Huawei P60 Pro review

Despite the difficulties encountered in recent years, there are still three horses in the race at the top of the flagship smartphone category, with Huawei still in the race. Although its limitations in integrating Google's ecosystem into its Android framework have hampered its sales somewhat, Huawei has continued to improve its P series smartphones year after year. With the release of the Huawei P60 Pro and its comments, the brand is moving up a gear, pushing the boundaries of smartphone design.

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Almost without fail every year, big brands always tend to push the same core ideas when it comes to next-generation smartphones. Whether it's a new design, the introduction of new technologies like 5G, fast charging or camera lenses, the race to the top is almost level playing field. In 2023, this battle hinges on the promise of professional-quality photography in your pocket. Let's see how Huawei's flagship will meet the challenge with its iteration.

Conception and design

The design of the P60 Pro is by far the most remarkable among this year's new products. It stands out from the crowd thanks to its new Rococo Pearl finish. With some of the most beautiful smartphones in its range, the brand has never hesitated to push the limits of modernity. The Rococo Pearl color only confirms its place among the best designers in its category.

What's great about this design is that its pattern is unique for each device. The device also feels very comfortable in the hand, as if it were soft as butter. However, it is quite slippery, and it is therefore possible to place it on your pants or on your sofa, which presents a certain risk. As is often the case, Huawei provides a transparent case for the device in the box contents. Although it is transparent and allows the color to be seen, it takes away a lot of shine from an impressive design.

The Rococo Pearl design isn't as flashy as last year's Gold edition on the P50 line. However, for those who do not appreciate the new design philosophy, Huawei offers a more sober offering with the frosted black variant.

With its 200 g, the device is considered by many to be bulky. However, personally coming from a line of Galaxy Note series smartphones and, currently, the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the P60 Pro is lighter than both, and I had no problem putting it in my pocket for the lug around. It also fits well in the hand compared to larger devices.

Overall, it's a good thing that there's still room for clever design concepts when it comes to the now-standard curved rectangular smartphone. The Huawei P60 Pro stands out from the crowd in this regard and is easily the best-looking phone on the market today.

Screen and display

Although the P series didn't always feature best-in-class displays in its early days, the brand has done well to upgrade its flagship series. This progress continues with the LTPO OLED screen of the Huawei P60 Pro.

The device has a 6.67-inch display with a screen-to-body ratio of 89.8%. It also supports a 120Hz refresh rate and has a display resolution of 1220x2700px. This gives it a pixel density of 444ppi. This is a little less than the 500ppi of the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

However, the LTPO OLED panel makes all the difference from one year to the next with better color representation. Not only does it support HDR, HDR10, and HDR10+, but it also boasts 99.8% sRGB and a peak brightness of 1,200 nits. It's not the brightest screen on the market, but Huawei has improved the overall index and accuracy of the entire panel, making it easier to view at angles.

When it comes to screen protection, Huawei continues to use its Kunlun Glass technology. According to its marketing, the glass is claimed to be up to 10 times stronger than regular glass of the same thickness. However, if you're still worried about getting a few scratches or cracks, a clear case is included in the package for good measure.

Overall, the P60 Pro's images have improved. It may still have some catching up to do compared to its two biggest rivals, but there's still plenty to be excited about.

Specifications

The Huawei P60 Pro is equipped with the Qualcomm SM8475 Snapdragon 8+ SoC. It is an Octo-Core processor with 3.19GHz Cortex-X2, x3 2.75GHz Cortex-A710 and x4 2.0GHz Cortex-A510 CPUs. It is also equipped with an Adreno 730 GPU. Interestingly, while this is a significant step up from its predecessor, it is equipped with the same chipset found in the Galaxy S22 range from Last year. This places it a generation behind the S23 range in 2023.

Additionally, the device comes in two variants including a 256GB 8GM option or a 512GB 12GB RAM option for power users. The international version of the device comes with EMUI 13.1 built on Android 13 operating system. HarmonyOS 3.1 is used in the Chinese market.

It also sports a triple-lens camera, which I'll talk about later. Huawei has also continued to include an infrared port, which allows users to double the smartphone as a remote control if necessary. One of the future innovations of the P60 series is BDS messaging technology, which allows communication via satellite. There's been a lot of movement in this area lately, and it's good to see that brands have already started including the required technologies natively.

Finally, there is the battery. Huawei has never sought to pack the biggest battery into its devices, instead relying on clever software efficiency to achieve the best performance. The P60 Pro is equipped with a 4,815 mAh Li-Po battery. However, the brand has stood out in recent years for its fast charging technology. The device now supports up to 88W wired charging and 50W wireless charging. This will have you back up and running in no time. It also supports reverse wireless charging.

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Performance and battery

This is an older generation SoC, but most users wouldn't realize that. The performance of the octa-core processor is acceptable and allows you to carry out your daily tasks without any problem. This includes multitasking, video editing and more.

However, if you like benchmarks, the S23 series processors show a 15% drop, with both devices trailing the iPhone. That said, benchmark test results give a slightly flawed idea of ​​performance, especially when it comes to comparing smartphones, which often have many more variables at play. The Huawei P60 Pro does its job well without having Needs an extra boost.

When it comes to the Adreno 730's GPU scores compared to the new 740, there's a much more significant drop of 30% compared to the S23 Ultra, which leads the pack. Graphics processing has been significantly improved from one generation to the next, making mobile gaming on the new SoC much better and more efficient.

When it comes to battery life, Huawei has always done a great job of getting more performance than most of its competitors. Huawei has a longer lifespan than the S22 range which uses the same SoC. However, with the advancements of the latest Qualcomm chip, it has improved its efficiency in this area, which puts the P60 Pro behind, although it is still in line with the results of the iPhone 14.

Huawei added its own artificial intelligence software to manage battery life and managed to make the most of a low-capacity battery and less efficient chipset. I could still easily get through an entire day, even as a heavy user, browsing, downloading, uploading content and more. At no point during the day did I worry about the battery running out, even though I filmed and took many photos throughout the day.

And if you're at the end of your rope, Huawei's charging technologies are the best on the market. It supports fast charging up to 88W using a wired charger. This is almost double the capacity of its competitors. While these devices often take more than an hour to recharge their larger batteries, the Huawei P60 Pro does so in less than 40 minutes. It can also charge up to 50% in 10 minutes when you're in a hurry.

Next generation camera

Again, compared to the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the current leader in the smartphone camera battle, which has a quad-lens setup, the P60 Pro has a triple-lens setup. Despite the lack of an additional objective, there is a lot beneath the surface that makes both approaches unique.

As for the specifications, Huawei has added two 48MP lenses and one 13MP lens to its P60 Pro. The main camera features a 48MP, f/1.4-f/4.0 25mm (wide) lens with PDAF, Laser AF, and OIS. The secondary camera features a 48MP, f/2.1, 90mm (telephoto) lens with PDAF, sensor-shift OIS, and 3.5x optical zoom. The third camera has a 13MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultra-wide) lens with autofocus.

This combination works perfectly whether you're looking for detailed images, macro photography, or expansive landscapes. I enjoyed taking photos with the P60 Pro, with its additional XMAGE sensor capturing more light. For photos in direct sunlight, it works perfectly. The level of detail I was able to capture was fantastic, down to the fine hairs on some of the plant leaves. Also, when you get closer, it switches cameras to accommodate macro photography. This feature has always been one of my favorites on P series smartphones and continues with the latest iteration.

While it does a great job of low-light and night photography, it doesn't compare to the S23 Ultra. The images are usable and allow you to distinguish different objects in the dark, but they do not illuminate the scene sufficiently and do not capture the same level of detail. It remains excellent nonetheless.

Do it without Google

At present, it is difficult to see an end to the sanctions imposed on Huawei by the US government, which has impacted the company's ability to include applications from Google and Meta. However, the brand has worked on various methods to overcome this obstacle with two main side loading features.

The first is through its own AppGallery application, which allows users to search for any application, including those that are not already present on its platform. If it finds an APK download available for the app you're looking for, you can install it via sideloading this way. This works for a fairly comprehensive list of apps.

However, finding, downloading, and using apps from G-Suite is a bit more complicated. These applications require cloud integration, which is synchronized in the background. That's why even if you download the apps, they don't always work. Now, with the pre-installed native GBox app, you can easily install and use many other Google apps. I tested a list of 10 apps, nine of which worked perfectly. However, the tenth didn't sync automatically in the background, forcing me to open the app before receiving the latest updates and notifications. Overall, it's not that bad, it's a significant improvement over the difficulties experienced in previous years. In my opinion, this is a game changer when it comes to bringing more units to high-end users, many of whom have already subscribed to the GSuite experience in the cloud.

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Is the Huawei P60 Pro worth it?

Despite the constant approach of convergence in the race for high-end smartphones, there is still plenty of room for unique concepts. Huawei proves it with the P60 Pro, which outperforms the competition aesthetically. It's superb.

However, the brand lacks punch in its internal hardware with a generation-old SoC and a camera that doesn't go all the way, even if it gives excellent solo results. The integration of the standard Android experience is also very successful, making it a great potential buy at R24,999.