2019 is shaping up to be full of news for the Chinese manufacturer. The next top of the range will have four cameras and 10X optical zoom
The next Huawei P30, which will probably be presented at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona scheduled for February 25-28, 2019, could have four cameras and a 10X optical zoom. This would be the Chinese giant's answer to the competition, coming mainly from the Korean Samsung and its Galaxy A9 equipped with 4 cameras but with "only" 2X optical zoom.
This was hinted at, but not really confirmed, by Walter Ji, president of Huawei's Consumer Business Group for the Western European region during an interview with the Germans of AndroidPIT. What Ji did confirm, however, is that his company is working on it and some big surprises will be coming at an as-yet unspecified date. The current P20 Pro has three cameras with Leica lenses (40 MP Light Fusion sensor, 20 MP black and white sensor, 5X hybrid zoom) and dual LED flash. The Samsung Galaxy A9's specs include 4 cameras (24 MP main, 5 MP depth of field, third 10 MP sensor with 2X zoom and finally 8 MP wide angle) and single LED flash.
The best photo smartphone of 2019
A possible Huawei smartphone with 4 cameras including at least one with real 10X optical zoom would probably be the device with the best photo department on the market and could truly compete with Samsung products. At the same time, again to keep up with the Koreans, Walter Ji confirms that Huawei will present a foldable device and that, unlike the Galaxy F smartphone, it will have 5G connectivity. It will also have a very large battery, necessary to power much larger screens than those seen on smartphones so far.
On the software side, however, Android One versions would not be well liked by users of high-end and mid-range devices, so Huawei will probably rely on its proprietary EMUI skin for both high-end and mid-range devices. Then again, Huawei has just started the rollout of EMUI 9.0 based on Android Pie 9.0 on some of its smartphones: P20, P20 Pro, Mate 10, Mate 10 Pro, Mate 10 Porsche Design, Mate RS Porsche Design, Honor 10, Honor View 10 and Honor Play. The company therefore has several months before the launch of the new 2019 range to field test Google's latest operating system, get feedback from users and fix any bugs.