A couple of months ago, in the initial review comparison between these two phones, I said:
The P30 Pro is effectively what the Lumia 1020 would have become with another half decade of development and, as such, is a clear step ahead of these classic Lumias overall.
Huawei does need to improve its colour handling, especially in challenging light conditions, but this is exactly what software updates are for and I'm confident things will improve further.
So, with the new firmware (.161/.162, depending on region) explicitly calling out photo quality and colour handling improvements, you can see why I couldn't wait to see the new state of the art in phone imaging in action.
As before, I've deliberately thrown in some tricky shots and zoom 'asks' in the scene selection, to test the USPs here, all photos were taken on full auto and handheld, as a regular user would do. No tripods or RAW editing sessions needed! (Though both the 950 and P30 Pro can shoot in DNG/RAW, of course, should you be even more of an imaging nerd than me and that way inclined.)
Notes:
- I've also shot at the default output resolutions on each, leaving headroom for lossless PureView zoom and also getting the advantages of oversampling and noise reduction in both cases.
- The 8MP shot from the Lumia 950 and the 12MP shot (at 4:3) from the P30 Pro, added to field of view differences, especially when I start throwing in zoom tests, do mean slightly different crops below, but you'll still be able to compare what each phone camera has achieved.
Let's pit the results against each other, using our Famed Interactive Comparator (FIC). All 1:1 crops are at 900x500 for comparison, though I've put up the originals on my own server, for you to download if you want to do your own analysis.
| Note that the interactive comparator below uses javascript and does need to load each pair of images. Please be patient while this page loads, if you see a pair of images above each other than you've either not waited long enough or your browser isn't capable enough! You ideally need a powerful, large-screened tablet or a proper laptop or desktop. This comparator may not work in some browsers. Sorry about that. On Windows 10 Mobile, use the 'AAWP Universal' UWP app, which handles the comparator very competently (see the tips in the app's help screens) |
Test 1: Sunny detail
Focussing on the distant fine-branched tree, looking specifically at resolved detail in standard resolution and at (hopefully) lack of obvious processing. Here is the scene, from the Lumia 950:
You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P30 Pro, for your own analysis.
To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
There's very little in this in terms of detail and both are very slightly too sharpened for my 'pure' preferences, with the main difference being in colouring - the P30 Pro nails the tree and the road, referring to my own eyes, while the Lumia loses a point for the chararacteristic 'golden hour' slight yellow cast.
Microsoft Lumia 950: 9 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 10 pts
Test 2: ...and now with zoom
The same scene, but using zoom on both camera phones. 2 or 3x on the Lumia 950 (part PureView, part lossy digital) and 5x optical on the P30 Pro. You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P30 Pro, for your own analysis.
To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
This is why you should never go beyond the PureView zoom limit of 1.5x on the Lumia 950, by the way! Results can get ugly very fast. As you might expect, the dedicated 5x optical lens on the P30 Pro owns the day here, with perhaps a fraction too much edge enhancement, but in terms of what it's accomplishing, resolving at the leaf scale from 100m away, it doesn't do too badly.
Microsoft Lumia 950: 4 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 8 pts
Test 3: Grass, grass, grass!
One of the most severe tests of how well a phone camera is doing in terms of capturing the real world is to shoot grass - with so many blades, so much detail and it's all got to be Bayer-filtered and JPG encoded. Here is the scene from suburbia in sunshine, from the Lumia 950:
You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P30 Pro, for your own analysis.
To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
The Lumia has the edge here in terms of grass that looks more realistic at the pixel level. Not perfect - you can still make out patterns of artefacts here and there, but the P30 Pro's shot looks a lot more processed and approximated when it comes to grass. Not terrible, but (as I often say) it looks a little like a colour photocopy of the Lumia shot.
Microsoft Lumia 950: 9 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 7 pts
Test 4: Auto-HDR
HDR is just so beautiful on phone cameras these days - how did we manage without it prior to about 2015? Here is a nice HDR scene, from the Lumia 950, with sunlit detail, shadow, greenery, and blue sky behind:
You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P30 Pro, for your own analysis.
To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
I can't really fault either photo here - aside from colour cast differences (the Lumia too yellow, the P30 Pro perhaps too pale), both create cracking HDR snaps. No complaints.
Microsoft Lumia 950: 10 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 10 pts
Test 5: Sunny macro
A lovely rose, with colour and detail, captured in natural bokeh. Here is the scene, from the Lumia 950:
You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P30 Pro, for your own analysis.
To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
Both great photos, of course, but the P30 Pro edges a win by handling the brightest reflections on the petals better - showing actual texture rather than blowing it out. The colours are slightly different but I'm not going to judge and I honestly can't remember the actual colour, so...!
Microsoft Lumia 950: 9 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 10 pts
Test 6: PureView zoom only
Leaving aside the 5x telephoto lens on the P30 Pro, what happens if you don't want to zoom that far in? This is when PureView zoom into the 40MP sensor comes in, just as on classic Lumias. So here's a test of (approximately) 2x zoom on each, in nice and bright sunshine. Here is the unzoomed scene, from the Lumia 950:
You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P30 Pro, for your own analysis.
To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
Given that the P30 Pro is very much a Lumia 1020 in terms of its main sensor arrangement, you shouldn't be surprised to see it pulling off 2x lossless zoom here in just the same way. All very crisp and natural, while the Lumia 950 (again, not so much with the zoom, Microsoft) struggles just a little, with artefacts creeping in even though I don't think I really got as far as 2x in the zoom UI.
Microsoft Lumia 950: 7 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 10 pts
Test 7: Dusk
Taking the light levels right down, here's the scene after sunset and much darker than the photos make it look. Here is the scene, from the Lumia 950:
You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P30 Pro, for your own analysis.
To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
This is very impressive from the original PureView algorithms on the Lumia - and much more sophisticated than the crude pixel-binning system used in the Huawei. When light is good, you don't really notice a difference, but when light gets low then artefacts and enhancements applied to counter-act noise are very evident. A big win for the ageing Lumia, I think. Perhaps its sweet spot and USP in 2019 - low light landscapes!!
Microsoft Lumia 950: 10 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 8 pts
Test 8: Night time
The same scene, but shot at 3am (the things I do for AAWP!) This being mid-June/summer in the UK though, even night time isn't totally black and the sun is only ever an hour or two away! Here is the scene, from the Lumia 950:
You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P30 Pro, for your own analysis.
To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
The P30 Pro does better here thanks to the light levels being low that it uses exposure combination to layer several shots on top of each other. I did try with its dedicated four second(!) 'Night' mode too, but the result wasn't that different, so opted to compare two simple 'as is' photos here. No tricks, no artificially long exposures. As to a winner, the Lumia's show is starting to show noise and uncertainty, though it does show how far light levels have to fall before the Lumia struggles. The P30 Pro image looks a little artificial and is definitely brighter (and 'sharper') than reality, but you can't deny that the stabilised 40MP sensor and stacking algorithms haven't created something useable. Honours even!
Microsoft Lumia 950: 9 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 9 pts
Test 9: Ultra light, ultra zoom
An oddball test, but part of my regular subjects, this stained glass window is high up and has to be shot at a distance, plus there are obvious exposure challenges in order to get detail in the glass. Here is the unzoomed scene, from the Lumia 950:
You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P30 Pro, for your own analysis.
To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
This does play completely into the P30 Pro's strong suit, of course, but I think it can be forgiven as an example of just how useful a genuine stabilised 5x telephoto can be. Yes, the Lumia 950's out of its depth here in terms of zoom, but the differential between the two shows how the imaging bar has been raised in the phone world in the last year or two - so many iPhones and Android phones now have telephoto lenses, either 2x or 3x, with 5x now starting with the likes of the P30 Pro.
Microsoft Lumia 950: 5 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 10 pts
Test 10: In the Dark Room
Excuse the photographic pun(!), this is an unlit room in the church, with almost no natural light and with my eyes unable to make out colours and not much detail. It's a regular and repeatable test shot and a great test of stabilised phone cameras grabbing as many photons of light as possible. Here is the scene, roughly as it appeared to my eyes:
You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Huawei P30 Pro, for your own analysis.
To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:
Although the Lumia 950's rendition has arguably more precise detail (thanks to the more sophisticated PureView algorithms), the much newer P30 Pro (and with a physically larger sensor) manages more light gathering and lower noise. Very impressive. This test shot has always been a Lumia 950 'win' against allcomers and it just got whopped.
Microsoft Lumia 950: 9 pts; Huawei P30 Pro: 10 pts
Verdict
For the record, the scores add up as:
- Huawei P30 Pro (2019): 92 pts
- Lumia 950 (2015): 81 pts
An obvious win for the new Huawei P30 Pro, thanks to the 5x telephoto, but also to the stabilised 40MP camera. And this is without considering the wide angle camera, which is also pretty good, though a test for another site for another day. Now, I realise that I included several tests that required zoom above, deliberately probing the Lumia 950's weakness and emphasising the P30 Pro's strong suit, but having a useable zoom is definitely a major positive for me when picking a phone for its camera. (And there's the terrific zoom performance in video too.)
Of course, I can't leave this comparison and recommendation without a comment or two on the 'Huawei situation'. Everyone's heard of this by now, but essentially Donald Trump's paranoia has caused Huawei to be shut off from using American companies' (including Google and Intel) products and components in future phones. As it stands, all this shouldn't affect current Huawei products and the P30 Pro should get a full couple of years of updates and tweaks.
As the same time, you can imagine that if the situation doesn't get resolved soon then we'd end up with Huawei not being very motivated to support users in the West, the continents that they're effectively unable to sell products to. All rather tragic, not least because smartphones like the P30 Pro are really rather good, especially (as here) in terms of imaging.
Which means that the P30 Pro may be the end of the current Android line for this 'PureView' phone and, like the Lumia 1020 back in the day (co-created by Eero Salmelin, also the P30 Pro's imaging architect), I think it needs embracing and cherishing.
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