Huawei P30 Series Launch in Paris: A Live Blog (Starts 2pm CET, 9am ET)

08:31AM EDT - Hello all! We're live here from the Paris convention center for the launch of Huawei's P30 smartphone lineup.

08:35AM EDT - This is the second time Huawei has launched a flagship in Paris. Last year we saw the launch of the P20 and P20 Pro which ushered in a new era of smartphone photography.

08:36AM EDT - In particular, the P20Pro ushered in a new era of smartphone photography with the introduction of a tripod-less night mode as well as bringing some impressive sensor technology to the table.

08:37AM EDT - Huawei's P-series have focused on photography, while the Mate series is the lineup where Huawei introduces new technology such as the newest generation Kirin chipsets.

08:39AM EDT - The venue here rivals the size that we're used from Samsung's launches. In a sense, this is a good representation of where Huawei is in the mobile market nowadays.

08:40AM EDT - One bonus point for the Paris convention centre: It seems like the venue WiFi is holding relatively strong even though I'm seeing tons of WiFi hotspots around.

08:45AM EDT - The event should start in 15 minutes. I'm expecting a long presentation by Richard Yu.

09:00AM EDT - One minute to go.

09:02AM EDT - Intro video hyping things up.

09:02AM EDT - "P30 - Rewrite the rules of phography"

09:03AM EDT - Telefonica executive talking about the P series and Huawei's advances.

09:04AM EDT - Vodaphone executive talking about how the P30 will be a great smartphone

09:05AM EDT - Next in line - Orange.

09:05AM EDT - "Turning point in the industry; 5G and foldable devices"

09:05AM EDT - "The P30 are a rainbow of devices"

09:06AM EDT - Richard Yu taking the stage.

09:07AM EDT - Leading innovation in a variety of topics.

09:07AM EDT - "Leading mobile photography" making the mobile experience much better to like that of a DLSR camera

09:08AM EDT - "Building a better connected life means a better community"

09:09AM EDT - Using AI to help the visually impaired. Using the NPU in the Kirin 980

09:10AM EDT - First in the industry to introduce a dual-camera.

09:10AM EDT - Last year with the P20 - first with a triple camera.

09:10AM EDT - Introducing the P30 and P30 Pro.

09:11AM EDT - "Rewrite the rules of photograph"

09:12AM EDT - Intro video about the design of the P30

09:12AM EDT - "Design inspired by nature"

09:13AM EDT - Minimal notch and bezel design.

09:14AM EDT - Fantastic screen-to-body ratios on both the lower end P30 and the P30 Pro - much less than the iPhone XS & XR.

09:15AM EDT - Also much lighter designs. Notably missing from the comparison are the new Galaxy S10's which are lighter.

09:15AM EDT - Under-screen magnetic earpiece speaker.

09:15AM EDT - New under-screen fingerprint with 30% better unlock speed.

09:16AM EDT - 1080p OLED isplay on the small P30. First time we see an OLED on the lower range model.

09:17AM EDT - Also a 1080p OLED screen on the P30 Pro - odd lack of 1440 on the bigger phone.

09:17AM EDT - IP68 rating on the P30 Pro

09:17AM EDT - Nano optical colour finish.

09:20AM EDT - Five different colours - Breathing crystal, Amber sunrise, Pearl white, Black and Aurora Blue

09:20AM EDT - Moving onto the photography capability

09:21AM EDT - 40MP new generation main sensor, 16MP wide angle and a 8MP 3x telephoto on the P30.

09:22AM EDT - The P30 Pro has a similar camera setup, but now has a 5x optical zoom periscope telephoto lens.

09:22AM EDT - Uses a prism mirror to have the sensor at a 90° angle

09:22AM EDT - ToF camera on top of the 3 optical cameras

09:23AM EDT - Huawei has abandoned a RGGB Bayer sensor in favour of a RYYB sensor.

09:24AM EDT - Yellow captures both red and green light, and the ISP reconverts data back to RGB data.

09:25AM EDT - Again a 1/7" sensor for the 40MP sensor, currently the biggest in a smartphone today.

09:25AM EDT - OIS for both the 40MP sensor and the telephoto module

09:26AM EDT - ISO400000 for the P30Pro and ISO204800 for the P30

09:27AM EDT - Better light capture than your eyes are even capable of.

09:27AM EDT - Today's multi-frame captures essentially eliminates the noise issues of high ISO captures

09:29AM EDT - Pictures done with the handheld Night mode.

09:31AM EDT - The long exposure modes are enables through AIS "AI imagine stabilisation"

09:32AM EDT - Not only for night mode, but can be used in daylight as well

09:33AM EDT - Very large focus on showcasing the P30's camera capabilities

09:33AM EDT - Switching over to the new telephoto module

09:33AM EDT - 3x Optical zoom on the P30 with 5x hybrid zoom.

09:35AM EDT - OIS on the P30 Pro telephoto seems to be implemented on the prism.

09:36AM EDT - The P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro already had the best telephoto modules in the industry - Huawei is currently just showing off with the new modules on the P30.

09:39AM EDT - Live demo with low light subjects against the S10+ and iPhone XS

09:42AM EDT - The P30 resolving details that were invisible to the iPhone and Galaxy

09:42AM EDT - Now turning off the light in the room.

09:44AM EDT - Not using the low light mode on the Galaxy S10.

09:45AM EDT - Now addressing the new ToF camera and how it's used for depth information.

09:45AM EDT - We already saw this on the Honor View20 - however the issues were that we lacked any sensible use-cases for the module.

09:46AM EDT - Did they just talk about the ToF sensor and not mention any uses? o_O

09:47AM EDT - Wide angle module just like on the Mate 20's.

09:48AM EDT - Closer focus distance than what's possible on the S10 or iPhone XS

09:48AM EDT - 32MP front-facing selfie camera with AI HDR+

09:49AM EDT - Switching over to video recording features

09:49AM EDT - More and more video are using video sharing.

09:49AM EDT - "Pain points for video" - Low light, stabilisation and range

09:50AM EDT - Low light video intro

09:51AM EDT - The P30 showing vastly better low light video capture compared to the S10 and XS

09:52AM EDT - Dual video recording with both a wide angle and regular camera.

09:53AM EDT - This is very interesting from a technical perspective as it requires a lot of ISP and SoC bandwidth

09:54AM EDT - DXOMark score for the P30 Pro - 112

09:54AM EDT - "Unrivaled camera experience with the P30"

09:57AM EDT - Fashion Photographer taking the stage to talk about his experience with the P30

09:59AM EDT - Performance improvements brought by the Kirin 980 bringing massive improvements

09:59AM EDT - A new filesystem "EROFS" bringing significant upgrades over EXT4.

10:00AM EDT - Leading Dual SIM capability - most other phones don't have the full features for the second SIM

10:01AM EDT - 3650mAh battery for the P30 and 4200mAh for the P30 Pro

10:01AM EDT - 40W super fast charging

10:01AM EDT - 30minutes to charge to 70% capacity

10:01AM EDT - 15 Wireless charging

10:02AM EDT - Naturally reverse wiresless charging is also included

10:03AM EDT - New EMUI 9.1 with Android 9

10:04AM EDT - New themes for EMUI and the P30's

10:05AM EDT - Gesture navigation - unfortunately I find Huawei's side swipe implementation one of the worst among vendors. It's inferior to bottom up gestures.

10:06AM EDT - Power button serves as a assistant button when pressed for 1s

10:06AM EDT - Samsung should take note.

10:07AM EDT - TOF camera is used for Google ARCore

10:07AM EDT - Huawei seems to have some limited use-cases for the ToF sensor such as a object volume estimation application.

10:08AM EDT - Covering Share OneHop with the Huawei Matebook - we had already covered this at MWC and CES.

10:09AM EDT - Use the P"à as a digital car key.

10:10AM EDT - Partnership with Audi in 7 models, but looking forward to work with other brands such as BMW

10:11AM EDT - Huawei bringing the bling bling with a first-party crystal cover from Swarofski

10:12AM EDT - More various first-party accessories

10:13AM EDT - 40W super charging powerbank - if you go out for several days in the wilderness with 12000mAh

10:13AM EDT - Can even charge your laptop at fast speeds

10:18AM EDT - Huawei also their own wireless headphones with the FreeLace and new FreeBuds Lite.

10:19AM EDT - New Huawei Watch GT with up to 2 weeks battery life

10:24AM EDT - Partner talking about ... designer stores selling eyewear. I'm not sure why this is part of the event.

10:32AM EDT - The Gentle Monster smart eyewear is built by Huawei

10:32AM EDT - The PCB, batteryies, antennas included in the glass frames and supports

10:34AM EDT - Wirelessly charging pouch for thet glasses.

10:35AM EDT - The glasses seem to be able to be used for music devices as well as assistants.

10:37AM EDT - 799€ for the P30 and 999€ for the P30Pro, respective starting prices.

10:38AM EDT - That's a wrap folks. I'm off to get my devices and get back home!