There are a lot of great Huawei phones, but are they worth the risk?

When it comes to the best and latest Huawei phones, we’ve got you covered. We’ve picked them all out and rounded them up so you can see at a glance what’s best for you.

There’s a catch though. Since a trade ban from the US government, Huawei phones aren’t quite so tempting anymore. The ban means the latest Huawei phones can’t run Google Mobile Services and don’t have the Google Play Store. Compared to other Android smartphones, this makes them a tough sell to many who rely heavily on the Android platform.

That’s a massive shame as ever since the excellent P20 Pro, Huawei has been excelling. They were selling more phones in Europe and various other markets to be the No 1 smartphone brand in the world for a time. Huawei demonstrated that it can hold its own against the likes of Samsung and Apple when it comes to making the best phones in the world.

Best Huawei Smartphone

If you can look past the Google-related issues, our list is full of some great Huawei phones including the Huawei Mate 40 Pro and the Huawei P30 Pro. We’re expecting to see the release of the Huawei P50 later this year too.

For now, here is a list as up-to-date as it can be, and it also includes a number of older Huawei handsets that still offer Google apps and the Play Store — something that gives them an advantage over newer handsets. This includes the Huawei P30 Pro, the phone that we still think is the best Huawei phone.

The Huawei P30 Pro might be two years old by this point but it’s still a fantastic handset with an amazing zoom camera, great display, and class-leading battery life. You can even get most of the features for less in the P30 too if your budget is tighter. 2018’s Mate 20 Pro is still a very good option as well, with Huawei’s mid-range phones like the P Smart (2019) also offering a sleek design in an affordable package. Read on to find out why they’re all so great.

1. Huawei P30 Pro

Best Huawei phone you can buy right now

The Huawei P30 Pro is the best Huawei phone you can purchase at the moment. It’s also one of the best smartphones we’ve used when it comes to photography, with the cameras being the P30 Pro’s real party piece, providing immensely good 5x and 10x zoom, and a digital 50x zoom which gets you insanely close to objects that are far off in the distance. Its low-light capabilities are also top-notch.

The large 6.47-inch screen on the P30 Pro may ‘only’ have a Full HD+ resolution, but it’s bright, clear, and colorful, providing an excellent viewing experience for your apps and games. There’s no worry when it comes to the P30 Pro potentially running out of juice either, as the battery life here is excellent.

The P30 Pro not only sets a new standard for Huawei, but it also sets a new standard for the entire smartphone industry. Its cameras are quite simply astonishing, the design is eye-catching and the power more than adequate. It’s a true flagship smartphone.

• Release date: March 2019
• Weight: 192g
• Dimensions: 158 x 73.4 x 8.4mm
• OS: Android 9
• Screen size: 6.47-inch
• CPU: Kirin 980RAM: 8GBStorage: 128/256/512GB
• Battery: 4,200mAh
• Rear camera: 40MP + 20MP + 8MP + ToF
• Front camera: 32MP

Pros:

• +Fantastic cameras
• +Eye-catching design

Cons:

• -Display ‘only’ Full HD
• -EMUI lacks polish

2. Huawei Mate 20 Pro

An outstanding all-round handset

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is a brilliant all-around phone offering up a heady mix of design, power, and performance with a few bells and whistles thrown in too.

It builds on the excellent P20 and P20 Pro by offering up even more screen real estate, enhanced triple rear cameras, and an in-display fingerprint scanner.

The Mate 20 Pro packs a huge 6.39-inch display giving you a large amount of space for gaming and movies, and its QHD resolution and HDR10 support ensure everything looks great. However, there is a wide notch at the top of the display that would need some getting used to though.

It also boasts three cameras on the rear, nabbing the excellent 40MP wide-angle and 8MP telephoto lenses from the P20 Pro – but the third sensor is a new one. It’s an ultra-wide 16MP snapper allowing you to fit even more of your surroundings into each shot.

The Mate 20 Pro is a full-featured phone for a full-featured price – it even has a few tricks you won’t see elsewhere, and with more powerful specs than most of its competitors in its price range.

• Release date: November 2018
• Weight: 189g
• Dimensions: 157.8 x 72.3 x 8.6mm
• OS: Android 9
• Screen size: 6.39-inch
• Resolution: 1440 x 3120
• CPU: Kirin 980RAM: 8GBStorage: 256GB
• Battery: 4200mAh
• Rear camera: 40MP + 20MP + 8MP
• Front camera: 24MP

Pros:

• +In-screen fingerprint scanner
• +Great triple cameras

Cons:

• -The UI needs refinement
• -High price

3. Huawei P30

The next best Huawei phone

The Huawei P30 has a smaller screen than the P30 Pro and makes do with just the three rear cameras and with a maximum zoom of 30x, but it’s still one of the best Huawei phones around.

With a 6.1-inch display, the P30 is a little easier to manage in the hand than its larger sibling, and with a Full HD+ and plenty of colours, it’s a top smartphone screen. You can expect to get excellent battery life from the Huawei P30, with the phone often lasting a day and a half on a single charge without issue.

While the three cameras on the rear aren’t quite as good as the four on the P30 Pro, they still offer an impressive shooting experience with 5x, 10x, and 30x zoom and great low-light abilities.

There’s heaps of power, a handy headphone jack (something the Pro can’t boast) and a more manageable form factor for one-handed use. And of course, it’s a little cheaper too.

• Release date: March 2019
• Weight: 165g
• Dimensions: 149.1 x 71.4 x 7.6mm
• OS: Android 9
• Screen size: 6.1-inch
• Resolution: 1080 x 2340
• CPU: Kirin 980RAM: 8GBStorage: 64/128/512GB
• Battery: 3,650mAh
• Rear camera: 40MP + 16MP + 8MP
• Front camera: 32MP

Pros

• +Great camera
• +Powerful processor

Cons

• -No wireless charging
• -P30 Pro is superior

4. Huawei Mate 40 Pro

Technically, a great Huawei handset

Easily one of the best phones around in terms of hardware, the Huawei Mate 40 Pro suffers from the lack of Google apps and Play Store support. But if that is not a concern and if you simply want great photos and a gorgeous screen, this is the one for you.

It molds into your hand perfectly thanks to its curved design that feels great, and it handles pretty much everything you throw at it enthusiastically and with aplomb. Photography-wise, it takes fantastic photos and has an extensive range of tools to enhance them further.

However, with the lack of Google apps supports, you will be restricted with what you can download on this phone, and it does feel rather pricey to be so limited in terms of software support.

• Release date: November 2020
• Weight: 212g
• Dimensions: 162.9 x 75.5 x 9.1 mm
• OS: Android 10
• Screen size: 6.76-inch
• CPU: Kirin 9000 5GRAM: 8GBStorage: 256/512GB
• Battery: 4,400mAh
• Rear camera: 50MP + 12MP + 20MP
• Front camera: 13MP

Pros

• +Great camera
• +Excellent design

Cons

• Limited apps
• Expensive

5. Huawei P40 Pro

Greatness that could have been the Huawei P40 Pro

The Huawei P40 Pro should have been the best handset Huawei has ever made. After all, it’s an upgrade on the Huawei P30 Pro in most ways, with a superb quad-lens camera, phenomenal life from its 4,200mAh battery, and a stylish design, with curved glass on all four front edges.

You also get flagship power from the P40 Pro’s Kirin 990 chipset, plus a great screen with a high 90Hz refresh rate.

So why isn’t this Huawei’s best phone? Because like other recent Huawei handsets, it lacks Google Mobile Services, meaning no Google apps (such as Maps) and more importantly no access to the Google Play Store. So you have to get your apps elsewhere, and the selection is more restrictive.

As such, the Huawei P40 Pro finds itself in an awkward position of being a lesser handset than its predecessor. Although the hardware is great, without Google support it does limit what it is able to do. If you are not dependent on the Google Platform on your phone then it’s still well worth considering.

• Release date: March 2020
• Weight: 209g
• Dimensions: 158.2 x 72.6 x 9mm
• OS: Android 10
• Screen size: 6.58-inch
• CPU: Kirin 990RAM: 8GBStorage: 128/256/512GB
• Battery: 4,200mAh
• Rear camera: 50MP + 40MP + 12MP + ToF
• Front camera: 32MP

Pros

• +Phenomenal battery life
• +Brilliant cameras

Cons

• -Frustratingly limited software
• -Big camera bump

HussaiN

HussaiN is a full-time professional blogger from India. He is passionate about content writing, tech enthusiasts, and computer technologies. Apart from content writing on the internet, he likes reading various tech magazines and several other blogs on the internet. Email ID: [email protected]