Bucket Tech: HUAWEI P60 Pro DXOMARK rating

We all want photography that capture what our eyes see. That’s why smartphone cameras are doing away with sharpening the megapixel resolution of the photography and focusing on improving the overall experience in order to closely replicate what the human eye sees. 

Take the HUAWEI P60 Pro example, which has developed its smartphone camera holistically with the Ultra Lighting Telephoto Camera, transforming the experience of photography through the art of Light. From a redesigned optical path to a large aperture lens, here’s how the P60 Pro’s breakthroughs make it the next big thing in the flagship smartphone market. 

Ultra Lighting Camera: No Detail Left in the Dark

It’s always frustrating when parts of an image are obscured by a lack of light, replicating your memories in the most inaccurate way. To dissipate any darkness in photographs, Huawei introduces the Ultra Lighting Telephoto Camera to its latest HUAWEI P60 Pro.  With a redesigned optical path, it now stands as the smartphone camera with the highest light intake in the industry: The Ultra Lighting Telephoto Camera, together with its Multiple Lens Groups, has an F2.1 large aperture that lets in 178% more light.

How was this possible? Unlike most smartphone telephoto cameras, maintaining the slim size of the smartphone device may mean smaller photosensitive sensors and aperture size, resulting in blurry photographs due to insufficient lighting in a dark environment. The HUAWEI P60 Pro redesigns its optical imaging path to create its Ultra Lighting Lens Group which works with the RYYB SuperSensing sensor to revolutionises the camera’s light intake. In fact, all this was achieved while ensuring that the overall smartphone build remains compact and thin at 200g.

Now, when taking photographs in poorly lit indoor spaces or during a night out in the city, users need not fumble with different filters or add extra equipment to take in all the sights they want to in High Dynamic Range (HDR) photographs. They can instantly point and shoot to capture the moment without losing out on any detail or having to wait for camera adjustments to be done.

Telephoto Super Macro: Goes the Distance so You Don’t Have to

The Ultra Lighting Camera is also surprisingly able to double up as a its macro photography camera.  Built with an additional set of a Long Travel Slide Zoom Lens Group, it allows flexible control of the focusing distance. This means that the telephoto camera is capable of clear imaging from long-distance shots to zoomed-in macro close-ups.

And thanks to the camera’s powerful light intake, the HUAWEI P60 Pro’s macro telephoto camera can be used in any lighting conditions. This means you can shoot with your camera at any time of the day; whether it’s during a bright and sunny nature walk or in a darkly-lit indoor theatre. This is more especially useful when capturing wildlife photos, even during night time. Users can use the telephoto lens from a longer distance to record facial details of animals even in dark-lit environments. This means you can immediately point and shoot a photo of an animal – such as a bee in landing on a flower petal or a bird resting in a tree – without needing to go closer to them and potentially distract or scare the subject.

SLR-Level Image Stabilisation: Telephoto Anti-Shake Sensor Rotation

The HUAWEI P60 Pro also introduces the industry's first Telephoto Anti-Shake Sensor Rotation, which uses the countering dynamic motion of the sensor instead of the dynamic motion of the lens

In the HUAWEI P60 Pro, the optical distance is shorter due to the anti-shake sensor, taking away any unsightly effects from unsteady or jittery hands. Under the same error accuracy, the performance of optical image stabilisation is greatly improved. From the centre of the photograph to its four corners, the anti-shake consistency increases by 58%.

Super Moon Scene: Reimagine the Night Sky

The new Super Moon Scene gives users a new creative tool to photograph the moon in a brand-new light. Gone are the days of over-zoomed blurry moon photographs – Super Moon Shot uses AI to enhance the details of the moon to produce better and clearer shots of the night sky. With an advanced focusing mode and HDR effects, the smartphone camera can capture an accurate and richly-detailed shot of the moon from right where you are.

Users who love night photography can experiment with this feature and position the moon next to scenic views, such as dramatic city skylines or silhouettes of forests. Without past inhibitions of poor quality night photographs, nature and landscape enthusiasts can now take their smartphone cameras out on a photoshoot at night.

Stand a chance to win

HUAWEI is calling on the “everyday, the always ready to capture the moment” enthusiast. Capture the hidden beauty in everyday life and share your moment (photograph or video) with us and stand a chance to win a share of R200 000 worth of prizes the #SeeTheUnseen competition brought to you by the HUAWEI P60 Pro.

How to Enter?

Capture your moment (photograph or video) of the #SeeTheUnSeen” tell us in a short sentence about your moment. For more information: Click here

Entry Points:

1.  Enter via the HUAWEI’s social media pages, find the competition post, follow the instructions and share your moment; 
2.  pages, find the competition post, follow the instructions and share your moment; 
3. Enter via SuperSport United FC social media pages, find the competition post, follow th instructions and share your moment; 
4.   Enter via GQ’s social media pages, find the competition post, follow the instructions and share your moment.

Exciting hey! So, what are you waiting for? Get capturing and sharing #SeeTheUnSeen and stand a chance to win a share of R200 000 worth of prizes.  

Various T’s&C’s apply

Bucket Tech: Hisense H50 Zoom

Premium phones at stellar prices. That’s what you can expect from Hisense’s new Infinity H50 and H50 Zoom smartphones, now available in South Africa, and the H50 Lite, which will be in stores from May.

Hisense, China’s unsung hero, has quietly slipped into the playing field with its Infinity H50 range. The phones have been designed to satisfy different consumer needs with boosted-up or stripped-down derivatives, but the fundamental engine room across the range remains the same.

With its 91.26% screen-to-body ratio, the H50 base model, aptly named Infinity, seems like it wraps around the device. The H50 houses four separate cameras – a 64 MP HD main camera, an 8MP wide-angle camera, and an impressive multifunctional 2MP depth and macro-lens. 

The H50 also has a 32MP front camera, with a new Beauty Mode feature that identifies the light conditions and adjusts the aperture automatically so there are no substandard blurry images. 

The H50 Zoom has a first-of-its-kind party trick with a 16MP pop-up camera with flash. This signature piece allows you to capture impeccable selfies in portrait mode.

The power unit on the H50 and H50 Zoom comprises an Octa-Core processor supported by 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage to create a very smooth user interface on the Android II operating system. The H50 Lite is slightly smaller with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage space, yet still packs a punch, performing just as well as the rest of the H50 family in all departments. 

Hisense has also factored security features in the H50 series. The side-mounted fingerprint sensor and facial recognition technology mean these phones are basically impenetrable.

The H50 comes in Pine Green and Black Jade, while a carved 3D gradient that creates a colour-changing effect from different angles.

Overall this is an extremely great value for money offering from Hisense. All 3 devices are available in the country and you can go through the features, specs and pricing below. 

Bucket Tech: Huawei Mate 30 Series - First Impressions

While still under a huge cloud of uncertainty over their relations with the US, Chinese tech giants Huawei launched their much anticipated flagship device series in Munich, Germany yesterday. The event which was live streamed world wide was hosted by Executive Director Richard Yu who showcased the companies latest assets in the Mate 30 Series as well as new wearables, accessories and a television!

The biggest question on everyone's minds was what was going to power the new Mate 30 Series seeing that Google had put a trade block on Huawei due to the US sanctions, well the answer was given, Mate 30 features Androids open source OS, Android 10 which runs on EMUI 10, the user interface is identical to that of your normal Android device until you realise there is no Google Apps. So no Gmail, no Google Maps, no YouTube, and most importantly, no Google Playstore. Whether or not you can download these apps via a 3rd party remains to be seen but for now, it looks like you have to access some of these apps the old fashion way, via the browser. Huawei though have their own AppGallery which has over 45,000 applications already. 

Now with the device taking such a big knock already due to the US sanctions in terms of OS capabilities, the phone has to make up for it right? Well Huawei weren't going to take this lying down, the device is powered by the most advanced 5G chip-set on the market being the Kirin 990, the device also has the most advanced cooling system on the market making it up to 30% more cooler at run time. The Huawei Mate 30 Series also has the most 5G antenna's making it the best connectivity device on the market. The 5G speeds capable by the Mate 30 are phenomenal beating competitors in a speed test by almost 600mbps! That's over half a gigabyte more in the same amount of time. Huawei claim to have the best overall 5G experience with this Mate 30 device, giving you faster speeds, with a cooler device, with dual 5G sim slots and better battery performance. 

Speaking of the battery, the Mate 30 Pro comes fitting with a monster 4500mAh battery which the company claim can give you two full days of heavy usage. Being such a big battery you'd expect it to be big and heavy but its not, its actually smaller and lighter than any other competitors battery which is a major plus. Overall size to screen ratio is vastly improved on the Mate 30 Pro as it features fully bezel sides. The screen which extend over to the side has functionality too, and aren't just there for appearance. You can control the volume and has camera functions built in as well. 

The camera on the Mate 30 has stepped up big time and features a quad camera system developed with Leica in an exquisite halo ring design. Inspiration for this was taken from Leica camera lenses them self. The Mate 30 Pro camera features a 40MP (18mm) Ultra Wide lens, a 40MP (27mm) SuperSensing Wide lens, 8MP Telephoto zoom lens and a 3D depth sensing lens to give you those bespoke Bokeh shots. While it doesnt have the periscope lens of the P30 Pro, it still is able to give you up to 3x Optical Zoom with 45x Hybrid Zoom. The massive step up is on the video size, with Huawei saying that they're giving users the world's first 40 MP Cine camera that is capable of filming in 4K at 60fps, it has 4K HDR time lapse and ISO 512 000 which can shoot video in extreme low light, so not only low light photography but videography too. It has a real-time Bokeh effect recording with depth of field and dual OIS + AIS for more stable recording. The biggest surprise was its ultra slo-motion feature which captions video at 7680fps! that just blows the competition away by miles with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ only being able to achieve 960fps.

There's so much more to this device that really excites us and while the Mate 30 Pro is the one to have, the normal Mate 30 isn't too shabby either. Huawei also announced another Porsche Design Model with the Mate 30 RS. We will have to wait and see what the local offering and pricing is for the devices in the next week. So far its looking like the Chinese mobile phone manufacturer has steadied the tide against it with these but time will tell how the market will react to it. 

Bucket Tech: Huawei P30 Series SA Launch

Wednesday night saw the launch of the Huawei P30 Series on our shores, now many have asked me why do Huawei have the local launch a week after the international launch? Surely they could have it at the same time, do a live stream like others in the industry do and get it over with. I too didn't know the answer to that question until Wednesday night when Cheif Operation Officer for Huawei SA, Akhram Mohamed said that they have a separate local launch purely to show what Huawei's offering is to the country, so they customize the launch for our market, giving us more information on the devices we are getting and the prices. Which makes sense if you have to think about it, often we see these international launches and wonder if we're going to get most or all of what they are showing, here we know exactly whats coming, what its going to cost and it's more intimate with the local audience. 

Getting that out of the way, the launch itself was a glitzy affair, as per normal Huawei doesn't spare any expense on their events and this was probably the biggest one I've attended yet. Many Tech fundies of the industry were present as well as mobile operators, VIP guests and local celebs. Getting proceedings underway and introducing us to the P30 Pro was VP for Consumer Business Southern Africa, Likun Zhao. A key feature on the P30 Pro is it's four lens camera system that enables it to capture, details and light in very low light conditions, none more breathtaking that the capture of the galaxy taken by the P30 Pro in Nambia. Sure there were certain factors that had to contribute to this extraordinary picture, that being clear skies, probably a tripod being used and in night mode but still, for a mobile phone to achieve this, many professional photographers will agree that it is mind blowing. 

Giving us more details into the P30 series was Huawei's COO Akhram Mohamed, when it comes to the P Series range, the Chinese telecommunications giant always made it it's target to be the best in camera photography, they were the first to introduce dual lens technology, then the first to have triple lens technology and while they might not be the first to have a camera phone with four lenses the P30 Pro comes with it's own firsts, like the telephoto lens or "periscope lens" as they call it, since the device is so thin, Huawei had to put the lens horizontally in the phone and by means of a 90 degree mirror glass, like a periscope giving the user a lens with 5 X Optical Zoom, in a camera phone! I had the opportunity later that night to test this feature out, and to say I was blown away would be an understatement. The P30 Pro can achieve up to 50 X digital zoom and while at full 50 X, the picture will be grainy, you're still able read text and signs that is zoomed into. 

Another first for a mobile camera phone was with Huawei having their SuperSpectrum RYYB sensor allowing for more light to be included in their pictures, hence being able to capture great detail in low light conditions where other devices will fail. Huawei also achieved the highest score on the DXOMark score sheet, making Huawei the top 3 in their list. With the a dual stabilizer and AI stabilizer, most shots can be taken by hand with the user not having to worry if the picture will be blurry or shaky, the phone will take care of that for you. The stabilizers also work great with video, almost making it like a GoPro in your hand. Speaking of video, the P30 Pro will also have Dual-View Video capture, where the camera makes use of 2 lenses to record, one giving you an up close shot of the object with the second being a wide angle view. Huawei also have upped their software on the camera giving you options to capture bespoke bokeh shots with their Time of Flights Camera, which has depth perception, allowing you to capture an object and blurring out the background gradually by the distance it is away from the focal object.  The camera's on the P30 Pro include a 40MP main camera, 20MP Ultra-Wide Angle Lens, a 32MP front facing camera making it the best selfie camera on the market currently. 

Other impressive features on the P30 Pro, include it's battery which is a 4,200mAh, which is powered by a new generation Huawei's SuperCharge that can charge your device from 0 to 70 percent in just 30 minutes. It also features the 15W Huawei Wireless Quick Charge and the revolutionary wireless reverse charging technology, which can recharge any wireless device. The P30 Pro is an impressive device and Huawei have certainly brought a fight to their competition, as they do their home work in market research and allocate 14.1% of their revenue to research and development, allowing them to come up with these mind blowing features on their devices. The P30 Pro will be available in 3 stunning colours, Breathing Crystal, Aurora or Black. 

Huawei on the night also took the opportunity to showcase some of their other products which will be arriving in our country shortly, that being the MediaPad M5 Lite, the Watch GT Active and GT Elegant, Matebook 13 and the Gentle Monster Smart Eyewear. Mr Mohamed also announced the introduction to their online store, so consumers can bypass the mobile operators and purchase Huawei products direct. 

Pricing for the P Series Smart devices at time of launch

Huawei P30 Pro	R18 999
Huawei P30	R13 999
Huawei P30 Lite	R5 999