Huawei has been a widely acknowledged leader in smartphone photography for a while now, and while (briefly) knocked off the top position on DxoMark’s ratings by Samsung’s Galaxy S10+ 5G, it has reclaimed the number one score with the Huawei Mate 30 Pro.
Announced earlier this afternoon, DxOMark has given the new Mate 30 Pro from Huawei a score of 121, which puts it 4 points ahead of Samsung’s top-ranked Galaxy S10+ 5G. In describing it as an “impressive new benchmark to beat”, DxOMark commented that the Mate 30 Pro shows no real weaknesses in the camera department, with good still and video quality in most situations.
While describing the photo quality as very good across the board, true praise was reserved for the texture / noise balance:
The new Mate does not show any real weaknesses in the camera department and delivers good still image and video quality in most situations. Its photo quality is very good across the board, but its texture/noise balance is truly outstanding, with excellent detail rendering in almost all conditions while keeping image noise at low levels. The wide-angle camera’s comparatively narrow field of view could be a criticism, but the wide-angle cam delivers good image quality; moreover, the Mate 30 Pro is one of the best for bokeh and zoom as well.
The one concession is that the Mate 30 Pro isn’t quite the equal of Samsung’s S10+ 5G in the video department, but it can record videos that are amongst the best seen by the camera reviewers.
The combination of the two, however, makes Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro the best phone to recommend for those wanting the best of both worlds, albeit at a premium price point.
I’d encourage you to read the full review on DxOMark for all the details, but the conclusion tells the story.
These marks mean nothing these days. The Pixel 3 wasn’t at the top but took better photos than everything with a higher score (until very recently). These ratings get so caught up in the technology, numbers etc but fail at real world results.