Two of the best flagship phones have finally been revealed. The iPhone 11 Pro Max is already officially out in most countries and the Huawei Mate30 series will soon be available this October. Today, with these two feature powerhouses of smartphones together. We take a look at what they offer on the table, and share our thoughts before you make your big ticket purchase.
For what it’s worth, we don’t recommend buying an iPhone 11 Pro Max in a reseller if you’re based in the Philippines. While Apple’s warranty is international, it is always worth checking the serial and visit this site to see the coverage of warranty of the phone being sold. Alternatively, you can wait for telcos like Smart in the Philippines to start selling it or simply buy in Apple Japan where the series is sold much cheaper than US, Taiwan, Germany and Singapore.
Anyway, if you take a look at the table we prepared below, we see a very good match between the 2 flagship devices. Obviously, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is more expensive by PhP2,000 if we are going to use Apple Japan price (PhP65,000) vs Huawei Mate30 Pro’s European price (PhP63,000). These prices, however, shouldn’t be considered as is because we still have to consider shipping and taxes.
Each has its own merit, but there are particular factors, which can affect your interest and decision to buy one over the other.
PRODUCT NAME | Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max | Huawei Mate 30 Pro |
Material | Glass | Glass |
Display | 6.5 in. Super Retina XDR OLED capacitive, 1242 x 2688 | 6.53 in. FLEX Horizon OLED Display 2400 x 1176 |
34.5mm Notch | 26.6mm Notch | |
Chipset | Apple A13 Bionic (7 nm+) | HiSilicon Kirin 990 (7 nm+) |
GPU | Apple GPU | Mali-G76 MP16 |
RAM | 4GB | 8GB |
ROM | 256GB | 256GB |
Front camera | 12MP, f/2.2 + 1x Depth Sensor | 32MP, 2x Depth Sensor |
Rear camera | 12MP, f/1.8 wide | 40MP, f/1.6 wide |
12MP, f/2.0 telephoto | 8MP, f/2.4 telephoto | |
12MP, f/2.4 ultrawide | 40MP, f/1.8 ultrawide | |
3D TOF Camera | ||
Fingerprint | None | Under Display |
Face ID/Unlock | Yes | Yes |
Battery | 3969mAh | 4500mAh |
Charge | Fast battery charging 18W | Fast battery charging 40W |
Wireless charging capable | Fast wireless charging 27W | |
OS | iOS 13 | Android 10; EMUI 10 |
- If you’re going to nitpick on design, Huawei Mate30 Pro wins in such category. The new iPhone, except for the camera’s design, looks very identical to the iPhone XS Max. Huawei Mate30 Pro’s Flexible Horizon OLED Display kills the competition because the features it brings to the table: zero side bezels with palm rejection, narrow forehead and chin, smaller notch, to name a few.
- It is unfair to compare both smartphones in terms of performance as I still don’t have my iPhone 11 Pro Max with me. What I can only do is provide you the published Antutu rating of the latter based on this site, and my own Antutu rating of Huawei Mate30 Pro.
PRODUCT NAME Apple A13 Bionic (7 nm+) HiSilicon Kirin 990 (7 nm+) Antutu Bechmark 462,098 469,031 It’s a very close match, but Kirin 990 wins in this category. The same goes with GPU performance as Kirin 990 on Mate30 Pro has faster clock rate and more cores to begin with.
- Huawei slays the competition – at least based on specs – when we talk about RAM and Storage. It has bigger RAM and the expandability is possible on Huawei Mate30 Pro, albeit fixed on using Huawei NM cards. The only think left to discuss, which I think should be covered on our in-depth review of both products, is actual performance. This is where the synergy between hardware and software come into play.
- Camera-wise, there is no doubt that Huawei is better in various grounds. Whether it’s about mobile photography or mobile videography, Huawei Mate30 Pro offers more in the table.
What’s interesting is how he features are presented and rolled out in each item. Apple’s genius marketing and engineering seem to make the experience smoother on their devices. I currently own an iPhone XS Max with iOS 13, and by my standards, I still find the implementation of its camera features much easier to use. I got the chance to try the iPhone 11 Pro Max too at one of the Apple Stores in Germany, and the experience was almost identical with iPhone XS Max.
- The lack of fingerprint sensor on iPhone 11 Pro Max is quite unfortunate. However, they ditched the idea of using fingerprint sensors because they find FaceID as a more secured biometric feature. Apple heavily invested on this technology, and they have perfected it over time.
- While Mate30 Pro has bigger battery capacity, it performed differently in real life usage. With 4G+, GPS and bluetooth enabled all day and display brightness is set at 50%, the phone managed to stay up for 10 hours with 20% remaining battery juice. I used it as my main driver thus I find its battery performance quite impressive. Here’s a bit of clincher though – my iPhone XS Max, which has lower battery capacity, can manage to do the same thing.
- While Huawei Mate30 Pro shines in most categories, there is one particular issue that makes consumers a bit wary of getting one: software. As you may be aware, Huawei’s new flagship does not ship Huawei Mate30 series with GMS or Google Mobile Services. There is a quick way to remedy this issue, and we made a guide how to do it. However, the fact that there is another post purchase step to do to fully enjoy the smartphone, it kind of lessens the confidence level of consumers over Huawei’s products.
What do you guys think? Share your thoughts in the comments section. Let’s discuss!
Gianfranco is the co-founder of gadgetpilipinas.net. He graduated from Far Eastern University. A Psychology student turned tech-savvy. He's currently the HR Supervisor of Blip Media and one of the content producers of Gadget Pilipinas. He enjoys playing competitive video games and binge-watch American TV series.