Huawei P60 Pro in the test: Android smartphone without Google, but with a top camera

Despite sanctions, Huawei never tires of launching new smartphones. The latest top model from the Chinese is the Huawei P60 Pro. In addition to strong hardware, the focus here is primarily on the camera. With the Huawei Mate 50 Pro (test report), the smartphone manufacturer presented a device with a variable aperture on the main camera last year. This function can now also be found in the Huawei P60 Pro. In addition, the manufacturer promises high-quality photos in all lighting conditions – especially in the dark.

This test shows how well the flagship from China performs and whether the camera can convince us. We show other high-quality smartphones in the top 10: The best smartphones 2023.

With an elegant and slim design, the Huawei P60 Pro makes an excellent impression right out of the box. The display is slightly curved on all sides, as is the glass back. The P60 Pro nestles comfortably in the hand. The smartphone is a bit too large for one-handed use (dimensions: 161 × 74.5 × 8.3 mm, weight: 200 g).

We really like the design of the glass back. Our test device is the black model. This offers a surface with a rough look on the back, reminiscent of sandstone. This increases the grip, fingerprints are not visible on it. There is also a white variant with a marble look (Rococo Pearl). Each mobile phone has a unique grain.

The main theme of the Huawei P60 Pro is the camera – which is also reflected in the design. The matt black is reminiscent of a classic system camera. The three lenses on the back are also arranged in a protruding element, reminiscent of a photo camera. The main lens is particularly large and placed in the middle. It symbolizes the lens on a real camera. To the left and right of that are the smaller telephoto and wide-angle lenses.

The workmanship is impeccable and of high quality. There are no gaps, all keys have a firm pressure point. Only the attached screen protector looks a bit out of place when you run your fingers over the front of the device. After a few days in the sun, smaller blisters could be seen underneath. If this wears off too much, you can remove it and replace it with another protective film if necessary.

A silicone protective cover is included. We recommend using them because the device doesn’t seem that durable, even though the screen is protected by the latest variant of Kunlun Glass – the Chinese answer to Gorilla Glass. This should also protect the display from breakage. But we didn’t have the heart to drop the chic smartphone on the floor. As befits a flagship, the P60 Pro has an IP68 certification and is therefore adequately protected from fresh water to a depth of one meter.

Really first-class – though hardly surprising – is the OLED display with a diagonal of 6.67 inches. The resolution of up to 2700 × 1220 pixels ensures a crisp image with 444 ppi (pixels per inch), which offers a uniform image from almost all angles. Colors and contrasts are very pronounced and deliver top image quality. The refresh rate automatically varies between 1 and 120 Hertz as required. The panel is also brilliantly bright, and we were able to read the screen well even in sunshine. According to our measurements, we got just under 1000 cd/m² – which is a strong value. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra shines even brighter (test report).

The pride of the makers behind the Huawei P60 Pro is again the camera. Huawei has been making a good name for itself here for many years. According to DXOMARK, the Huawei P60 Pro is even the current leader in smartphone cameras. We find it difficult to make a final assessment in comparison to the competition because we didn’t have the devices ready at the same time under the exact lighting conditions.

The main lens with 48 megapixels and optical image stabilizer offers a variable aperture in ten steps from f/1.4 to f/4.0. In Pro mode, photographers can select this manually, otherwise the software takes care of it automatically. By default, the lens combines four pixels into one larger one. This ensures more details in difficult lighting conditions. If necessary, you can also call up the full 48 megapixels manually. The periscope telephoto lens also offers 48 megapixels, which is also used in macro mode instead of the wide-angle lens like many other manufacturers. A wide-angle lens with 13 megapixels is used as the third lens. A lens with 13 megapixels is also used for selfies.

The camera is excellent. During the day, you can take razor-sharp shots with a strong dynamic range and rich image details. The same applies to images from the telephoto lens, which show no weaknesses at 3.5x magnification and still look great at 10x hybrid zoom. Wide-angle shots blend in seamlessly and are convincing. The telephoto lens plays a special role in the P60 Pro. She is also responsible for macro photography. This allows detailed photos from a very close perspective without having to get very close to an object. In most cases this works well, sometimes the focus does not always set itself as desired right away.

The Huawei P60 Pro takes good pictures even in the dark. In our experience, however, the results are not perfect. Night mode brightens up shots effectively, but results in visible image noise when the ambient light is low. If you use the wide-angle lens or the telephoto lens, you can only expect moderately sharp images.

Selfies, on the other hand, convince with sharp and colorful shots that allow different wide angles. Videos are possible with the main camera in 4K with 60 fps (frames per second) and look very stable and sharp. With the front camera, 4K with 30 fps is possible, 60 fps are only possible with Full HD.

At the latest when you take a look under the hood of the P60 Pro, you will notice the consequences of the US sanctions against the company. An adapted variant of the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 is used as the CPU – but without 5G. This network technology is not available due to the Huawei ban, nor is the latest generation of Qualcomm chips.

This is not particularly noticeable in everyday use. But with the price of the device, there is still a negative feeling of not getting the latest technology. The software is even more drastic, but more on that later. The processor is damn fast, which makes the Huawei P60 Pro a full-fledged gaming smartphone. This is shown by 11000 points in PCmark and 2800 points in 3Dmark’s “Wild Life Extreme”. Only the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is faster here – but the differences should still show up in the benchmarks. The P60 Pro is a device that neither hesitates nor jerks.

8 GB RAM and an internal memory with 256 GB are used as main memory, there is also a version with 12/512 GB. An expansion to an additional 256 GB is possible, but only with your own standard NM card – microSD is not possible here. The round equipment is completed by a fast fingerprint sensor in the display, USB-C 3.1, Wifi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, an infrared port for Huawei televisions, for example. There is even a barometer on board. The cell phone uses A-GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS and Navic for localization. The phone quality is impeccable, and the stereo speakers also offer a decent sound.

In Europe, the Huawei P60 Pro does not run with Harmony OS, but with a heavily customized version of Android with the in-house user interface EMUI. At the time of testing, the patch was from March, and an update should follow as soon as possible.

The Achilles heel are still the missing Google services. There are no apps from US companies like Netflix, YouTube or Facebook in the Huawei App Gallery. The same applies to many banking apps from Germany. However, the Petal search trawls the web for alternative download sources for APK files. Here you have to decide for yourself whether you consider this to be trustworthy and want to allow an installation.

Huawei is working tirelessly to expand the App Gallery offering or offer its own services like Petal Maps. For example, Tinder is also available for Huawei and buyers of the smartphone even get a free premium subscription for 6 months (how fitting that selfies look good). In the end, however, it will often happen that a popular service does not find its way to the cell phone or only via detours. Anyone who avoids Google services anyway will not be bothered by this. But compared to Android or iOS, users are faced with a few obstacles.

The battery life is really good. This is where the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 makes itself felt. Despite the slim case, Huawei packs a battery with 4815 mAh into the P60 Pro. We achieve values ​​of around 13.5 hours in the PCmark battery test. This is great and can be done with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (test report).

The mobile phone is charged with 88 watts. That’s a lot compared to Apple, Google or Samsung, but little when you think of Motorola, Xiaomi or Honor. The Xiaomi 13 Pro (test report) charges with a brute 120 watts in less than 30 minutes. However, the Huawei P60 Pro only needs slightly longer, from 20 to 100 percent it takes almost 35 minutes. The 50 watts of wireless charging that the device can handle are really strong.

Huawei emphasizes that great products need a reasonable price. 1200 euros for a smartphone that is not allowed to use cutting-edge technology in all areas due to sanctions and has to do without Google is a lot of money. You have to be a fanboy here. For the variant with 512 GB, another 200 euros are added. The P60 Pro is available in black and white (Rococo Pearl) with a marble effect.

Without a doubt, the Huawei P60 Pro is a great smartphone with an excellent camera. However, you have to be a big fan or really dislike Google to get the P60 Pro. Due to the sanctions, buyers have to make some compromises – Google services, many US apps and 4G instead of 5G or Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 instead of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. All of this for a steep price of at least 1200 euros. We would have expected more from the excellent camera to make up for the other disadvantages.