Huawei P60 Pro review – a tragedy in 5 acts
The mother-of-pearl back of Huawei’s P60 Pro immediately catches the eye. And with an optical image stabiliser and zoom, it does much more than just look good. However, the phone comes with too many limitations and funky features.
Huawei has been banned from using Google’s services and 5G network in Europe for almost four years. Nevertheless, the Chinese manufacturer refuses to give up and has launched the P60 Pro. The camera with its physical aperture is great, but I struggle without my favourite apps; there are few decent alternatives. A tragedy in 5 acts.
Act 1 – exposition: a unique design
I’m testing the Huawei P60 Pro in the «Rococo Pearl» colour. With a mineral bead powder design on the back, each model is unique. I like how the pattern changes with different angles of light. The matte finish also feels pleasant to hold. The phone also comes in a classic black with a crystalline surface that protects against fingerprints.
Source: Michelle Brändle
The phone feels familiar right from the start. After all, my Oppo Find X5 has similarities in design, size and feel. A decent start.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Source: Michelle Brändle
Act 2 – rising action: a Snapdragon without 5G
A complication emerges. The phone comes with Qualcomm’s flagship processor Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 – but only the 4G variant. Huawei isn’t allowed to use 5G in Europe.
I usually test how well a processor performs with Geekbench 6. The current version of the app isn’t available in Huawei’s App Store – more on that later. However, the older Geekbench 5 is a sufficient point of reference for the device’s performance.
The P60 Pro achieves 1,300 points in the single core and 4,105 points in the multi-core test. In comparison, smartphones with the same processor perform slightly worse. The table below lists the OnePlus 10 Pro and the Sony Xperia 1 IV.
The P60 Pro has a 4,815 mAh battery that charges in 45 minutes with the included 66-watt power adapter. During normal use, it lasts up to 20 hours. That’s excellent. Most flagship smartphones barely make it through the day. The phone also supports wireless charging up to 50 watts.
The P60 Pro weighs 200 grammes and fits well in my rather small hand at 8.3 millimetres in thickness. It’s water- and dustproof to the IP68 standard. According to Huawei, you can immerse the phone in up to two metres of water for 30 minutes without permanent damage. The display is protected by shatterproof Kunlun glass. This was awarded the first five-star certification for glass impact resistance by the Swiss goods testing group SGS.
Source: Michelle Brändle
The P60 Pro has a 6.67-inch OLED display. It creates a sharp image, with strong colour reproduction and blacks that are actually rendered black. You can lower the resolution from a maximum of 2,700 × 1,220 pixels to 1,890 × 854. The pixel density is thus 444 or 310 pixels per inch. The refresh rate is up to 120 hertz and adapts to your usage. You can set it to 60 hertz manually.
Source: Michelle Brändle
The smartphone has a «3D Weather Always On Display». You can pen in this power hog with another setting. Namely, you can keep the screen off and only briefly display the weather and time when you tap it. This requires less power while maintaining the desired result. You can customise the Always On Display in many ways. However, you have to download the weather lock screen first.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Act 3 – climax: a convincing camera zoom
The Huawei P60 Pro’s biggest strength is its camera. The 48-megapixel main camera with its physically adjustable aperture (f/1.4-F/4.0) is large and pronounced in the centre of the module. The telephoto camera (f/2.1) above it has 48 megapixels with 3.5x optical zoom, while the ultra-wide-angle camera (f/2.2) has 13 megapixels. Same goes for the front-facing camera.
Source: Michelle Brändle
The focal lengths are 13, 24.5 and 90 millimetres. Due to pixel binning, which offers better light sensitivity, a photo from the main camera has twelve megapixels by default. If you want the complete 48 megapixels, you need to activate an additional setting.
In tests, the main camera in particular takes good photos. What bothers me about this and many other smartphone cameras is the over-sharpening of images. They seem surreal and chaotic. On a smartphone screen, the pictures are nice to look at, on a computer they’re too detailed.
Source: Michelle Brändle
At dusk, the camera is still very strong; night mode is superfluous. It doesn’t make the image any brighter.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Source: Michelle Brändle
The physical aperture does a great job. Objects and people can be beautifully staged with it. In comparison, the digital aperture offers more bokeh, but is sometimes too strong a result.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Source: Michelle Brändle
The wide-angle lens comes off weaker than the main camera, which is mainly noticeable on a computer. The subject is heavily distorted, and the camera app doesn’t offer distortion correction. Apart from that, the image quality is on par with the main camera.
Source: Michelle Brändle
The zoom convinces me. Its 3.5x optical magnification is superb. I can use it to clearly capture distant cows in a pasture. In terms of quality, I notice strong losses at 10x zoom: structures are flattened. The additional digital zoom up to 100x is useless in terms of quality. In addition, it’s difficult to apply in practice. The zoom magnifies so much that I can no longer find the desired subject with my smartphone. No subject, no picture.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Source: Michelle Brändle
Source: Michelle Brändle
Source: Michelle Brändle
The front camera delivers good quality pictures. However, the digital bokeh cuts off my hair unnaturally when I take a selfie. I recommend you turn it off – it looks better. However, it comes with exaggerated sharpness and strong greens.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Source: Michelle Brändle
Another strength is Macro and Super Macro, a setting for close-up images. My little slime keycap from Dragon Quest looks wonderfully creepy with Super Macro.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Source: Michelle Brändle
There are different settings for videos, from 720p at 30 fps up to 4K and 60 fps. I mainly recommend the latter. You can capture some beautiful videos this way. While they look choppy on a computer, they run smoothly on a smartphone. The over-sharpening is also noticeable in moving images.
Act 4 – falling action: Huawei replaces Google with EMUI
The apps and software on the P60 Pro are particularly exciting. Huawei has to rely on its own app store and the EMUI 13 operating system, based on an open-source version of Android, due to the US boycott.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Unfortunately, I can’t find more than half of my most used apps. A brief overview of what I often use and what I can actually find:
In the Huawei App Store:
- Telegram
- Coop
- Just Eat Switzerland
- Netflix
- Spotify
- UBS E-Banking
- Instagram (third-party app only)
Not in the Huawei app store:
- Migros
- various banking apps (cantonal banks and Raiffeisen Switzerland)
- SBB
- YouTube
In short, I can’t get through everyday life with it. Also, manually installing Google services and the Play Store is feasible but complicated, as Huawei lacks any permissions from Google.
Then there are the Huawei apps. The web browser doesn’t always work reliably. Pure web searches show me error messages, mixed searches are decent enough. If I’m looking for a cake recipe, I have to be specific so I don’t get weird results. Fortunately, Huawei also has Microsoft’s Bing, which works better.
Source: Michelle Brändle
I’m also limited when it comes to books and movies in my own store. Favourite authors like Sebastian Fitzek or Juli Zeh are missing, in terms of videos I can only find a few live shows and children’s series. YouTube goes through the web browser. The available books are legible enough on the display.
Source: Michelle Brändle
At least, with Petal Maps, the alternative to Google Maps, I can’t find any restrictions so far. The selection of music seems large as well. In general, however, I can never be sure if I’ll really find an app and which of the existing ones will work.
Games are plentiful – and run great. Even performance-hungry games like the Genshin Impact alternative Kung Fu Saga and various racers load quickly and can be played smoothly. The eight gigabytes of RAM are plenty. Otherwise, the Huawei P60 Pro closes apps in the background by itself.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Act 5 – dénouement: Huawei’s downfall in Europe
The Huawei P60 Pro leaves me with questions. I’m never sure which apps work on the smartphone and how well. If you’re tech savvy, like to tinker or can find all your apps, you might consider the smartphone. Because the hardware is strong. The display, processor and battery are on the highest level. The camera takes great pictures if you like detail. The lovely 3.5x optical zoom and physical aperture are gimmicks you won’t find in many other smartphones.
I’m missing Google services and 5G. Same goes for some apps that I use regularly. They’re nowhere to be found. Huawei’s hardware is great, but the software either has limitations or doesn’t work cleanly. At just under 1,200 francs or euros, it’s just too pricey all things considered. For everyday use, especially in Switzerland with SBB and mobile banking, I can’t recommend this smartphone.
There are currently far better alternatives with a good camera and reliable hardware and software in this price segment. My personal recommendation right now is the slightly older, but much cheaper Oppo Find X5 Pro. With Hasselblad as a software partner, I think the photo results are quality. You can also find the editors’ current favourites in our overview.
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In my world, Super Mario chases Stormtroopers with a unicorn and Harley Quinn mixes cocktails for Eddie and Peter at the beach bar. Wherever I can live out my creativity, my fingers tingle. Or maybe it's because nothing flows through my veins but chocolate, glitter and coffee.
