Our Huawei P60 Pro review revolves around the highly competitive niche of high-end camera phones. Once a pioneer in this segment, US sanctions and technology restrictions have made Huawei something of an uncompetitive competitor. And yet the Chinese are still there, bringing a spectacular camera with the brand new Huawei P60 Pro. The software package based on Huawei’s EMUI interface is similarly mature. There are also alternatives that allow Google apps without violating rules – like Gbox.
The Huawei P60 Pro is part of Huawei’s flagship photography series and builds on the P50 Pro and Mate 50 Pro. In fact, the P60 Pro is an overhauled version of the Mate 50 Pro with a better display, better cameras and new connectivity options. It offers a large LTPO OLED display, a 4G-limited Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset and a 48-megapixel main camera with a variable aperture. It also charges with a cable at 88 watts and wirelessly with 50 watts.
So on paper, Huawei has thought of everything for the P60 Pro, apart from the limitations imposed by the US problems – 5G connectivity and Google Mobile Services. Our Huawei P60 Pro review clarifies how the smartphone performs in everyday life and whether you can really recommend it.
Unboxing
The Huawei P60 Pro comes in a white cardboard box containing all essential accessories. There’s an 88-watt charger, a 6A USB A-to-C cable, and a case. Huawei also installs a thin protective film on the display, which protects against scratches but attracts dust.
The new 88 watt charger, on the other hand, is a real highlight. It has two ports side by side – USB-C and USB-A. This allows you to charge notebooks, tablets, smartphones and whatever else you might have with you. Unfortunately, you cannot use the two ports at the same time.
Design
The Huawei P60 Pro has a sophisticated design, as known from Huawei smartphones. The construction hasn’t changed much in years – it’s still two glass panels with an aluminum frame in between. It also features IP68 protection against dust and water. In addition, the front is made of Kunlun glass, a material that is much harder than normal glass.
The two glass panes are slightly curved on the long sides, while the finish on the back depends on the color option. For our Huawei P60 Pro review, we have the Rococo Pearl version, as Huawei marketing calls the mother-of-pearl-marble look. The material has no structure. The back is silky smooth and incredibly slippery, but also totally resistant to fingerprints.
The models in purple and black have a matte surface on the back, which is nevertheless not prone to stains and also remains quite slippery. The green version has a fully glossy smudge-friendly back and is the P60 Pro with the best grip as the glossy panels stick to the hands. The frame is also slightly curved. It is thin on the long sides and wider at the top and bottom.
The camera module is made of glass and is surrounded by a small metal frame. It sticks out from the back and the phone shakes a lot when it’s on the desk. The main camera sits in the large metal ring in the middle. The telephoto lens is on the left and the ultra wide camera is on the right. A single LED flash is also present, with a color spectrum sensor sitting right next to it.
The 6.67-inch LTPO OLED display occupies the front, with evenly thin bezels on all sides. A tiny punchhole houses a fairly capable 13-megapixel selfie camera. Above the display is a barely perceptible cutout for the earphone. Like most smartphones, the P60 Pro features a hybrid stereo speaker setup. The upper speaker has two outputs – forward and upward. A Face ID system like on the Mate 50 Pro is not on board. The fingerprint sensor under the display is one of the fastest and most accurate on the market.
A speaker grille, the IR emitter and one of the microphones are located on the top of the P60 Pro. The main microphone, the second speaker, the USB-C port and the SIM slot are on the underside. The P60 Pro takes up to two nano SIM cards or one SIM and one nano memory card. The volume keys and the power button are on the right side.
The Huawei P60 Pro measures 161 x 74.5 x 8.3mm and weighs 200 grams, but it looks and feels thinner due to its curved profile. The workmanship is excellent and it feels good in the hand. The white model is really extremely slippery and offers no grip at all. Of course you can use it with the supplied case, which makes the device noticeably thicker. Another option would be the green model with its relatively non-slip surface.
Display
The Huawei P60 Pro features a 6.67-inch LTPO OLED display with Kunlun curved glass. The panel has a resolution of 2700×1220 pixels (444 ppi) and a central cut-out for the selfie camera. Technically it is as high quality as it gets nowadays. It supports a dynamic refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, 10-bit color depth for over a billion colors, HDR10+ and also high-frequency 1,440 Hz PWM dimming.
The display achieves a maximum brightness of 1,200 nits in automatic mode. With manual mode, a maximum of almost 600 nits and a minimum of around 2 nits are possible. Especially the minimum value is an excellent result. In addition, the panel supports PWM dimming at 1,440 Hz, which reduces ghosting and eye fatigue.
Huawei P60 Pro review: color accuracy
The display of the Huawei P60 Pro supports the DCI-P3 and sRGB color spaces. There are Normal and Vivid color modes. Normal mode recognizes the currently displayed content and switches the color space accordingly. Vivid, on the other hand, is tuned to the DCI-P3 color space.
The “Normal” color mode offers very good color reproduction, apart from a slight bluish tint in the white and gray tones. If you also change the color temperature to “Warm”, the color cast disappears and the color accuracy is excellent. The Vivid mode provides stronger colors, but increases the already mentioned bluish tint.
Huawei P60 Pro review: resolution and refresh rate
The display has a resolution between 1080p and 1440p. A maximum of 1,220 x 2,700 pixels are displayed, which corresponds to a pixel density of 444 ppi. A minimum of 854 x 1,890 pixels is possible. You can choose between high and low or let the P60 Pro choose between the high native resolution for the best image quality or the low resolution to save battery power in “Smart Resolution” mode.
The situation is similar with the three screen refresh rates. Standard delivers a fixed 60Hz, High updates at 120Hz, and Dynamic automatically switches up to 120Hz. Both High and Dynamic modes always used 120Hz in compatible apps in our Huawei P60 Pro review. Incompatible apps switched to 60Hz, as did videos and streaming.
According to Huawei, however, the display should offer dynamic refresh rates between 1 and 120 Hz and thus also save battery life. In the review, however, the integrated refresh rate counter of the P60 Pro only recognized 60, 90 and 120 Hz. However, the integrated Android counter is part of an older Android version and may have delivered incorrect values.
Huawei P60 Pro review: HDR and streaming
The Huawei P60 Pro supports HDR10+ and also has Widevine L1 DRM support, which should enable high-resolution HDR streaming. Most streaming apps including Netflix, Prime and YouTube offer FullHD streaming. However, HDR was not available in any app. Here’s a trick: If you run one of these apps through GBox, you also get HDR10 streaming.
Battery
The Huawei P60 Pro is powered by a 4,815 mAh battery. During our Huawei P60 Pro review, that was enough for either 24.5 hours of calling, 15.5 hours of surfing the Internet via WLAN or 16 hours of video playback. If the battery is finally empty, you can use Huawei’s SuperCharge with a maximum of 88 watts or wireless SuperCharge with a maximum of 50 watts. The new 88 watt power adapter is also included, as is a proprietary 6 amp USB A-to-C cable. It has two USB ports – A and C. Therefore, you can use it not only for smartphones, but also for notebooks and tablets. However, you cannot use the two ports at the same time.
Like other Huawei (and Xiaomi) devices, the Huawei P60 Pro only uses the maximum charge of 88 watts for a longer period of time when Turbo mode is activated. However, there is no switch for the turbo anywhere in the settings. The only option is to hold down the loading animation – you’ll have to get to that first. However, the difference between the two modes is quite small and probably negligible in most situations.
After five minutes with the 88 watt charger, the battery rose to 23% in our Huawei P60 Pro review with and without turbo. At the 15 minute mark, the P60 Pro was at 58% with turbo and 51% without turbo. After 30 minutes it was 95% with turbo and 86% without turbo. Finally, it took 35 minutes to fully charge with turbo enabled and 39 minutes without turbo. Also, the P60 Pro supports Smart Charge, which reduces the charging speed once the battery reaches 80%. However, you can choose this value freely and thus also define a different limit. Wireless charging is also supported, but only after enabling it in the battery options first.
Huawei P60 Pro review: speakers
Like every current flagship phone, the Huawei P60 Pro has stereo speakers on board. It’s a typical hybrid setup, with the top speaker having both front and up-facing cutouts. The bottom speaker has only a grille and appears to be slightly louder. The balance is great though, as is the sound.
In terms of volume, they deserve a “good”, just like the predecessor Huawei P50 Pro. The audio quality, on the other hand, deserves the grade “excellent” with a very balanced sound. There are present highs, balanced mids and indeed great bass. This applies to the sound in quiet rooms as well as to busy outdoor environments.
EMUI 13.1 with Android 12 Core Edition
The Huawei P60 Pro runs EMUI 13 in Europe and Harmony OS 3.1 in China. Apart from the different pre-installed apps, there are no obvious differences between the two systems. EMUI 13.1 includes some interesting improvements over EMUI 13, which ran on the Huawei Mate 50 Pro.
This includes the new, solid themes that you can select under “Background” in the “Home screen” menu. They are similar to Xiaomi’s Super Wallpapers but a little less complicated. The theme starts with a specific AOD, which then fully expands to the lock screen or home screen wallpaper with a fancy animation. As with all EMUI devices, you can also set up a magazine lock screen style that changes the image every time you activate it. Via Swype from below you get some quick links to frequently used apps.
In addition to refined personalization options, icons and animations, EMUI 13.1 also offers a new feature in the camera app – the quick shortcuts. These appear via a small arrow next to the shutter button and contain some of the most common settings.
Although EMUI 13 is based on Android 12, it does not have Google services. Instead, EMUI 13 relies on Petal Search and Petal Maps, Huawei’s own services as part of HMS Core. The AppGallery App Store completes the picture. The interface is very similar to its predecessors, but there is no shortage of customization options, themes, widgets, and more. Add to that app shortcuts, stacked widgets, scalable smart folders, better sharing options, and enhanced security and privacy.
An always-on display is also available and comes with various themes, some of which also have multiple sub-skins. You can also download other AOD themes and set them to only appear at certain times of the day, or enable “tap to show”. The last option is a good choice, since everything else drains the battery noticeably faster.
The Huawei P60 Pro has an optical fingerprint sensor under the display that works extremely quickly and reliably. Alternatively, one can use the less secure Face Unlock or Smart Unlock.
By default, all installed and system apps are found on the home screen. However, there is a switch in the settings menu that you can use to switch between the standard layout or a home screen with an app drawer. Some apps are underlined, meaning you can swipe their icon to reveal a small widget. The widget can then either be used or placed on the home screen.
EMUI 13 also supports large folders with nine app shortcuts shrunk to a 2×2 area. You don’t have to expand the folders to open an app, just tap on the small shortcut. Alternatively, you can change the size of these folders as you wish. EMUI 13 also supports combined widgets of three individual widgets and stacked widgets. This allows two or more widgets to be stacked on top of each other and rotated between them. You can also drag and hold to view all stacked widgets at once.
The leftmost home screen, if enabled, is Huawei’s Assistant Today. The assistant includes a personalized newsfeed, the weather, intelligent app suggestions, health information, battery information and AppGallery suggestions, among other things. There are also numerous information services available from Huawei partners for customization. At first glance, this site might seem like a lot of advertising, but it’s completely customizable.
The notification center and the control center are handled like Apple – left and in the middle you open the notification center and in the last third the control center and its quick links. On the other hand, swiping down anywhere else on the home screen takes you to system-wide search.
Huawei’s Assistant Celia is of course also available on the Huawei P60 Pro and supports calls and voice commands. Other Huawei Assistant features are also on board. These include: AI Lens, AI Touch, Tips, Search and Today. Most of these points are self-explanatory. AI Touch enables quick image/text search by tapping and holding with two fingers. AI Lens uses the camera to visually search for things and recognize products. You can also use the tool to identify objects and landmarks and translate the text with AI Lens. There is also a Theme Store to customize the look of EMUI 13 to your liking.
Multitasking runs through the task switcher, which supports both split-screen and pop-up modes. Multi-window, also known as split screen, is also available. But it only works via the multi-window dock, which you can activate by swiping and holding anywhere on the left or right. Then you just drag and drop an app icon over the currently open app. Both multiple pop-up apps and two split-screen apps are possible.
The standard navigation of the P60 Pro operating system consists of iPhone-like gestures. Swipe up to go to the home screen, swipe up and stop halfway to go to the task switcher. Swyping from the left or right edge of the screen takes you one step back. But of course you can also opt for the three classic virtual keys.
Huawei also includes various standard apps, including the gallery, music, video and a health app. A file manager is also available and there is the universal IR remote control Smart Remote. In addition, Petal Maps, Petal Search and Huawei’s own browser are on board.
EMUI 13 also introduces a new feature called Super Storage. When you click the “Clean up” button in Storage settings, two new options appear: Compressible files and Compressible apps. Compressible files free up disk space by removing or stacking duplicate files and compressing other non-essential data. Compressible apps reduce the footprint of rarely used apps to free up more storage space without having to uninstall them.
Music Share is a new feature of EMUI 13. If you’re listening to music through your headphones or speakers, you can also share it wirelessly with a friend’s headphones. This is done via the Control Center Music widget. As part of the camera app, the multi-cam function allows you to link multiple Huawei devices to cameras via Super Device. This allows you to capture a subject from different angles and then easily combine the shots.
The Sound Booster has a somewhat misleading name – it turns the Huawei P60 Pro into a listening device that streams the sound to Bluetooth headphones or speakers. That can be useful for both baby monitor and spying purposes. The display of the mobile phone is normally switched off.
EMUI 13 also brings the next version of Huawei’s Super Device, which should further enhance the Huawei ecosystem. Super Device shows nearby Huawei devices such as MatePad tablets, MateBook notebooks, Vision TVs oder Freebuds headphones. Within Super Device, the devices can then interact with each other in a similar way to Apple’s AirPlay. Device+ provides a unified control panel to manage all connections and send audio and/or images to all connected Huawei devices.
If you are wearing your Freebuds, which are currently connected to the Huawei smartphone, you can simply transfer the sound of your Huawei TV to the Freebuds in the Super Device control panel, without any pairing or additional adjustments. Collaboration on multiple screens is also possible with Super Device. You can share displays, edit and exchange files, and transfer various content, messages, or even calls with drag-and-drop or a simple click.
Huawei’s AppGallery manages all installed apps by default, but is annoying with three-second ads each time it is opened. The integrated search is also based on Petal Search and displays results from developer websites as well as other app repositories such as APK Pure and APK Monk. It can also download and install apps without having to install the app stores themselves.
But you can also install other app repositories like APKPure and Aptoide or even Amazon’s Appstore. This gives easy access to apps like Facebook and Google Chrome, as well as many other games and office apps. However, functions based on Google services are not available and therefore you cannot even launch some apps.
Huawei P60 Pro review: Gbox
Finally, GBox is the best solution to get Google dependent apps working on Huawei P60 Pro. It is a small virtual machine based on the latest Android version and includes all Google services. There is both a list of apps that you can install immediately and a built-in Play Store. A Play Store update is also possible.
GBox creates app shortcuts on the home screen and also supports notifications. Google Maps, Google Drive, Chrome and YouTube with 4K HDR streaming ran without any problems. The GBox Netflix app even supports 1080p HDR10 streaming, while the native Netflix app also streams in 1080p but lacks HDR capabilities. Other Google-dependent apps like Disney+ also ran without any problems.
GBox does not offer functions like Huawei Auto and you should think twice about entrusting the app with payments via Google Wallet. However, the app worked perfectly in our tests and seemed to consume little or no battery. So far, GBox is the best solution for Google apps and Google services. After two weeks of testing, the only app that wasn’t working for some reason was Pokemon Go.
CPU / Performance
The Huawei P60 Pro is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, just like last fall’s Mate 50 Pro. It is a custom 4G version as Huawei is not allowed to use 5G capable chipsets in the US. Although the successor to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has been out for months, the SD8+ Gen 1 remains one of the most powerful hardware platforms out there.
It features an octa-core CPU in a 1+3+4 configuration with a main Cortex-X2 core clocked at up to 3.19GHz, three Cortex-A710 cores clocked at up to 2.75GHz and four Cortex-A510 cores running at up to 2.0 GHz. The Adreno 730 GPU also remains among the best out there. In addition, the P60 Pro offers 8 or 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256 or 512 GB of UFS 3.1 storage.
Huawei offers a special performance mode that, once activated, increases the temperature threshold for the CPU. Performance mode does not affect the GPU or other hardware. And although it led to a slight CPU boost in our Huawei P60 Pro review, you won’t notice much of it in everyday use.
GeekBench 5 Single core test
GeekBench 5 Multi core test
AnTuTu 9 test
As with the Huawei P60 Pro’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, the same goes for the Adreno 730 GPU – they’re still the second best components on the market. In day-to-day use, we didn’t notice any performance problems in our time with the Huawei P60 Pro. But even under high load, such as when playing games with high frame rates and over a longer period of time, there were neither frame drops nor any particular heat development.
Camera: photos
The Huawei P60 Pro adopts a large part of the camera technology of the Mate 50 Pro. The 48 megapixel main camera has a variable aperture. There is also a 13 megapixel ultra wide camera and a 48 megapixel telephoto lens for 3.5x optical zoom. In contrast to some of the last flagship Huawei smartphones, there are no longer Leica logos. Instead we get Huawei’s XMAGE lettering.
The main camera, dubbed the Ultra Lighting Camera by Huawei, uses a 48-megapixel sensor with large 1.17 µm pixels and a Quad Bayer RYYB color filter. The optically stabilized 24.5mm lens (although EXIF reports 27mm) has a variable aperture from f/1.4 to f/4.0. The camera app automatically chose the aperture in standard mode in our Huawei P60 Pro review. In Pro mode, on the other hand, you can adjust it yourself in ten steps. The ultra-wide cam features a 13-megapixel sensor behind a 13mm f/2.2 lens. Thanks to autofocus, the Ultrawide also snaps macros.
The 90 mm periscope telephoto camera called Ultra Lighting Telephoto Camera is also based on a 48 megapixel sensor (Quad-Bayer RYYB color filter) and a 3-axis OIS. The f/2.1 aperture, which is very bright for a telephoto lens, should perform significantly better than competing models from other manufacturers for night shots. According to Huawei, this lens can capture the industry’s largest amount of light for a 90mm lens. It also features sensor-shift stabilization and can focus from up to 15cm away.
Huawei also installs a color temperature sensor on the back for improved color accuracy and a laser focusing system. The latter supports autofocus at shorter distances and has been cleverly hidden in the black frame around the main camera. The front camera is advertised as 13 megapixels, but it is actually a 14.4 megapixel sensor with 1.22 µm pixels. It sits behind an 18mm f/2.4 lens, which unfortunately has a fixed focus. There are three zoom modes to choose from – wide (18mm, no crop), 0.8x (21mm equivalent crop but no upscaling) and 1x (27mm and upscaling).
Huawei P60 Pro review: Camera app
The camera is still supported by Huawei’s AI. This recognizes various scenes and adjusts the settings accordingly. But there is also a switch in the viewfinder to turn the AI on and off. And you also get a Pro mode where you can customize the recording parameters yourself. This includes the aperture for the main camera (f/1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.5, 2.8, 3.2, 3.5, 4.0) , the ISO value, shutter speed (1/4000 s to 30 s), exposure compensation (-4 to +4 EV in 1/3-stop increments) and white balance (presets and specific light temperature).
You can also choose metering mode (matrix, center, and spot) and focus mode (single, continuous, and manual). If the phone thinks you’re ruining the exposure, a small warning icon will appear. The Pro mode also works with the ultra wide and the telephoto camera. A RAW mode is also available for all main cameras.
A Pro mode is also available for videos. The maximum ISO value there is 6,400 for the main camera and 3,200 for the other cameras. You can also set the desired shutter speed. The main camera’s zoom levels are W, 1x, 3.5x and 10x, while the selfie camera offers W, 0.8x and 1x. As said, since the selfie camera sensor has a higher resolution than advertised, most zoom levels should shoot losslessly.
Photo quality in daylight
The P60 Pro is Huawei’s second smartphone with a variable aperture. But unlike Xiaomi, Sony and Samsung, which offer two fixed positions, the P60 Pro allows for a true variable aperture with ten stops between f/1.4 and f/4.0. The variable aperture is great for the camera and allows for precise control over depth of field and the amount of light coming in.
For example, if you shoot at the widest aperture of f/1.4, you get a very shallow depth of field (DoF) with excellent bokeh. In addition, the large aperture is of course also suitable for night shots. The main camera also delivers a high-quality 2x zoom, which Huawei has also firmly anchored in portrait mode. The photos are less detailed than the normal ones, but the difference is not too big.
The camera app also offers two high-resolution modes – 48MP and 48MP AI. 48 MP stores upscaled versions of the 12 megapixel images of the sensor’s unprocessed output. 48MP AI mode, formerly known as AI Ultra Clarity, stacks multiple high-resolution frames to produce sharper photos. Although the AI mode produces significantly more detail and less noise, the differences are unfortunately practically invisible compared to a 12 megapixel photo in auto mode.
The telephoto camera of the Huawei P60 Pro has a 90mm lens with an f/2.1 aperture, which is arguably the biggest aperture in a smartphone telephoto lens this long. The native optical zoom is 3.5x, plus there’s a fixed 10x zoom level in the viewfinder. The 3.5x photos from the Huawei P60 Pro are great – the resolution is very high, the sharpness is spot on and there’s no noise whatsoever. Macros offer a pleasing bokeh, possibly thanks to the larger aperture. As with the other cameras, colors are consistently accurate, contrast is great and dynamic range is nice but not overpowering.
However, the telephoto camera can also focus down to around 15 cm, which makes it ideal for macro photography. There is also an automatic Super Macro mode on the P60 Pro, but it only seems to crop and upscale normal photos. This often resulted in softer images in our Huawei P60 Pro review. The telephoto macro shots, on the other hand, are excellent – the bokeh is very good and the subject is sharp and well exposed. The entire photo offers a pleasant color reproduction and an excellent dynamic range.
The 10x digital zoom shots are cropped and upscaled by the large 48 megapixel sensor. However, the scaling is technically flawless and the images look good. The average level of detail and somewhat washed-out appearance tell you it’s a digital zoom, but they’re still very usable. There is no noise here either, the colors are precise and the dynamic range is excellent.
The 13-megapixel ultra-wide delivers reliably sharp photos thanks to the autofocus. The image quality is among the best of any ultra wide lens currently available on the market. In addition to the excellent image quality, the ultrawide camera also delivers a very wide field of view, a great deal of detail, excellent sharpness and, once again, no noise. Even the corners are still quite sharp and have been well corrected. In addition, the images offer accurate colors.
The portrait mode of the Huawei P60 Pro has three fixed zoom levels: 1x (27 mm, f/1.4, main camera), 2x (54 mm, f/1.4, main camera) and 3.5x (95 mm, f/2 ,1, zoom camera). The main camera’s standard 1x zoom delivers excellent, natural portraits with vivid colors and lots of detail. The dynamic range is impressive and the bokeh, although artificially enhanced in this case, is beautiful. Ditto for the 2x and 3.5x portraits – bokeh, colors and dynamic range are excellent.
The selfie camera has three zoom levels – W (0.6x), 0.8x and 1x, which correspond to 18, 22 and 27mm. The camera stores 13 megapixel photos, but the sensor appears to be 14.4 megapixels. That’s probably why all three modes deliver equally detailed and sharp photos – the P60 Pro crops rather than upscales. The photos offer many resolved details, balanced sharpness and a natural-looking reproduction. The exposure is good and supported by HDR when needed without losing sharpness. The photos are free of noise, the colors are vivid and precise and the dynamic range is quite big.
Photo quality in low light
The main camera captures low-light photos at the widest aperture of f/1.4 and, thanks to optical stabilization, is able to reduce the shutter speed to around 1/15 second from the hand. All the photos we took with the main camera in our Huawei P60 Pro review are rich in detail and we couldn’t detect any noise. They are well exposed and bright enough, but not overdone. The dynamic range is quite large, the contrast is good and the color reproduction is excellent in all situations. If you switch to night mode anyway, you’ll have to wait about 2 to 3 seconds for the exposure. The photos are unrealistically bright and less detailed. But the shadows and the sky are more detailed.
The standard 3.5x night photos offer good sharpness, great exposure and low noise. The dynamic range is very good and the colors are accurate. The resolved details, on the other hand, are only mediocre – some of them may have fallen victim to the noise reduction. You should definitely use the night mode with the telephoto camera, as it produces very nice pictures. It offers detailed images with well-developed shadows and skies and a larger dynamic range. However, sometimes the colors can appear slightly oversaturated or develop a slight red cast. The telephoto camera’s 10x zoom images are also usable. In terms of noise reduction, colors and dynamic range, they are just as good as the 3.5x photos, but the resolution of details is lower.
The ultra wide camera’s 13-megapixel low-light photos are superb. They are well exposed, with lots of detail and excellent colors and minimal noise. The night mode of the ultra-wide camera usually takes 4 seconds and sometimes leads to slightly better resolved details. The same applies to the sky and the shadows. However, the night mode tends to increase the color saturation to an unrealistic level, which again leads to the well-known red cast.
Camera: videos
The Huawei P60 Pro records videos in 4K with up to 60 frames per second with all cameras. Huawei refers to the stabilization as AIS – AI-supported EIS. The always-on electronic stabilization works with all lenses and cannot be switched off. For this reason, each camera only ever shows a section in video mode – the 3.5x telephoto camera, for example, records videos with 4x zoom. The sound is recorded in stereo with a bit rate of 96 kbit/s and is more than worth listening to.
The main camera’s daylight videos are good. The recordings are noise-free, show precise colors, good contrast and a large dynamic range. However, the resolved details are only average. The stabilization of the main camera, on the other hand, works excellently in normal recording situations. The color saturation is just right, the contrast and the dynamic range are good and the noise is absolutely within limits. The resolved details are also fine.
The daylight videos from the ultra wide camera are great. There is a lot of detail and accurate colors even in the corners. In addition, you get a large dynamic range and no noise. The telephoto camera has two zoom levels – 4x and 10x. The standard 4x zoom videos are absolutely fine. There is a lot of detail, low noise and accurate colors. The dynamic range is quite large. The stabilization also works well here, at least as long as you don’t move. Videos with 10x digital zoom are still usable, albeit rather poor in detail.
The selfie camera also benefits from always-on EIS and the videos are very well stabilized. Video quality is solid – dynamic range is impressive, exposure is spot on, colors are vibrant and accurate, and there’s no noise. The resolved details are good but not impressive.
Finally, our usual Huawei P60 Pro test against a GoPro Hero 8 Black Actioncam. Like various challengers in the past, the P60 Pro quickly reaches its limits in this discipline. The colors look good and the dynamic range is also good, but even small pans are acknowledged by the Huawei cell phone with noticeable jerking.
Alternatives
Huawei must fight the competition with all its might, even if the battle is nearly lost. The end of 5G and all Google services excludes the Huawei P60 Pro from the outset for most users. However, the Huawei P series still stands for premium camera technology, as is already clearly indicated in this Huawei P60 Pro review. On top of that, the phone offers something that no other competitor apart from the Mate 50 Pro can offer – a truly variable aperture. Add to that the tele-macro capabilities with the zoom camera and excellent selfies. So are there any alternatives in the camera smartphone segment?
In fact, there is an even more powerful camera phone – the Xiaomi 13 Ultra. The latest Xiaomi flagship has a longer zoom range and a more versatile camera setup with equally wonderful photo and video quality. The 13 Ultra also has a variable aperture, but instead of 10 there are only two stops – f/1.9 and f/4.0. In return, it offers a better display, faster hardware and cameras and camera software developed jointly with Leica. The only real gripe is the mediocre selfie camera.
The Honor Magic5 Pro is also worth considering over the P60 Pro. In Europe it costs the same but offers a larger display, the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor including 5G and similar cameras, but without the variable aperture. In addition to the almost equal cameras, the Magic5 Pro also comes with all Google services.
After all, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is currently the best smartphone on the market. Pretty much everything is on board here, including the S Pen and a 10x telephoto camera. However, photos and videos do not look quite as natural as on the other flagships. But there is worldwide availability, five years of support and probably more features than on any other smartphone, apart from foldables.
Verdict
The Huawei P60 Pro is a wonderful smartphone with one of the best camera setups on the market. Add to that the excellent LTPO OLED display, a very fast chipset and a large battery with fast charging. Although Google functions are missing, they can be retrofitted quite reliably via apps such as Gbox. Gbox is even suggested as an app during the setup process. Android Auto or Nearby Share, on the other hand, are not possible and file management is a bit more complex since Gbox is a virtual machine.
However, there were also two things in our Huawei P60 Pro review that aren’t necessarily dealbreakers, but are at least problematic: the previous-gen Snapdragon chipset’s lack of 5G connectivity and the problems with Google. And the price, which is quite high given the special situation, doesn’t really help either, of course.
But if you are just as enthusiastic about the cameras as we were in our review and can live without 5G, you will almost certainly be very happy with Huawei’s current top model.
