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Jul 24, 2023

Huawei P60 Pro Smartphone 1st Review: Cute Design And Dazzling Camera

Huawei has a history of making cameraphones that are ahead of their time. The

Huawei has a history of making cameraphones that are ahead of their time. The latest phone, the P60 Pro, takes camera smarts to a new level, with an adjustable aperture to create real photographic versatility.

Huawei P60 Pro.

The P60 Pro also has a striking design that is eye-catching and appealing. One finish, called Rococo Pearl, is smooth as silk to the touch but looks like it has deep texture, like mother of pearl. Every individual handset looks different from the next.

The other, more demure, colorway is Black, for the less adventurous buyer, perhaps. This has a feather-sand finish, as Huawei calls it, which is matte and effectively hides fingerprints.

In the U.K. the 8/256GB variant will only be available in Black variant has 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage while Rococo Pearl has 12GB of RAM and 512GB storage.

The phone is slim with curvy edges, fitting the hand well and offering a noticeably lighter feel than similarly sized rivals such as the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which has an almost identically sized display (the iPhone's screen is 6.7 inches, the Huawei just a little less at 6.67 inches). The curved edges help with the hand feel, too. The phone has a higher display to body ratio than the iPhone 14 Pro Max, at over 93%.

Huawei P60 Pro in Rococo Pearl finish.

The phone's back reveals its pretensions to camera excellence, with the camera panel designed with a large central lens and two smaller lenses. It's almost like an SLR camera has been mounted on the back of the phone.

The main lens is so big it squeezes outside the rectangle that surrounds it. And one of the reasons for this eye-catching design is the special feature: an adjustable aperture.

When you launch the camera and switch to the Pro mode, you can adjust the aperture by swiping your finger across the screen. As you do so, take a look at the back and the aperture visibly alters.

The display is covered by Kunlun Glass, which Huawei says is toughened so it's exceptionally strong. It's an OLED screen with high pixel density (443ppi). It's also quad-curved, that is, the display slopes down over the edges of all four sides. It's bright and detailed, looking great whether you’re scrolling menus or playing games. It's also a display with an adaptive refresh rate, ranging from 1Hz to 120Hz as needed, ensuring a smooth, stutter-free experience at all times.

The camera panel on the rear of the Huawei P60 Pro.

The latest Huawei cameraphones feature Xmage, Huawei's name for its most advanced photography. There are two 48-megapixel sensors, a main and a telephoto, with an ultra-wide camera that has 13-megapixel resolution. The main camera has a feature Huawei introduced on the previous, and less widely available, Mate 50 Pro: an adjustable aperture. This is a physical aperture which auto-adjusts as you need it, ranging from f/1.4 to f/4.0, but you can also perform that swipe adjustment in Pro mode. The advantage of adjusting the aperture, like on a regular camera, is the difference in depth of field, so that more or less of the image is in sharp focus.

In regular use, you probably won't adjust the aperture that much because Huawei's machine learning does it for you automatically. This works well.

The telephoto lens is outstanding, using a periscope design that means the lens is the equivalent of 3.5x the main lens. This lens can deliver remarkable results, and is ideal for great shots of distant buildings, people or wildlife, for instance.

This camera can also take tremendous macro shots. It's also strong in very low light, taking photos instantly—unlike some phones which offer a short countdown in low light, requiring you to hold still for longer.

I’m still working through what the camera can do, but it's hugely impressive. Previous Huawei cameraphones have been best-in-class for their time. This looks like it will achieve the same excellence.

Huawei P60 Pro with its quad-curve display.

The Huawei P60 Pro has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. That's a very fast chip, though this version is not 5G-compatible. This, and the lack of full Google Mobile Services on board, are down to U.S. government sanctions—and both are frankly a nuisance.

That said, the speed and capability of this phone are not to be underestimated. The camera alone makes so many calculations that a nimble chip is needed, and Huawei has exploited the power of the chip immaculately.

This phone is fast and effective, with no slowdowns, nothing that keeps you waiting.

Battery life is also very strong, suggesting that the power usage has been smartly optimized, lasting more than a day with ease. It recharges fast, wired or wirelessly, and there's reverse wireless charging, too.

This is the elephant in the room. Huawei's phones don't have Google Mobile Services, as mentioned above, which means there's no Google Maps or Google Play Store, for instance. Which means there are plenty of mainstream apps which just aren't easily available, though Huawei has a series of safe, legal and effective workarounds for many. And the company's own Petal Maps is really excellent, for a start.

Those who don't look for a phone laden with hundreds of apps may find the absence of some key apps is no issue at all, but others will struggle.

Huawei P60 Pro in eye-catching Rococo Pearl finish.

The Huawei P60 Pro has just gone on sale, though not in the United States. It's not cheap, costing $1,515 (£1,199.99) in the U.K. That's for the black version. The Rococo Pearl version is $1,641 (£1,299.99) thanks to the increased RAM and storage.

And it lacks key Google services and 5G connectivity, so think carefully about how this will affect you before you decide to buy.

But there are splendid upsides to this phone. It's fast, really fast, and has great battery life. The design may not please everyone, but I love it.

And the camera system is nothing short of remarkable: sublimely easy to use, highly effective on the most basic automatic settings, and capable of really outstanding photography. If you use your smartphone a lot for taking shots, it's a worthy contender.