shooter. The regular Honor 30 has just a single 32MP module.
The Honor 30 Pro and Pro+ are powered by the Kirin 990 chipset, with the Honor 30 featuring the Kirin 985. All three devices come with 4000mAh batteries, with the Pro+ getting 27W wireless charging as well. The Honor 30 Pro+ comes with 8GB/12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, the Honor 30 Prohas 8GB of RAM and 128GB/256GB of storage, and the Honor 30 is available in 6GB/8GB and 128GB/256GB variants.
The Honor 30 starts off at 2,999 RMB ($425), the Honor 30 Pro will go on sale at 3,999 RMB ($566), and the Honor 30 Pro+ is set to retail for 4,999 RMB ($710). There's no Google services here, and while the phones are based on Android 10, they feature Honor's Magic UI 3.1. For now, there's no information on availability outside of China.
