We've been in Munich covering the launch of Huawei's latest flagship smartphone, the Huawei P60 Pro, and it has debuted with a most prestigious accolade.
DxOMark—the benchmarking brand that covers smartphones, cameras, and lenses—has awarded the P60 Pro the highest score yet, and has placed it as the number one smartphone on the market right now.
We've been lucky enough to text the smartphone out ahead of release; here's why the P60 Pro has scored so highly in DxOMark's testing...
What Is the Huawei P60 All About?
The Huawei P60 is the latest in the brand's line of flagship smartphones. The P in the nomenclature stands for "photography" and it brings with it a range of new photography features that take smartphone snapping to the next level.
Huawei's handsets have long been leading the charge in terms of hardware features, and the P60 is no exception, marrying stunning design aesthetics with powerful hardware and excellent camera functionality.
The handset is available for pre-order in the UK and Europe now, with handsets entering selected stores on May 22nd. It will retail at £1199/€1199 (8GB/256GB) and £1299/€1299 (12GB/512GB).
Let's look at some features that stand out about this smartphone.
Beauty in Design
You can tell just by looking at the P60 Pro that the Huawei design team has been busy concocting something that looks truly stunning, in both colorways.
The handset is available in feather-sand Black. This is a new design approach by Huawei that sees that back of the black handset sporting anti-fingerprint glass. Anyone who has owned a black, high-luster smartphone will know they collect fingerprints faster than Sherlock Holmes, so this is music to our ears.
It also comes in the stunning Rococo Pearl colorway; this writer's particular favorite. The excellent thing about this design decision is, due to the manufacturing process, every handset is completely unique, meaning nobody who buys the Rococo Pearl version will have the same handset as the next person who does.
Sensor Superiority
The P60 Pro is ALL about the camera, and Huawei has outdone itself here with the camera capabilities. We tested the device during the Munich launch and we were incredibly impressed with the results, particularly in low light, but in general, the camera is excellent. You don't receive a DxOMark score of 156 for nothing, you know.
We've included some image samples above so you can see just how good this camera array is. Incorporated into the "Eye of Light" sensor array, we have a 48MP main sensor with F1.4-F4.0 physical aperture, a 13MP ultra-wide angle lens, and a 48MP telephoto sensor. The camera supports images sizes up to 8000x6000 pixels, and the image resolution is fantastic.
As mentioned, the low light imaging is excellent, returning fantastic results even when the surroundings are cloaked in pitch black. Another point of note is the excellent super-macro mode, which is capable of capturing some outstanding shots at close quarters. It also features a Super Moon mode, which captures the moon better than Samsung ever could('nt).
In general, the P60 Pro offers one of the best smartphone camera experiences this writer has ever had the fortune to enjoy, and that is a bold claim to make.
Taking Charge
The P60 Pro supports an incredibly rapid 88W Supercharge, allowing it to charge from empty to 50% in just ten minutes, Having tested the charging we can confirm this is true to Huawei's word, so you can boost your smartphone with some juice in the same time it takes to make a (proper) cup of tea and gulp it down.
The handset also supports 50W wireless charging, which is great too. For those who don't like the fuss of attaching their phone to a cable to charge, you should be able to reach a full charge, wirelessly, in 45 minutes to an hour.
Water off a Duck's Back
Those of you who have read this writer's articles before will know he's a stickler for an IP rating. Fortunately for Huawei, the P60 Pro comes with a most impressive IP68 rating, meaning it is resistant to dust and, most importantly, can withstand water at a depth of 1.5m, for 30 minutes.
So, if you're the kind of person who is constantly dropping your smartphone in puddles/the bath/the kitchen sink, then it'll please you to know that your phone can withstand your aquatic clumsiness.
Drop it Like it's Hot
Speaking of dropping your phone, the P60 Pro also comes with Huawei's new Kunlun Glass fascia. The quad-curved display is protected by Huawei's proprietary new glass panel, which is able to achieve drop resistance up to ten times more efficiently than a smartphone with a standard glass screen.
Let's face it, if you're the type of person to drop your phone in water all the time, then you're likely to be dropping it on hard surfaces to, so the new Kunlun glass panel will give you peace of mind that your phone screen is less likely to shatter into a billion pieces next time you launch it at the nearest gravel surface at terminal velocity.
Delightful Display
The P60 Pro's display is a real feast for the eyes. Having sated our eyeballs' thirst for stunning color representation, we can safely say that the P60 Pro offers users a faultless experience in terms of that sizeable 6.67-inch display.
Capable of displaying the full 1.07 billion color gamut, the LTPO OLED screen is as sumptuous as it sounds. It has an adaptive 1-120Hz dynamic refresh rate, 1440 Hz high frequency PWM dimming to protect your sensitive eyeballs, and supports a 300 Hz touch sampling rate. In all, an impressive display.
The P60 Pro: A Triumph for Huawei
Huawei's penchant for producing outstanding hardware is something we all know and love about the brand, and it is great to see that this passion for design and hardware excellence is still present as the brand launches the new P60 Pro, and we can't wait to use it more and discover what else it is capable of.
With an outstanding camera array capable of taking incredible shots, a big battery that charges incredibly fast, and resistance to dust, water, and impact, the P60 Pro is a genuine contender for a place in your palm as your daily driver, and it is because of the excellent camera system and Kunlun Glass panel that we feel this phone truly deserves our innovation award.