Best Huawei phones 2021: find your perfect Huawei

We‘ve picked out the best Huawei phones on the market so you can see quickly what’s ideal for you. There is a catch when it comes to Huawei, though. Since a trade ban from the US government, Huawei phones aren’t so appealing any more. The ban means the latest Huawei phones can’t run Google Mobile Services and don’t have the Google Play Store.

Compared to other Android smartphones, this makes them a tricky sell to those living in Western markets and keen to use Google products. However, that situation might improve soon with the launch of HarmonyOS 2 meaning that Huawei phones could benefit from some useful changes that you just can’t get anywhere else. You still won’t enjoy the benefits of the Google Play Store et al, but it could still offer some other advantages.It’s definitely worth taking note as ever since 2018’s excellent P20 Pro, Huawei has sold more phones in Europe than before thanks to its range of great handsets. The manufacturer has demonstrated that it can hold its own against the likes of Samsung and Apple when it comes to making the best phones in the world. It just needs to figure out its Google related issues.

If you can look past that, our list is full of some great Huawei phones including the Huawei Mate 40 Pro and the Huawei P30 Pro.

We’re also still waiting for the Huawei P50 to make it to Western shores with the phone available in China but not yet in markets like Europe and the USA. Part of Huawei’s new top-end lineup, it should be worth paying attention to with a flat-edge OLED screen, a potent camera and – of course, the new HarmonyOS 2 Android rival.

In the world of Huawei, P30 remains a great handset with an amazing zoom camera, fantastic display, and class-leading battery life. If your budget is tighter, you can even get most of the P30 Pro’s features in the Huawei P30 too. 2018’s Mate 20 Pro is a great option as well, with Huawei’s mid-range phones like the P Smart (2019) also offering slick design in an affordable package. Read on to find out why these are the best Huawei phones.

Best Huawei phones 2021

1. Huawei P30 Pro

SPECIFICATIONS
Release date: March 2019Weight: 192gDimensions: 158 x 73.4 x 8.4mmOS: Android 9Screen size: 6.47-inchCPU: Kirin 980RAM: 8GBStorage: 128/256/512GBBattery: 4,200mAhRear camera: 40MP + 20MP + 8MP + ToF

The Huawei P30 Pro is the best Huawei phone you can buy right now. It’s also one of the best phone we’ve used when it comes to photography, with the cameras being the P30 Pro’s real party piece, providing staggeringly good 5x and 10x zoom, and a digital 50x zoom with gets you insanely close to objects far off in the distance. Its low-light capabilities are also top-notch.

The large 6.47-inch screen on the P30 Pro may ‘only’ have a Full HD+ resolution, but it’s bright, clear and colorful providing an excellent canvas for your apps and games.

There’s no worry when it comes to the P30 Pro potentially running out of juice, the battery life here is excellent. We regularly got to the end of the day with 30% or more left in the tank.

The P30 Pro not only sets a new standard for Huawei, it sets a new standard for the entire mobile industry. Its cameras are quite simply astonishing, the design is eye-catching and the power plentiful. It’s a true flagship smartphone.

2. Huawei Mate 20 Pro

Release date: November 2018Weight: 189gDimensions: 157.8 x 72.3 x 8.6mmOS: Android 9Screen size: 6.39-inchResolution: 1440 x 3120CPU: Kirin 980RAM: 8GBStorage: 256GBBattery: 4200mAhRear camera: 40MP + 20MP + 8MPFront camera: 24MP
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is a brilliant all-round phone, offering up a heady mix of design, power and performance with a few party pieces thrown in too.

It builds on the excellent P20 and P20 Pro offering up even more screen, enhanced triple rear cameras and an in-display fingerprint scanner.

The Mate 20 Pro packs a huge 6.39-inch display giving you a large amount of space for gaming and movies, and its QHD resolution and HDR10 support ensures everything looks great. There is a wide notch at the top of the display though.

It also boasts three cameras on the rear, nabbing the excellent 40MP wide-angle and 8MP telephoto lenses from the P20 Pro – but the third sensor is new. It’s an ultra-wide 16MP snapper allowing you to cram even more of your surroundings into each shot.

The Mate 20 Pro is a full-featured phone for a full-featured price – it even has a few tricks you won’t see elsewhere, and more powerful specs than most of its competitors.

3. Huawei P30

Release date: March 2019Weight: 165gDimensions: 149.1 x 71.4 x 7.6mmOS: Android 9Screen size: 6.1-inchResolution: 1080 x 2340CPU: Kirin 980RAM: 8GBStorage: 64/128/512GBBattery: 3,650mAhRear camera: 40MP + 16MP + 8MPFront camera: 32MP

The Huawei P30 has a smaller screen than the P30 Pro, and makes do with just the three rear cameras and a maximum zoom of 30x, but it’s still one of the best Huawei phones around.

With a 6.1-inch display the P30 is a little easier to manage in the hand than its larger sibling, and with a Full HD+ and plenty of colour it’s a top smartphone screen. You can expect to get excellent battery life from the Huawei P30, with the phone often lasting a day and a half on a single charge without issue.

While the three cameras on the rear aren’t quite as good as the four on the P30 Pro, they still offer up an impressive shooting experience with 5x, 10x and 30x zoom and great low-light abilities.

There’s heaps of power, a handy headphone jack (something the Pro can’t boast) and a more manageable form factor for one-handed use. And of course, it’s a little cheaper too.

4. Huawei Mate 40 Pro

Easily one of the best phones around in terms of hardware, the Huawei Mate 40 Pro suffers for the lack of Google apps and Play Store but if you simply want great photos and a gorgeous screen, this is the one for you.

It moulds into your hand perfectly thanks to its curved design that feels great, and it handles pretty much everything you throw at it enthusiastically. Photography wise, it takes fantastic photos and has an extensive range of tools to enhance them further.

However, with the lack of Google apps support, you will be restricted with what you can download to this phone, and it does feel rather pricey to be so limited.

5. Huawei P40 Pro

Release date: March 2020Weight: 209gDimensions: 158.2 x 72.6 x 9mmOS: Android 10Screen size: 6.58-inchCPU: Kirin 990RAM: 8GBStorage: 128/256/512GBBattery: 4,200mAhRear camera: 50MP + 40MP + 12MP + ToFFront camera: 32MP
The Huawei P40 Pro should be the best handset Huawei has ever made. After all, it’s an upgrade on the Huawei P30 Pro in most ways, with a superb quad-lens camera, phenomenal life from its 4,200mAh battery, and a stylish design, with curved glass on all four front edges.

You also get flagship power from the P40 Pro’s Kirin 990 chipset, plus a great screen with a high 90Hz refresh rate.

So why isn’t this Huawei’s best phone? Because like other recent Huawei handsets it lacks Google Mobile Services, meaning no Google apps (such as Maps) and more importantly no access to the Google Play Store. So you have to get your apps elsewhere, and the selection is more restrictive.

As such, the Huawei P40 Pro finds itself in the awkward position of being a lesser handset than its predecessor. But the hardware is great, so if you can live without Google on your phone then it’s still well worth considering.