Huawei launches budget 5G smartphone Honor V30
Updated 23:01, 27-Nov-2019
By Cao Qingqing, Pan Zhaoyi
02:10

Honor, a budget phone brand belonging to the Chinese tech giant Huawei, launched its first 5G handset collection — the Honor V30 series— in Beijing on Tuesday, with a starting price of 3299 yuan (about 470 U.S. dollars). 

The series comes in two versions – View30 PRO and View30. Both are are powered by Huawei's latest Kirin 990 processor chip coupled with Balong 5000 modem for 5G connectivity, the same as in Huawei's latest flagship device the Mate 30.  

It is the first 5G handsets of the brand Honor, which has mainly targeted young consumers with cost-effective smartphones to compete with mid-range phone brands. 

It comes with a 6.57-inch LCD punch-hole screen (2400 x 1080 pixels) and features a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. 

Its dual-lens front camera comprises of a 32MP AI Selfie Camera and an 8MP Wide Angle Selfie Camera.  

Its lined-up triple rear cameras include a 40MP Sony IMX600 Main Camera, a 12MP Super Wide Angle Camera with Cine-lens and an 8MP Telephoto Camera. 

This unique Matrix Camera allows users to capture their life through a movie lens and take movie-grade photos and videos, the company said.  

It's equipped a 4,100mAh battery with 40W charging that Honor claims can reach a 70-percent charge in 30 minutes, and also supports Super Wireless Charge.  

Honor, Huawei's budget smartphone brand, launches its first 5G-enabled handset known as the V30 in Beijing on November 26, 2019. /CGTN Photo

Honor, Huawei's budget smartphone brand, launches its first 5G-enabled handset known as the V30 in Beijing on November 26, 2019. /CGTN Photo

The V30 series start at 3,299 yuan (370 U.S. dollars) for a model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The Pro-version sells for 3,899 yuan (550 U.S. dollars) and 4,199 yuan (600 U.S. dollars) for different storage. Compared with the other two Chinese 5G smartphone brands, Xiaomi and Vivo, which start with 3,798 yuan and 3,699 yuan respectively, for their Pro series, the prices for the Honor V30 are very competitive.

Huawei has released five high-end 5G phones in the previous months, namely Mate X 5G, Mate 30 5G, Mate 30 Pro 5G, Mate 30 RS Porsche, and foldable 5G smartphone Mate X, with the prices ranging from 4,999 yuan (710 U.S. dollars) to 16,999 yuan (2,415 U.S. dollars). With the release of V30 series, the company's smartphone product line now covers all budgets.

IDC Data shows the total shipments of 5G smartphones in China in the third quarter were about 485,000, with Vivo accounting for more than 50 percent and Huawei consisting of only 29 percent. But Huawei has performed well in the high-end market of which the smartphone prices are normally above 700 U.S. dollars.

Read more: Huawei 5G smartphone coming to China in mid-August, is the signal ready?

(Video shot by Xu Haoming, Cao Qingqing and Gao Yun; edited by Chen Shi.)