Are you searching for the best Huawei phones? We have them all here for you, but it’s not as easy to choose one as it used to be. The new Huawei phones can’t access Google Mobile Services and don’t have the Google Play Store, due to a US government’s trade ban. This makes the Western market a very tough sell for them.
That’s a real shame as Huawei has been excellent since the excellent P20 Pro of 2018, selling more Huawei phones in Europe than ever and proving that when it comes to producing the best phones in the world, the company can hold its own against the likes of Samsung and Apple.
We have updated our list to include the new Huawei phones, including the Huawei Mate 40 Pro, with the Huawei Mate 40 series release. We’ve also included a range of older Huawei handsets that still sport Google apps and the Play Store, which lacks newer updates. This involves the Huawei P30 Pro, the smartphone that we always believe is the best Huawei phone.
Best Huawei phone 2021
- Huawei P30 Pro
- Huawei Mate 20 Pro
- Huawei P30
- Huawei Mate 40 Pro
- Huawei P40 Pro
- Huawei P40
- Huawei Mate 30 Pro
- Huawei P40 Pro Plus
- Huawei Mate 20
- Huawei P20 Pro
- Huawei P30 Lite
- Huawei Mate Xs
Best Huawei phones
1. Huawei P30 Pro
Specs:
- Release date: March 2019
- Weight: 192g
- Dimensions: 158 x 73.4 x 8.4mm
- OS: Android 9
- Screen size: 6.47-inch
- CPU: Kirin 980
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 128/256/512GB
- Battery: 4,200mAh
- Rear camera: 40MP + 20MP + 8MP + ToF
- Front camera: 32MP
The best Huawei Smartphone you can buy right now is the Huawei P30 Pro. It’s also one of of the best Huawei phones we’ve used when it comes to picture quality and photography, with the cameras being the real party piece of the P30 Pro, offering extremely decent 5x and 10x magnification, and a 50x optical zoom with which you get insanely close to distant objects. Also, top-notch are its low-light capabilities.
On the P30 Pro, the wide 6.47-inch screen might only have a Full HD+ resolution, but it’s bright, transparent and colourful to provide your apps and games with a perfect canvas.
When it comes to the P30 Pro probably running out of power, there is no fear, the battery life here is excellent. We get to the end of the day daily with 30% or more left in the tank.
The P30 Pro set a new standard for Huawei; it sets a new standard for the whole of the smartphone industry. Its cameras are merely brilliant, the architecture is eye-catching, and the power is abundant. It’s a real mobile flagship.
2. Huawei Mate 20 Pro – An outstanding all-round Huawei Phone
Specs:
- Release date: November 2018
- Weight:189g
- Dimensions:157.8 x 72.3 x 8.6mm
- OS: Android 9
- Screen size:6.39-inch
- Resolution:1440 x 3120
- CPU: Kirin 980
- RAM:8GB
- Storage:256GB
- Battery:4200mAh
- Rear camera:40MP + 20MP + 8MP
- Front camera:24MP
he Huawei Mate 20 Pro is a beautiful all-round telephone that offers a heartfelt combination of style, power and efficiency with a few party products.
It builds on the outstanding P20 and P20 Pro that features even more displays, improved triple rear cameras and a fingerprint scanner on display.
Check out: Huawei announced FreeBuds Pro and FreeLace Pro
The Mate 20 Pro offers a 6.39-inch display that gives games and movies plenty of space, while its QHD resolution and HDR10 support ensure that everything looks fantastic. However, there is a big notch at the top of the display.
It also includes three sensors on the back with excellent 40MP wide-angle lenses and 8MP P20 Pro photo lenses – but the third sensor is new. It is an ultra-wide 16MP snapper that helps you tighten your environment even further into each shot.
The Mate 20 Pro is a high-performance phone for a full price, even with a few tricks and better specs that you won’t see anywhere else.
3. Huawei P30 – Another best Huawei phone
Specs:
- Release date: March 2019
- Weight:165g
- Dimensions:149.1 x 71.4 x 7.6mm
- OS: Android 9
- Screen size:6.1-inch
- Resolution:1080 x 2340
- CPU: Kirin 980
- RAM:8GB
- Storage:64/128/512GB
- Battery:3,650mAh
- Rear camera:40MP + 16MP + 8MP
- Front camera:32MP
The Huawei P30 has a bit smaller screen than the P30 Pro, with only three rear cameras and massive zoom of 30x, but it’s still one of best Huawei phones around.
The P30 is a little easier to handle in hand with a 6.1-inch display than its bigger brother, and it is a top mobile screen with a Full HD+ and plenty of colours. With the phone always lasting a day and a half on a single charge without a hitch, you can expect to get excellent battery life from the Huawei P30.
Although the three cameras on the rear are not as strong as the four on the P30 Pro, with 5x, 10x and 30x zoom and excellent low-light capability, they still deliver an outstanding shooting experience.
There’s plenty of strength, a convenient headphone jack (the Pro can’t boast anything) and a more usable one-handed form factor. And it’s relatively a little cheaper, of course.
4. Huawei Mate 40 Pro – Technically, a great Huawei Phone
Specs:
- Release date: November 2020
- Weight:212g
- Dimensions:162.9 x 75.5 x 9.1 mm
- OS: Android 10
- Screen size:6.76-inch
- CPU: Kirin 9000 5G
- RAM:8GB
- Storage:256/512GB
- Battery:4,400mAh
- Rear camera:50MP + 12MP + 20MP
- Front camera:13MP
The Mate 40 Pro is easily one of the Huawei phones in terms of hardware, thanks to the absence of Google software and the Play Store, so if you only want amazing images and a stunning screen, this is for you.
Thanks to the curved shape that looks fantastic, it moulds into your palm perfectly, and it handles about everything you throw at it happily. Photography wise, it takes excellent pictures and has a wide variety of resources to improve them further.
With the absence of support for Google applications, though, you will be limited to what you can download on this tablet, and it feels costly to be so limited.
5. Huawei P40 Pro – Superb Camera
Specs:
- Release date: March 2020
- Weight: 209g
- Dimensions: 158.2 x 72.6 x 9mm
- OS: Android 10
- Screen size: 6.58-inch
- CPU: Kirin 990
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 128/256/512GB
- Battery: 4,200mAh
- Rear camera: 50MP + 40MP + 12MP + ToF
- Front camera: 32MP
The Huawei P40 Pro is expected to be the best Huawei smartphone ever made. After all, in several respects, it is an improvement to the Huawei P30 Pro, with a superb quad-lens sensor, a wonderful 4,200mAh battery life, and a sleek build, with curved glass on all four front edges.
From the P40 Pro’s Kirin 990 chipset, you also get flagship control plus a fantastic screen with a high refresh rate of 90Hz.
So, why isn’t this the right phone for Huawei? It lacks Google Mobile Features like other recent Huawei handsets, which means no Google applications (such as Maps) and, most significantly, no access to the Google Play Store. But you’ve got to get your applications somewhere, and the alternative is more limited.
The Huawei P40 Pro is, as such, in the uncomfortable position of being a smaller smartphone than its predecessor. But the hardware is fantastic, so it’s always worth considering whether you can do without Google on your computer.
6. Huawei P40 – Reasonably priced phone
Specs:
- Release date: June 2020
- Weight: 175g
- Dimensions: 148.9 x 71.1 x 8.5 mm
- OS: Android 10
- Screen size: 6.1-inch
- CPU: Kirin 990 5G
- RAM: 6/8GB
- Storage: 128/256GB
- Battery: 3,800mAh
- Rear camera: 50MP + 8MP + 8MP
- Front camera: 32MP
If you want the hardware architecture and robust P40 series cameras, but are also sceptical that Google Mobile services are not enabled, you may want to go with this standard P40, given that it is cheaper than the Pro and Pro Plus.
There is no wireless charging or monitor with a high refresh rate. Still, the architecture is among the best Huawei phones on the market, and the configuration of the triple camera takes excellent images and videos. The Kirin 990 chipset is ready for 5G, and the battery life is extraordinary.
But without having access to the Google Play Store or Google services, the Western market remains small.
7. Huawei Mate 30 Pro
Specs:
- Release date: September 2019
- Weight: 198g
- Dimensions: 158.1 x 73.1 x 8.8mm
- OS: Android 10
- Screen size: 6.53-inch
- CPU: Kirin 990
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 128/256GB
- Battery: 4,500mAh
- Rear camera: 40MP + 40MP + 8MP + ToF
- Front camera: 32MP
One of the early victims of the Huawei ban was the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, but there are no Google applications on this handset, and there is no Google Play Store connection.
However, if you can get through the small apps, there is some perfect hardware here, including a beautiful edge-to-edge waterfall monitor, decent battery life from its 4,500mAh battery, and an impressive quad-lens camera that in low light conditions outperforms most competitors.
The Huawei Mate 30 Pro has the same chipset as the Huawei P40 Pro, so performance is identical, and most other flagship features including water resistance and wireless charging, are included.
8. Huawei P40 Pro Plus – Another best Camera phone
Specs:
- Release date: June 2020
- Weight: 226g
- Dimensions: 158.2 x 72.6 x 9mm
- OS: Android 10
- Screen size: 6.58-inch
- CPU: Kirin 990 5G
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 128/256/512GB
- Battery: 4,200mAh
- Rear camera: 50MP + 40MP + 8MP + 8MP + ToF
- Front camera: 32MP
This Huawei phone is just as good as the P40 Pro and goes the extra mile with much better cameras. In 2020, with some impressive features that put it ahead of many standalone compact cameras on the market, we believed it has the best camera system on any smartphone.
At 10x zoom, it can shoot optically stabilized stills and is a fantasy of a photographer. Without access to the Google Play Store and Google applications and utilities, it is considerably impeded for everyday use for anyone but the most tech-savvy or patient.
It means that with your Gmail account, the phone will not play good, will not work with third-party applications such as Uber that use Google Maps and will not bind to any wearables from Wear OS. The P40 Pro Plus stands a tough sell, particularly at the asking price, even though it boasts the best cameras around, 5G and decent battery life.
9. Huawei Mate 20
Specs:
- Weight: 188g
- Dimensions: 158.2 x 77.2 x 8.3mm
- OS: Android 9
- Screen size: 6.53-inch
- Resolution: 1080 x 2244
- CPU: Kirin 980
- RAM: 4/6GB
- Storage: 128GB
- Battery: 4,000mAh
- Rear camera: 12MP+16MP+8MP
- Front camera: 24MP
The Huawei Mate 20 standard could be weaker than the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, but it’s still a good phone in its own right, and it’s also cheaper.
Other than the lower, but still high, price, highlights include a 4,000mAh battery that, thanks to an octa-core Kirin 980 chipset and up to 6GB of RAM, provided excellent life and top-end power in our tests.
On the rear, the Huawei Mate 20 also has a triple-lens sensor. This is not the same lens range as its sibling Pro-level, but it still allows for a flexible setup.
And the Mate 20 also defeats the Mate 20 Pro in several respects, as the 6.53-inch screen is more significant, and it has a headphone socket that the fancier phone doesn’t have.
10. Huawei P20 Pro – Pro Camera Huawei Phone
Specs:
- Weight: 180g
- Dimensions: 155 x 73.9 x 7.8mm
- OS: Android 9
- Screen size: 6.1-inch
- Resolution: 1080 x 2240
- CPU: Kirin 970
- RAM: 6GB
- Storage: 128GB
- Battery: 4,000mAh
- Rear camera: 40MP+20MP+8MP
- Front camera: 24MP
The Huawei P20 Pro might no longer be Huawei’s new flagship, but it still has a lot to do with its imposing and powerful triple-lens rear camera being the focus.
The camera supports 3x optical zoom and appears to be remarkably adept at night shots, usually an area where phone cameras are struggling.
A big, long-lasting battery and an even larger AMOLED screen that offers vibrant colours on a large scale are other highlights of the Huawei P20 Pro.
With a metal frame and a glass base, the Huawei P20 Pro also has a striking look, which optionally comes in a gradient colour scheme that lets the colours change from purple at the top to a turquoise hue at the bottom.
The Huawei P20 Pro also has facial recognition, a fingerprint sensor, and plenty of RAM, like any decent flagship.
There’s no wireless charging, and for certain flagships, the chipset isn’t quite a match, but it’s not far apart, and the Huawei P20 Pro will contend with every other device as a full kit, as its high ranking in our best smartphone list attests.
11. Huawei P30 Lite – Mid-ranger Huawei Phone
Specs:
- Weight: 159g
- Dimensions: 152.9 x 72.7 x 7.4mm
- OS: Android 9
- Screen size: 6.15-inch
- Resolution: 1080 x 2312
- CPU: Kirin 710
- RAM: 4/6GB
- Storage: 128GB
- Battery: 3,340mAh
- Rear camera: 48MP + 8MP + 2MP
- Front camera: 24MP
The Huawei P30 Lite does not fit the rest of the lineup and is not a flagship, even though it has P30 in its name. It’s a mid-ranger instead, but that’s a pretty good one.
For one thing, it looks fine, down to the notch on the front with a glass-backed style that is identical to the Huawei P30.
It also has an equally acceptable resolution to its pricier counterpart, as it has a 1080 x 2312 6.15-inch display with a pixel density of around 415 pixels per inch.
It also has face unlocking, a rear camera with a triple-lens, an octa-core chipset and 4/6 GB of RAM. This is a mid-range chipset, though, and not as good as those that some similarly priced alternatives have.
Overall, it’s a good mid-range smartphone, but it seems like a bit of a stretch to continue to say it belongs to the same family as the other two P30 smartphones.
12. Huawei Mate Xs – A foldable Huawei Phone
Specs:
- Release date: March 2020
- Weight: 300g
- Dimensions: 161.3 x 78.5 x 11mm (folded) / 161.3 x 146.2 x 5.4mm (unfolded)
- OS: Android 10
- Screen size: 6.6-inch (folded) / 8.0-inch (unfolded)
- CPU: Kirin 990
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 512GB
- Battery: 4,500mAh
- Rear camera: 40MP + 16MP + 8MP + ToF
- Front camera: N/A
Arguably, the Huawei Mate Xs has the best foldable phone concept we’ve seen so far, done by placing the foldable panel on the exterior so that it’s still visible.
This enables the Huawei Mate Xs to function efficiently as both a 6.6-inch smartphone and an 8.0-inch tablet. With a high-end Kirin 990 chipset, 8GB of RAM, a 4,500mAh battery, and a tremendous quad-lens camera, it has the specifications to play both functions.
The only issue that keeps the Huawei Mate Xs back is the same problem most recent Huawei phones have, the lack of Google Mobile Services, rather than its inevitably high price. So, though the hardware is fantastic, there is a downside to the program.