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Huawei CEO, Yu Chendong, has seemingly confirmed that the upcoming P30 Pro flagship will be equipped with four rear-facing cameras, one of which could be a periscope-style unit. The CEO shared a zoomed-in photo of the Moon on the Chinese social network Weibo to commemorate this year’s Lantern Festival which took place on February 19, and it appears that the photo was captured with the upcoming Huawei P30 Pro.
Specifically, the photo includes a partially-blurred watermark in the lower-left corner. “Partially” is the keyword here because judging by the spacing and the letters that have been left out, the unaltered watermark would most likely read “Huawei P30 Pro Leica Quad Camera.” One would assume this partial blurring was intentional judging by the way the job’s been done, meaning that the photo is more of a teaser meant to keep the fires burning until the flagship will be officially introduced or the next leak or teaser emerges.
This isn’t the first time the idea that the Huawei P30 Pro will have four main cameras reached the public. Earlier this month a render depicting the smartphone’s alleged back panel leaked, strongly suggested that the upcoming flagship will have an additional sensor compared to last year’s model.
According to previous rumors, the Huawei P30 Pro will be equipped with Sony’s IMX607 sensor boasting a resolution of 38-megapixels. In turn, the main sensor will be accompanied by a periscope-style camera providing lossless optical zoom, and given how close-up the Moon is in the recent teaser image the inclusion of a periscope module seems very likely.
Periscope-style cameras have been previously used by OPPO and the same OEM is also expected to showcase a periscope module capable of 10x lossless zoom at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.
The technology was developed in conjunction with Israeli mobile camera pioneer Corephotonics which was acquired by Samsung earlier this year for the sum of $155 million. Assuming that the Huawei P30 Pro will have a periscope-style camera then it remains to be seen whether it will rely on technologies from Corephotonics or a new module developed in-house or with Leica’s expertise.
Previous rumors indicate that the third rear-facing sensor employed by the Huawei P30 Pro will have a wide-angle lens, while the fourth module will be a ToF (Time-of-Flight) sensor capable of scanning 3D objects from its surroundings in real time. ToF sensors have Augmented Reality applications and are expected to be used by more flagship smartphones this year.
The Huawei P30 Pro doesn’t seem to be planned for unveiling at MWC 2019 in Barcelona. Instead, it has been officially confirmed to be showcased at a press conference scheduled to take place in Paris on March 26. The device is expected to be accompanied by the standard Huawei P30 rumored to feature three main cameras instead of four.
Both smartphones should conceal the Kirin 980 chipset developed in-house by the Huawei’s semiconductor arm HiSilicon. The Kirin 980 was the world’s first mobile SoC based on 7nm FinFET technology to be announced by a smartphone manufacturer, and presently it powers some the OEM‘s devices including the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro.
