Honor launches V30 Pro powered by the Kirin 990 5G, regular V30 also gains 5G support

Honor has launched its latest high-end smartphones targeted at the younger segment of the market. The new Honor V30 and V30 Pro don’t disappoint on the specs or pricing front combining two of the brands biggest attractions – style and value for money. On the surface, both devices look effectively identical, however you only need to scratch beneath the surface to discern the notable differences.

Both the Honor V30 and V30 Pro are powered by Kirin 990 chipsets, however, they are as different as they are similar. The Kirin 990 chipset powering the regular V30 is clocked a little lower and is fabricated on a standard 7nm FinFET node and is mated to a discrete Balong 5000 5G modem. The Kirin 990 chipset powering the V30 Pro is fabricated on the newer, and slightly more exotic, 7nm FinFET + EUV process and features an integrated 5G modem all of which should improve its efficiency.

The other key area where the Honor V30 and V30 Pro differs is, as you might expect, in the area of their respective camera specifications. Although both the V30 and V30 Pro sport the same 40 MP Sony IMX600 sensor with dual OIS and laser AF, the V30 Pro is fitted with a fast F/1.6 lens instead of the F/1.8 lens found on the V30. Both also sport an identical 8 MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and F/2.4 lens with OIS. Where they differ more noticeably is in their respective ultrawide sensor and lens set up. The V30 Pro picks up a 12 MP sensor with special 16:9 aspect ratio for shooting video – the V30 makes do with an 8 MP sensor with F/2.4 lens.

Both the Honor V30 and V30 Pro run Magic UI 3.0.1 layered over a non-Google certified version of Android 10.  Both models come in orange, white, blue and black colors with the V30 starting from around US$470 in a 6/128 GB configuration while the V30 Pro starts from around US$555 in an 8/128 GB configuration. Pre-orders in China start on December 5 while they will ship from December 12.