Huawei P30 Lite Long-term Review: Still The Prettiest Mid-range You Can Get Today

Huawei P30 Lite Long-term Review: Still The Prettiest Mid-range You Can Get Today

Still a stunner, even with the competition

Despite strong competition from other brands in the market, we’ve been enjoying the P30 Lite since we finished our review a few months ago. Two months since our review, we still recommend picking up the device despite Huawei’s publicized troubles recently.

This phone looks gorgeous

While our initial review device was boring black, we managed to snag the Peacock Blue variant of the P30 Lite right after we concluded our full review. The difference in the two is stunning, and I’m confident in saying that the Peacock Blue is one of the prettiest phones you can get in the mid-range category.

One thing I really like with the P30 Lite is that the phone’s back is glass, not plastic. While it’s not entirely scratch resistant, it is tougher than the faux-glass plastic backs that other mid-range phones favor nowadays.

Display as large the P30

The P30 Lite has the same display size as the flagship P30, coming in at 6.1-inches. Resolution is the same too, at FHD+, though the phone uses a less vibrant and energy-efficient IPS panel rather than the AMOLED panel on the more expensive model. The P30 Lite also has a small notch at the top of the display for the 32-megapixel selfie camera.

Since we’re on the topic of the display, the P30 Lite doesn’t have an on-screen fingerprint scanner like some mid-range phones do. That’s not really an issue for me personally since I feel like it’s more convenient to use the rear-mounted one more. My hands tend to fall in that area when I take out the phone from my pocket anyways.

Hardware that’s fine for a majority of users

While the P30 Lite’s Kirin 710 processor is getting a bit long in the tooth, in reality, its performance is totally adequate for a large majority of the population. You can still game with it of course if you want to, but you’ll have to turn down graphical settings a bit for more demanding games though.

But for general use like browsing Facebook, Instagram and using other apps, the phone’s hardware is perfectly fine. The phone felt fluid during my day to day use, and it really had no issues at all during its time with us.

The camera is pretty great

Despite being a mid-range phone, the P30 Lite has three cameras on the rear: 24-megapixel main shooter with f/1.8 aperture, 8-megapixel wide-angle camera with f/2.4 aperture and a 2-megapixel depth camera with f/2.4 aperture.

Images from the main camera look pretty good, though in typical Huawei fashion some of them come out looking a wee bit artificial, especially when you turn on night mode.

We also noticed a bit of purple seeping into photos taken with the wide-angle camera from time to time, though it’s not so bad that it ruins wide-angle shots completely.

That small complaint aside, the P30 Lite’s camera can produce really good photos for its price range. And while the phone’s night mode isn’t quite as magical as the P30 Pro or even the P30, low-light shots taken by the P30 Lite’s camera still look pretty good.

Selfies look great on the P30 Lite too, even in less than ideal lighting.

The battery is a little lacking

Now that we have more time with the phone, we have a better gauge of how long the P30 Lite can run on a single charge with fairly moderate use.

Starting out with a full charge on 9 AM, you’ll be scrambling for a charger by the time 7 PM rolls around if you’re a heavy user like us. You’ll probably be able to wring around a full day’s use out of the P30 Lite on a single charge though if you manage your usage (no gaming, for example) but thankfully the phone has fast-charging tech to quickly get it back to full charge.

Verdict: still a good buy today

After using the phone for around 2 months, I stand by my original review: the P30 Lite is a good enough phone for budding mobile photographers looking for a capable mid-range phone that’ll turn heads.

Obviously, there’s still the uncertainty about Huawei as it relates to Android and the American technology ban in general, but most of the problems that Huawei faces isn’t going to affect the P30 Lite moving forward.

Huawei will still be able to provide updates to the phone if the Americans totally cut off access to Google, and the P30 Lite will continue to have access to all essential apps like Google Play, Facebook and others throughout its life.

Huawei P30 Lite specs

  • Kirin 710 octa-core processor
  • 6GB of RAM
  • 6.15-inch full HD+ IPS display, 2312 x 1080 resolution
  • 128GB of expandable storage up to 512GB
  • Triple rear camera: 24-megapixel main shooter with f/1.8 aperture, 8-megapixel wide-
  • angle camera with f/2.4 aperture, 2-megapixel depth camera with f/2.4 aperture
  • 32-megapixel f/2.0 front camera
  • Dual SIM
  • 3G, LTE
  • WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C
  • 3340mAh battery with 18W fast charging
  • Android 9 Pie with EMUI 9

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