Huawei’s sub-brand Honor announced the Honor View30 on February 24 this year and released the phone on April 27. The View30 was introduced alongside the View30 Pro. This is the successor to the Honor View20 launched in December 2018.

At a price of Rs 33,590, the Honor View30 is a bit cheaper than its higher-end cousin View30 Pro, which is priced at Rs 37,999. Compared with the View20, this smartphone is about Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000 more costly.

Display

The Honor View30 sports an IPS LCD touchscreen that measures 6.57 inches. It also comes with a screen-to-body ratio of 84.5%, a resolution of 1080x2400 pixels, an aspect ratio of 20:9, and a pixel density of 401 ppi.

The display sports a punch-hole design, featuring a long pill-like shape hole in the top-left corner of the screen. The View30 Pro has the exact same screen design. The 2018 Honor View20 also comes with this punch-hole design, but the difference is in the number of front-facing cameras. While the View20 has only one camera on the front, the pill on the View30’s screen houses two cameras.

In-plane switching, or IPS, is a display tech for LCDs (or liquid-crystal displays). This technology was created to overcome the main limitations of the TN matrix LCDs that were very common in the 80s, including low-quality color reproduction and strong viewing angle dependence. IPS involves switching and arranging the orientation of the molecules of the LC layer between the glass substrates. The IPS technology is also used a lot in TV and tablet screens.

Though the LCD screen technology seems outdated and has disappeared from high-end phones, the LCD panel on the View30 is surprisingly good to the eye. With a 401ppi pixel density, the display is smooth and you can’t see the pixels individually even if looking closely. The color contrast is good and the screen itself is very responsive to swipes.

However, like other LCD screens, this one falls behind more advanced technologies as its black shade isn’t dark enough. Higher-tech displays like OLED and AMOLED offers pitch, absolute blackness while the LCD panel, if you look at it from an angle, you will see a bright shade. This would have a certain effect on the viewing experience when you’re in a place that’s too bright for the screen.

The Honor View30’s display allows for high graphics settings when playing PUBG Mobile, meaning there’s no doubt it can handle other intensive mobile titles, which is attributed to its powerful GPU. From gaming tests, the graphics look really good, the detail is beautiful and the movement inside the game is smooth without any lags or frame drops.

Chip

This smartphone is powered by the Kirin 990, the latest, most powerful processor from Huawei. This is a 7nm octa-core processor, featuring dual 2.86GHz cores, dual 2.09GHz cores, and four 1.86GHz cores. The chipset is paired with the Mali-G76 MP16 GPU.

The interesting thing is that most phone makers save the most powerful chips for their flagships and often use a mid-range chip for a mid-range device. However, Huawei decided to pack its best set of chips into this affordable handset, probably to make up for the fact that the phone lacks Google support.

Needless to say, the most powerful chip, no matter what brand it comes from, can surely handle multi-tasking and any gaming title you throw at it. As shown in tests, the gaming experience on the Honor View30 is undoubtedly satisfying. While the overall gaming performance of a phone involves a combination of several factors like the screen quality, the GPU, and RAM, the chip is the mastermind that runs everything. And with the Kirin 990, you won’t have to worry about the phone failing during your PUBG sessions.

Storage

In terms of storage, there are two options for you to choose from. The first one is 6GB RAM with 128GB internal memory, and the other is 8GB RAM with 128GB internal memory.

The 6GB RAM is the most popular capacity among mid-range smartphones these days. This much RAM is enough to handle multi-tasking and gaming as well. But if you want the most power possible, you should opt for the 8GB variant, an additional 2GB capacity can make a big difference. Other than that, you will still get the same powerful chip and memory.

It’s safe to say that the Honor View30 will overheat when you play games with it. In gaming tests, even after finishing a 30-minute session, the phone remains cool in the hand. This is especially good news for hardcore mobile gamers as well as all other hobbyists.

Battery

The Honor View30 packs a 4200mAh battery, featuring support for 40W fast charging that can charge up to 70 percent within 30 minutes. But there’s no support for wireless charging.

This battery capacity isn’t really impressive, it’s combined with an efficient processor, resulting in amazing battery life. The phone has an overall endurance rating of 107 hours.

With this much juice and battery life, you can surely play games for long hours. Or if you just have to do a lot of power-intensive tasks on the phone, the View30 can last an entire day for you too. Even if it does run out of juice when you’re in the middle of something, the fast charging support won’t make you make for long.

Camera

So far, the Honor View30 seems to offer only good things, except for the old-fashioned screen. The camera module won’t disappoint you either.

On the front, there are three lenses, including a 40MP wide-angle lens, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, and an 8MP telephoto lens. There’s also an LED flash, panorama, and HDR mode. The phone allows for video recording at a resolution of 4K, 1080 pixels, or 720 pixels, along with a frame rate of 30 fps or 960 fps.

Meanwhile, on the front, there is a dual-camera setup, including a 32MP wide-angle lens and an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens. You also get the HDR mode and the ability to record videos at 1080 pixels and 30fps frame rate.