Honor V30 Pro review

Design and ergonomics

Build quality has never been an issue with Honor's flagship phones and the V30 Pro makes no exception to the rule. The handset feels like a pretty solid piece in the hand - maybe a bit on the hefty side with 8.8 mm thickness and tipping the scale at 206 grams. But some will definitely appreciate the solid feel to the device. And the weight feels evenly distributed too.

Anyway, the usual glass sandwich design is at hand here. The back glass is either glossy or matte depending on which color you go for. The blue Ocean Blue color that we got has a frosted glass finish, which feels nice but it's slippery as hell. Fingerprints are barely visible, though, we give them that. Otherwise, the rounded edges help with the overall handling and seamlessly transition to the metal side frame.

As you'd expect, the protruding camera module makes the whole phone wobble when placed on a flat surface and it does feel a bit chunky. We are unsure why Honor went along with this particular design solution since the module houses just three cameras and the second column with the LED flash and the inscription feels redundant.

We can't really say the same for the front glass panel, though. It feels like it's been slapped on top of the chassis and you can feel the edge protruding just a little. A subtle curvature would have dgone a great deal. On the other hand, the bezels are pretty thin while the bottom chin has been slimmed down quite a bit compared to its predecessor. The top bezel is so small that it barely fits the earpiece.

And following last year's design language, the V30 Pro incorporates not one but two front-facing cameras housed inside a punch-hole. It definitely takes away a good chunk of the screen real estate and whether the notch or a punch hole is better, it's a matter of personal preference. We do still think that the upper-left corner is the right place for the punch-hole because it rarely gets in the way when watching videos or playing games.

As we start to examine the sides it’s hard to miss the hole on the top next to the noise-canceling microphone. Yes, that’s an IR blaster - a rare commodity these days. That can definitely come in handy. The bottom side lacks the 3.5mm jack but makes room for the SIM card tray and the USB-C connector.

The left side stays clean while the right accommodates the volume rocker and the power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader - just like the Honor 20 Pro. It's just the right height and the recess in the frame guides your finger right to the button. Ideal positioning right there.

Aside from the unnecessarily big camera bump and the slippery nature of the frosted back glass, the Honor 20 Pro is a well-built device with little left to be desired. It's a big device, there's no doubt in that and it's pretty heavy too but some will like the solid feel to the chassis. And even though the overall design lacks originality, there's something that hints that this is an Honor-made device. And this is important.

Unfortunately for some, Honor decided to make the Pro and the non-Pro versions of the V30 the same size so you either learn to like the big and probably unwieldy phone or you’d have to look for compactness elsewhere.