The Huawei P30 Pro is truly the best phone I have ever had by some distance. This is a big call as I have been a committed Apple customer for over 10 years.

I have the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Macbook and Airpods. Seriously, both Tim Cook and Steve Jobs have had free access to my wallet for over a decade. Why? Apple works, and its ecosystem is unmatched. At least it was unmatched until now.

I’ve always said I’m not loyally blind to any company, but I have been with Apple for so long as in my view they have been market leaders.

Four years ago I tried to buy an Android phone + Microsoft Surface Pro and both were an absolute disaster. The phone (HTC) would lag like crazy and apps would crash frequently, and the Surface Pro was worse, I returned it after 2 weeks of use and got my money back.

Both apps crashing and lag are unacceptable for me, especially because it rarely happens on Apple. Why would I downgrade? That flirt away from Apple 4 years ago should have been enough to embed me into Apple for life.

However the truth this, over the past 4 years Apple really has lacked any inspiration or innovation, I was getting bored with them. However there was no viable alternative as far as I was concerned so I stuck with them. Until now.

My first experience with the Huawei P30 Pro

Huawei flew myself and The Brag’s Managing Editor (Poppy Reid) to Uluru a couple of months ago to take photos with the phone prior to its launch. I went to taking advantage of a free trip to Uluru with no intention of giving a shit about anything a Chinese Andriod company had to say, however I left a fan and a convert. They sold me.

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Firstly, the camera is mind blowing, check out Poppy’s story here.

james d morgan field of lights on Huawei phone P30
Shot at low light on the Huawei P30 Pro

Secondly, every bad experience I had with Android phones in the past seemed to be resolved. The phone was fast, super responsive and the apps were a dream to use. I spent 2 days with the device prior to it’s official Australian launch and I couldn’t work out anything the iPhone was better at. The argument “but iPhones just work” no longer applied, this phone did too, and it was doing things the iPhone couldn’t.

Apps overlaying other apps, Google Pay is much better than Apple Pay, the battery life is amazing (I don’t need to do any top up charges in the day) and the way the Gmail Apps work on an Android phones are so much more user friendly and intuitive than the way they work on Apple devices.

Also did I mention the camera? My God, the camera!!!

Can Huawei be trusted? – The elephant in the room

Huawei has gotten a lot of bad press recently as they have been accused of spying on western countries. I’m not going to get too political here but not only has there been no proof of this, there is mountains of proof that the US government has been doing this for years, here’s just one example.

Also, please watch the video below, the Chinese government supporting Huawei is no different to the US Government supporting its banks. The same banks that single handedly caused the GFC in 2008 and killed the global economy, all without consequence.

I’m no fan of any government, however if you think you’re safe and private with Google and Apple, you have your head in the sand.

As it stands, Huawei are not guilty of anything, there is no proof of Trumps accusations and in my view not having Huawei as a competitive handset provider in market will be worse for consumers.

Huawei are raising the bar and have done things with their hardware no one has done before. If we remove competition from the market, the consumers will be worse off.

The future of Huawei

Will Huawei die with this ban? Certainly not.

Also, China hold all the cards here as they control 40% of global rare earth deposits of which the USA is their biggest client. Without rare earth metals you wont have any technology. No phones, no medical equipment, nothing. With one move China could cripple the US tech industry which props up the entire US economy right now.

So two things will happen in my view;

  1. Trump will backflip on his ban and things will go back to the way they were
  2. China will cut the US off from their rare earth metals which will lead to a massive global financial crisis. If this happens, both China and Huawei will be OK – and Huawei will just develop their own operating system to compete with Android and iOS.

At the end of the day, Huawei are too big to fail, and it’s on Trump now to use his brain (if he has one) and get a deal done to keep the Chinese, and Huawei happy in a way that also works for Americans.

The things I miss about Apple

  1. iMessage: I use Whatsapp now instead.
  2. My Apply Watch: I hear Huawei are releasing a very good watch soon, I wait with much anticipation 🙂
  3. Notes: I don’t really miss the ios Notes app, but there is literally no way to import iOS Notes from iPhone to Android easily! This has been the most brutal part of my switch as I have thousands of notes I want to keep. I’m moving them over manually, but it’s taking time.
  4. The Apple Store: Oh how amazing is the security blanket of the Apple Store? I only hope the customer service of Huawei is just as good. Only time will tell.

Should you switch from Apple to Android?

Absolutely. The reality is, especially with Huawei P30 Pro, it’s a much better phone.

Also you will finally free yourself from the Apple ecosystem like I did. The Apple ecosystem is great while you’re in it, but it is very expensive, everything is at premium prices and suddenly I don’t feel the need to pay that premium anyone. Huawei is better and Android has surpassed iOS.

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