Huawei P60 Pro review

Huawei’s P60 Professional launched in China again in March 2023, however it has lastly landed within the UK and Europe.  

The Professional model is at the moment the one P60 smartphone to get a global launch, and this yr Huawei is placing a deal with low gentle and zoom images, aiming to greatest the cameras on telephones from the likes of Apple, Google, and Samsung. 

Because it’s a Huawei cellphone, it doesn’t help Google companies or the Google Play Retailer, which has a huge impact on the software program entrance – particularly when you’re used to the standard Western Android expertise. Nonetheless, smartphone digital camera buffs should still be eyeing up this mannequin as it might take a few of greatest snaps potential on a cellphone.

Design & Construct  

• Gorgeous Rococo Pearl end
• IP68 ranking
• No headphone jack

The Huawei P60 Professional is available in a alternative of two colors: Black and Rococo Pearl. I examined the latter, which has a marble-like sample that’s distinctive to your smartphone – my unit had totally different shapes in comparison with different fashions I noticed. It’s obtained a stunning sheen to it and isn’t susceptible to catching fingerprints like another fashions.  

The Rococo Pearl mannequin is £100/€200 dearer than the usual black, so that you’ll must pay out for that beautiful end.

This seems to be and looks like a high-end, premium cellphone, with a curved form that’s simple to carry and use. That’s aided by its gentle weight (200g), and slim construct (8.3mm), and it isn’t humongous like different fashions such because the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely and the iPhone 14 Professional Max.

The digital camera module is on the left-hand aspect, with the principle sensor dominating the design – a departure from the 2 large round lenses seen on the Huawei P50 Professional. It does stick out, so the cellphone doesn’t totally sit flat when positioned back-down however as you may see, it’s designed to look and shoot like a digital camera in panorama.

There may be one USB-C port, and a dual-SIM slot that additionally takes Huawei’s proprietary nano-memory playing cards for extra storage. There isn’t a headphone jack, however that’s anticipated with a cellphone of this value level. The P60 Professional has an IP68 ranking, so it has an honest stage of water resistance. Huawei additionally throws in an accompanying clear case within the field, must you need some additional safety. 

General, Huawei has as soon as once more produced a surprising flagship smartphone with the P60 Professional that stands out from the smartphone crowd.  

Display screen & Audio system  

• 6.67in 1220p show
• Kunlun glass safety
• Stereo audio system

The Huawei P60 Professional comes kitted with a 6.67in curved glass show with a decision of 2700 x 1220, which is excessive definition however has the next pixel density than 1080p commonplace HD. The standard is much like what you’ll discover on the iPhone 14 Professional, however not fairly as spectacular as rivals such because the Galaxy S23+ which has a QHD+ panel.

It seems to be nice. Colors are daring and shiny, making it nice for watching movies. There’s a little little bit of glare below direct daylight, however not sufficient to make the show unreadable. The always-on show is enabled as default and exhibits the time and notifications when the display is off, although you may flip this characteristic off when you’re involved about battery life.

The under-display fingerprint sensor labored nicely, although face recognition did generally falter in low gentle, or if I used to be carrying glasses. In contrast to the Huawei Mate 50 Professional, which has true 3D face scanning, the P60 Professional’s single selfie digital camera solely has 2D face unlock, which is much less safe (and much like nearly all of Android telephones).

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

The cellphone comes with Kunlun glass, Huawei’s in-house various to business favorite Corning Gorilla Glass. I by chance examined this out when the cellphone slipped off the couch and landed on a ceramic plate. Regardless of a terrifying loud clang, the cellphone got here away unscathed.

The display has an adaptive refresh price that may show between 1- and 120Hz, which balances slick graphics with battery life. You can too have the cellphone on excessive (120Hz), or commonplace (60Hz) when you’re acutely aware of energy. The P60 Professional additionally boasts 300Hz touch-sampling price, that means its quick and responsive for gaming.

Stereo audio system are fitted on the prime and backside of the cellphone. These are loud and punchy, with some music soundtracks having clearly outlined bass, mids and highs. Nonetheless, it does lack the identical color and punch that you simply’ll discover on smartphones fitted with extra audio processing and beefier {hardware} such because the superlative Asus ROG Telephone 7 Final.

Specs & Efficiency  

• Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip
• 8GB/12GB RAM and 256GB/512GB storage
• No 5G help

The Huawei P60 Professional comes fitted with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor. This is identical chip seen within the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, the Xiaomi 12s Extremely and the OnePlus 10T. That is paired with both 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, or 12GB RAM and 512GB.

This isn’t Qualcomm’s newest processor – that might be the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which is seen on the Samsung S23 sequence, the OnePlus 11 and the Xiaomi 13 Professional. Nonetheless, the 8+ Gen 1 is a superbly succesful chip. I used to be in a position to multitask with ease, streaming movies on Twitch and shopping social media with no stuttering or lag.

However attributable to Huawei’s ongoing tensions with the US commerce business, there isn’t any 5G help – you’ll must make do with 4G. I did discover the distinction when out and about, with internet pages loading a lot slower than they often do on my common 5G cellphone.

Try how the cellphone carried out compared to rivals:

Cameras  

• 48Mp triple digital camera good for low-light zoomed in pictures
• Daylight photographs are equally beautiful
• Large-angle lens not as spectacular

Huawei aimed to impress with the P60 Professional digital camera, and it’s secure to say it has solidly delivered. 

The cellphone has a triple digital camera set-up led by a 48Mp important lens that has the identical bodily variable aperture tech seen on the Mate 50 Professional. It has a shifting half that lets you select 4 steps between f/1.4 and f/4.0 in a devoted Aperture mode within the digital camera app. You can too go extra granular with 5 steps of digital aperture.

This makes the guide controls a bit extra akin to a DSLR digital camera. Having the ability to change the aperture on the P60 Professional helps you to create a pure background blur on nearer topics with out the usage of software program, or open up the lens to soak up extra of a panorama shot and maintain all plains in focus. Having the ability to ramp as much as f/4.0 additionally helps let in additional gentle to get higher pictures when gentle is scarce.

This intelligent important lens is complimented by a 13Mp ultra-wide lens with an f/2.2 aperture, and maybe most excitingly, a 48Mp telephoto digital camera with a f/2.1 aperture, and three.5x optical zoom.  

This digital camera set-up excels for zoomed-in low-light pictures. I used to be in a position to seize this sundown shot of a giraffe at 3.5x zoom, with the digital camera dealing with the orange glow of the solar’s rays with out blowing out the remainder of the shot while balancing the shadows on the bottom and retaining the detailed print on the animal. It’s actually probably the most spectacular photographs I’ve ever taken on a smartphone digital camera – and I didn’t must strive too laborious. The digital camera does quite a lot of the be just right for you, although observe the anticipated lens flare that you simply’d see on any digital camera system when pointing immediately on the solar.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

Even in an virtually pitch-black indoor room, the digital camera managed to supply a gentle picture utilizing the software program’s evening mode, with colors lifted nicely with out showing too overblown or unnatural. The evening mode boosts the sunshine stage of the room to present a picture that isn’t true to life, however it’s spectacular all the identical.

The under left picture on the slider is taken on the P60 Professional. You possibly can see how a bunch of flowers compares to the right-side picture taken on the Galaxy S23 Extremely, which struggled to focus within the low gentle setting. The Samsung’s picture additionally has a lot murkier tones total.

Zoomed in low-light pictures apart, the P60 Professional’s important lens is a wonderful snapper. It copes nicely with colors each indoors and open air and captures the fantastic particulars in textures like fur and garments. The AI picture enhancing (which is greatest turned on for the low gentle snaps) doesn’t overblow the colors like on some cheaper telephones, and it nonetheless works a deal with – regardless of whether or not you’re taking pictures open air or indoors. 

There’s a Tremendous Macro mode for taking tremendous close-up pictures, which hones in on ultra-fine textures with readability. Focusing was principally constant – the cellphone solely struggled when there have been a number of objects in shot, reminiscent of quite a few flowers.

If you happen to want, you too can go for the Aperture mode to manually regulate the main target to fit your tastes, however I discovered the automated Tremendous Macro mode to work fairly nicely for many duties.

On prime of the optical zoom lens, there’s additionally as much as 100x digital zoom. There’s a noticeable downgrade in high quality when taking pictures something additional than 3.5x zoom, with traces barely fuzzier and shades not as true to life.

The 13Mp wide-angle lens pales compared to the standard of the 2 different lens. While its adequate for panorama tons or large group photographs, the colors turn out to be much less pure wanting, and the ultra-fine particulars are misplaced.  

If you happen to’re taking photographs of individuals or animals, the portrait mode is the most effective to make use of – shades distinction rather more dramatically than when you simply use the conventional photograph mode. Plus, there’s simply the correct quantity of blur, with no errant strands of hair getting smudged into the background.  

The 13Mp entrance digital camera has a wide-angle mode, making it helpful for giant group selfies. Oddly, the bokeh impact doesn’t appear to activate robotically on portrait mode, and you need to choose an impact within the digital camera app.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

Video recording is offered in 4K, 1080p and 720p in each 30fps and 60fps. When taking pictures, the color balancing isn’t fairly as spectacular as what you’ll discover on nonetheless pictures, with tones extra washed out. There may be additionally some jolting when zooming out and in – we noticed these points on the P50 Professional as nicely.

Nonetheless, the microphones choose up an honest stage of audio, and movies stay solidly regular when you’re shifting about.

Battery Life & Charging  

• A day-and-a-half battery life
• 88W quick charging
• Wi-fi and reverse wi-fi charging supported

There’s a 4815mAh battery packed into the P60 Professional. As flagship telephones go, the battery life is best than some rivals. I managed round a day and a half on common, streaming Twitch, taking photographs and utilizing Huawei’s Petal Maps.  

If you happen to’re snapping tons of photographs and movies and have the brightness whacked all the way in which up, then the battery will naturally drain faster.  

Charging sensible, the P60 Professional comes with an 88W brick and accompanying USB-C cable. This could juice the cellphone from flat to 89% in half-hour, so even a five-minute cost ought to get you an honest quantity of utilization earlier than you head out of the door – simply ensure you allow ‘turbo mode’ if you need the quickest charging speeds.  

As well as, it additionally helps 50W wi-fi charging, and seven.5W reverse wi-fi charging. It’s price noting that the cellphone obtained heat throughout quick charging, which is frequent for telephones with this expertise however one thing to remember in relation to the long-term battery well being. Chances are you’ll wish to maintain the turbo mode turned off and cost the cellphone slower, which has been proven to place much less put on on lithium-ion batteries over time than quick charging.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

Software program & Apps  

• No Google help
• Plenty of bloatware

And now for the massive sticking level of this cellphone, the software program. If you happen to’re used to the Google ecosystem like me, then you definitely’ll discover the Huawei P60 Professional fairly laborious going – however that doesn’t make it fully unusable.  

The P60 Professional runs on EMUI 13.1, an open-source pores and skin based mostly on Android. Relatively than Google Play, Huawei makes use of its personal AppGallery app retailer, which isn’t probably the most user-friendly – it’s chock stuffed with advertisements and simply doesn’t have the identical clear end that the Google equal boasts.  

On prime of that, it doesn’t embody lots of the commonplace Western apps like WhatsApp, Fb, Twitter, Netflix and PayPal. You possibly can nonetheless seek for these within the AppGallery or on Huawei’s search engine Petal Search, and the outcomes generally hyperlink to APK variations of those apps you could set up from different web sites

This is called sideloading, and doing so on Android is completely authorized, however it may be complicated. While Huawei does state that it scans apps earlier than they’re put in, there are nonetheless safety considerations, as you’re not downloading one thing from the Google Play Retailer, however a third-party website. 

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

See also  iPhone 14 Pro review

I had a number of points with APKs, with the Geekbench benchmarking downloading however refusing to put in till I went to a different website. The hyperlinks for downloading on the websites additionally aren’t clear to see. It’s a foul consumer expertise.

As soon as they had been downloaded and put in, apps labored as common. I nonetheless obtained notifications and had no points with apps crashing. However this isn’t appropriate for anybody who isn’t tremendous tech-savvy, or not aware of how Huawei telephones work.  

Not all apps will work as meant, although. Google apps use Google servers, so while they are often put in, they gained’t work as common, so you may’t sync your Google calendar or signal into Google apps. You can also’t use the likes of Uber and Citymapper, as they base their information off Google Maps. 

Huawei does embody its personal Google alternate options like Petal Maps, which I discovered to be correct for getting round London when it got here to buses and trains. If you happen to use Google apps, then I recommend wanting elsewhere.  

App woes apart, the Huawei P60 Professional has a structure that jogs my memory of Xiaomi’s MIUI in some respects. It adopts Apple’s fast navigation of swiping down from the highest of the display for the notification shade, with a proper swipe down from the highest pulling up fast settings.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

Huawei shares Xiaomi’s annoying behavior of together with bloatware, with tons of pre-installed apps taking over area and folders cluttering up the house display – and a few of these aren’t tremendous simple to do away with, both.  

A Huawei spokesperson informed us the cellphone will get two years of Android platform updates taking the cellphone to Android 15, and three years of safety updates till 2026. This isn’t too unhealthy, however Samsung affords 4 years of updates and 5 of safety patches, that means Huawei is lagging behind right here contemplating the worth of the cellphone.

To summarise, if the dearth of Google companies isn’t a difficulty for you, then the Huawei P60 Professional may nonetheless be a consideration. In any other case, this cellphone will not be simple to make use of, and rivals provide rather more seamless experiences with the straightforward entry to the apps you’re used to utilizing.

Worth & Availability  

The Huawei P60 Professional prices £1,199/€1,199 for the black 8GB variant, and £1,299/€1,399 for the 12GB Rococo Pearl model.  

It’s available for purchase from the Huawei Retailer within the UK and can launch from different chosen retailers from 22 Might 2023. If you happen to order earlier than 5 June 2023, then you too can bag a free Huawei Watch GT 3, and a £100 voucher to make use of within the Huawei Retailer.  

It ought to come as no shock that the P60 Professional isn’t accessible within the US. Nonetheless, American viewers could possibly pay money for one through AliExpress.  

That is very costly for a cellphone, not to mention one with out Google companies, and while the digital camera {hardware} on the P60 Professional is extraordinarily spectacular, the software program woes make it a a lot tougher promote over rivals.

You will get stellar smartphone cameras from the Google Pixel 7 Professional, the Samsung S23 Extremely and the iPhone 14 Professional, amongst many others. Try our chart of the most effective digital camera telephones for extra choices.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

Verdict 

There isn’t a doubt the Huawei P60 Professional packs some critical digital camera expertise, and when you’ve been trying to find one thing that may take close-up pictures in extraordinarily darkish circumstances while retaining tons of element, then this smartphone can’t actually be overwhelmed.  

On prime of that, it has a surprising sturdy design, glorious battery life with nice fast-charging tech, and slick efficiency.

Nonetheless, I’d solely advise shopping for it when you’re planning on utilizing this predominantly as a second smartphone digital camera along with your day-to-day cellphone, or if the dearth of Google companies isn’t a serious concern to you. 

If that’s not the case, then the Huawei P60 Professional is arduous to make use of, with many apps requiring sideloading and a few companies simply outright lacking. It’s a disgrace, because it does tar what may have been an actual flagship contender.

Specs

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 4G
• EMUI 13.1
• 6.67in 120Hz OLED show
• 8/12GB RAM
• 256/512GB storage
• Nano reminiscence card expandable
• 88W wired charging
• 50W wi-fi charging
• Digicam:
  • 48Mp f/1.4-f/4.0 important digital camera with OIS
  • 48Mp f/2.1 telephoto digital camera with OIS
  • 13Mp f/2.2 ultrawide digital camera
  • 13Mp f/2.4 selfie digital camera
• Wi-Fi 6
• Bluetooth 5.2
• 161 x 74.5 x 8.3 mm
• 200g
• Black or Rococo Pearl