Just one day after the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro were announced, Honor took the wraps off its own new flagships - the Honor 30, Honor 30 Pro and Honor 30 Pro Plus.
The timing is fitting, as these three phones can be seen as rivals to the OnePlus 8 range. In fact, the Honor range could be seen to be taking the affordable flagship mantle from OnePlus, now that the latter is starting to charge more for its phones.
Of course, Honor - being owed by Huawei - doesn't offer Google apps and services on its devices, making them less appealing rivals than they might otherwise be.
Still, the Honor 30 range gives you a whole lot of phone for your money, as you'll see below.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The successor to the Honor 20
- When is it out? Announced on April 15
- What will it cost? Mid-range prices
Honor 30 release date and price
The Honor 30 range was announced on April 15, 2020, but as for when you'll be able to buy them, that's a bit less clear. Sales start on April 21 in China, but availability elsewhere is still to be confirmed.
One thing we can be sure of is that these phones won't launch in the US, given past form and the ongoing Huawei ban.
As for the price, the Honor 30 starts at 2,999 Chinese yuan (roughly $425 / £340 / AU$670), while the Honor 30 Pro starts at 3,999 Chinese yuan (approximately $565 / £450 / AU$895), and the Honor 30 Pro Plus starts at 4,999 Chinese yuan (around $710 / £565 / AU$1,115). Of course, prices elsewhere won't be exact conversions.
Honor 30 design and display
The Honor 30 range have metal frames and glass backs like so many other phones, with a camera block in the top left corner of the rear.
The Honor 30 Pro and Honor 30 Pro Plus are also IP54 certified, providing a small amount of water resistance.
For colors, there's a choice of Midnight Black, Emerald Green, Icelandic Frost, Neon Purple, or Titanium Silver.
As for the screen, the Honor 30 Pro and Pro Plus both have a curved 6.58-inch 1080 x 2340 OLED one with around 392 pixels per inch. There's a dual-lens camera cut-out in the top left corner, but little in the way of bezel, and the fingerprint scanner is built into the screen.
The standard Honor 30 meanwhile has a flat 6.53-inch 1080 x 2400 screen with around 403 pixels per inch and a single-lens punch-hole camera in the top left corner, as well as an in-screen fingerprint scanner.
The Honor 30 Pro Plus also has a 90Hz refresh rate, for smooth interactions. That's higher than the 'standard' 60Hz refresh rates of the rest of the range, but note that some flagships such as the Samsung Galaxy S20 range are now offering even higher 120Hz refresh rates.
Honor 30 camera
The Honor 30 Pro Plus has a triple-lens rear camera with an impressive-sounding assortment of specs.
There's a 50MP f/1.9 main sensor, an 8MP f/3.4 periscope one (offering 5x optical zoom), and a 16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide one. The main and periscope lenses additionally include optical image stabilization (OIS).
The Honor 30 Pro on the other hand has a 40MP f/1.8 main sensor, but the other lenses are the same.
As for the standard Honor 30, that has a 40MP f/1.8 main sensor, paired with an 8MP f/2.4 ultra-wide one, an 8MP f/3.4 telephoto one and a 2MP f/2.4 macro one.
On the front meanwhile, the Honor 30 Pro and Honor 30 Pro Plus both have a 32MP main sensor paired with an 8MP secondary one. The standard Honor 30 just gets the 32MP sensor.
Honor 30 battery and specs
There's a respectable 4,000mAh battery inside all three Honor 30 models, and they all support 40W fast charging, with the Honor 30 Pro Plus additionally supporting 27W wireless charging.
As for the core specs, the Honor 30 Pro and Honor 30 Pro Plus both have an octa-core Kirin 990 chipset (the same as you'll find in the Huawei P40 range), while the Honor 30 has a slightly lower end Kirin 985.
On the Honor 30 Pro, the chipset is coupled with 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage.
The Honor 30 Pro Plus comes with 8GB or 12GB of RAM, but only comes in a 256GB configuration, while the standard Honor 30 has 6GB or 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage.
The phones additionally have a nano memory card slot, so you can add more storage, and they support 5G.
They run Android 10, but that's overlaid with the company's Magic UI 3.1 interface, and comes without the Google Play Store or other Google services and apps.
- Check out the best Honor phones
