Huawei P60 Pro launched in South Africa — Pricing and early buy promos

Huawei has launched its latest flagship smartphone — the P60 Pro — in South Africa.

The first thing users will notice about the P60 Pro is its curved 6.67-inch 1,220 x 2,700 LPTO OLED display with an adaptable refresh rate between 1-120Hz.

This is protected by Huawei’s proprietary Kunlun glass, which the company says has 10× stronger fall protection than the regular glass used for smartphone screens.

The specific P60 Pro that will be on sale in South Africa features a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, 8GB RAM, and 256GB of internal storage.

A rarity on flagship smartphones these days, its storage can be expanded with a nanoSD card.

Two colour options will be available locally — a more conventional Midnight Black and the distinctive Rococo Pearl.

The latter features a Mother of Pearl pattern finish that is unique to each model.

Huawei P60 Pro with Rococo Pearl finish

The P60 Pro’s biggest strength and Huawei’s primary focus with this release is its “Ultra Lighting” rear camera system — a trio of lenses with a massive 48MP main sensor at the centre.

This features a physically-adjustable aperture that can go from f/1.4 to f/4.0, giving users more advanced control over points of focus and background blur.

The 48MP telephoto lens also has the largest aperture on a smartphone zoom lens — f/2.1.

The combination of these two lenses enables the P60 Pro to absorb an impressive amount of light, even when zoomed in.

For taking sharp images while moving, both pack support optical image stabilisation.

Rounding off the rear camera configuration is a 13MP ultra-wide camera with an aperture of f/2.4 and autofocus support.

For selfies, users get a 13MP hole-punch lens with an f/2.4 aperture, support for 4,160×3,120 resolution photos and 4K video recording.

MyBroadband has been testing a Huawei P60 Pro for several weeks.

Our full review of the smartphone found it offered fantastic photography, with accurate colours, sharp details, and impressive quality-retention when zooming in on subjects.

We were also impressed with the excellent runtime of its 4,815mAh battery, which is about 500mAh larger than its predecessor.

It also supports up to 88W fast charging that can take the battery from 0-100% in around 35 minutes, according to our own tests.

We also enjoyed the P60 Pro’s premium design and narrow body design, which “felt” expensive yet pragmatic.

As is the case with all recent Huawei smartphones, buyers should be mindful of the lack of support for Google Mobile Services (GMS) on the P60 Pro.

It is possible to run most Google apps — including Chrome, Google Maps, and YouTube — without issues by using the Gbox virtualisation app.

However, more integrated features — such as Android Auto — won’t work.

South African pricing and availability

The Huawei P60 Pro is now available to order from the Huawei South Africa online store and will start shipping from 30 May 2023/

Its regular price tag will be R24,999, but those who buy the phone before 31 May 2023 will receive a R2,500 discount.

Huawei is also throwing in several gifts — including a Watch GT SE and FreeBuds 3i wireless earbuds with a combined value of R6,198.

Other perks for early buyers include 100 days of free Huawei Care Screen Protect and three months of 200GB Huawei Cloud storage.

Huawei is also launching its newest foldable — the Mate X3 — at a price of R44,999 in South Africa. Early buyers will get a R4,500 discount and the same free gifts mentioned above.

The table below summarises the key specifications of the Huawei P60 Pro.

Huawei P60 Pro

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