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Amazon.com is checking out of China’s fiercely competitive domestic e-commerce market.

The company told sellers on Thursday that it will no longer operate its third-party online marketplace or provide seller services on its Chinese website, Amazon.cn, beginning July 18. As a result, domestic companies will no longer be able to sell products to Chinese consumers on its e-commerce platform.

The decision marks an end to a long struggle by America’s e-commerce giants in the Chinese market. The firms entered the Chinese market with great fanfare in the early 2000s only to wither in the face of competition from China’s faster-moving internet titans.

Amazon has been in talks to merge its e-commerce business for goods imported into China with a Chinese competitor, NetEase Inc.’s Kaola, in a stock-for-stock transaction, according to a person familiar with the matter. That would remove the Amazon name from consumer-facing e-commerce in China. Neither company would confirm the progress or details of those talks, nor would they say if they are ongoing.

In a statement, Amazon said it remains committed to China through its global stores, Kindle businesses and its web services.

Amazon China’s president will leave to take on another role within the company, the company confirmed. The China consumer business team will report directly into the company’s global team.

NetEase chief financial officer Zhaoxuan Yang said in a call with analysts in February that the company is “open-minded to embrace stakeholders, strategic partners [and] business partners that can bring synergy and win-win to our e-commerce segment.”

When Amazon first entered China in 2004 with the purchase of Joyo.com, it was the largest online vendor for books, music and video there. Most Chinese consumers were using cash-on-delivery as their top form of payment. Today, Amazon China chiefly caters to customers looking for imported international goods like cosmetics and milk powder and is a minuscule player in the booming Chinese e-commerce market.

Amazon China commanded just 6 per cent of gross merchandise volume in the niche cross-border e-commerce market in the fourth quarter of 2018, versus NetEase Kaola’s 25 per cent share and the 32 per cent held by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Tmall International, according to Nomura Securities Co.

“Everyone has merged with someone,” said Chris Reitermann, chief executive for Asia and Greater China at Ogilvy, which advises Alibaba. “It became clear that as a Western internet company you wouldn’t be able to succeed at scale without a Chinese partner.”

For Nasdaq-listed NetEase, which has a market capitalisation of $35 billion, the Amazon matchup is a way to expand beyond its lucrative video game business. It is also a play to gain more trust from Chinese consumers who have complained about knock-off products on NetEase platforms, according to industry analysts.

In January, a customer accused Kaola of selling her a fake Canada Goose jacket and the incident went viral. Customers questioned whether the e-commerce firm could sufficiently maintain oversight of its platform, according to Azoya Group, which advises global retailers and brands who are setting up e-commerce businesses in China. Kaola pledged to investigate the matter.

Nomura believes that an Amazon tie-up, if it materialises, could help Kaola win the confidence of leading global brands. And that could lead to an increased supply of goods offered to Chinese consumers.

And those consumers are becoming more enamoured with domestic brands. In 2011, 85 per cent of Chinese consumers said they would always buy a foreign brand over a domestic one, according to Shanghai-based China Market Research Group. By 2016, 60 per cent of respondents said they preferred domestic over foreign brands.

Shaun Rein, China Market Research’s founder, said American e-commerce giants stumbled in China because they haven’t offered the products or user experience that consumers are looking for.

“All the big e-commerce players in the United States have largely failed in China,” he said.

In 2003, eBay Inc. paid $US150 million to buy EachNet, which was China’s top e-commerce site at the time. It later invested an additional $US100m. It struggled to keep up with Alibaba’s rival Taobao service, hobbled in part by a foreign management team that underestimated the competition and a payment system that was difficult for Chinese consumers to use. In 2006, eBay sold its China operations to internet company TOM Online.

Walmart Inc. also struggled to run an independent e-commerce business in China. It sold its e-commerce business to JD.com Inc. in 2016 rather than trying to crack the market on its own.

Groupon Inc. entered China in 2011 by setting by up a joint venture with Tencent Holdings Ltd. Before operations commenced, the company broadcast a commercial during the Super Bowl that included a reference to Tibet, which has been controlled by China for decades. Many Chinese people were offended and Groupon’s brand image was damaged. The company was unable to recruit local talent and to gain brand recognition despite a rapid expansion. Within 18 months, it merged with another Chinese daily-deal site also backed by Tencent.

Single-brand e-commerce companies like as Zara SA, Nike Inc. and Estée Lauder Cos. have been more successful than multibrand players in China, said Ivy Shen, vice president of international business at Azoya. Other smaller foreign firms have also made gains, she said, by offering products that are different from the ones carried by China’s major e-commerce companies.

“Everyone thought China is quite a huge cake,” she said. “But they didn’t realise there are so many aggressive domestic players fighting for the cake.”

Payments group Afterpay says coronavirus is having little impact on its underlying sales growth, despite recording an increase in customer financial hardship claims from mid-March onwards.

Shares in the Australian buy now, pay later provider have surgedby nearly 20 per cent on Tuesday following the release of its third-quarter results. Afterpay posted underlying sales of $2.6bn, a 97 per cent increase compared to the 2019 third quarter result of $1.3bn.

Noting that COVID-19 was affecting its ability to identify any sort of sustained trend during the economic downturn, investors responded positively to the trading update, prompting its ASX-listed stock to lift 19.8 per cent to $26.35 per share, as at 1.10pm.

Afterpay said its March trading performance was up approximately 12 per cent on January and February, but had moderated in the second half of the month in line with government-enforced lockdowns and isolation protocols.

The company scrapped its customer growth guidance for the 2020 financial year, saying the virus could impact customer numbers if conditions worsen.

However, it still believes it is on track to meet its previously stated target of 9.5 million customers by June 30. Afterpay’s active customer base totalled 8.4 million, as at March 31.

Financial hardship claims rose from mid-March, however Afterpay said the levels remain “manageable” and are now trending down.

Underlying sales in the second half of the month versus the first, were down 4 per cent — by region the UK was worst hit, down 15 per cent, while the US was down 5 per cent and Australia and New Zealand were lower by just 2 per cent.

“We have experienced positive growth in April month-to-date in all markets with average daily underlying sales up approximately 10 per cent on the second half of March globally,” the company said.

Afterpay’s update follows rival BNPL company Zip notifying the ASX on April 8 that it would maintain its financial targets, despite cutting 20 per cent of its workforce.

Afterpay chief executive Anthony Eisen said the company’s balance sheet was well positioned to cope with the downturn.

“We are confident that our customer-centric model, which encourages budgeting and responsible spending, will be even more relevant in a post COVID-19 environment,” Mr Eisen said.

Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada said Afterpay’s predominant online payments position is likely to assist in cushioning the blow from retail closures caused by the virus. However, did note in-store payment access is one of the company’s key growth metrics.

“We highlight changes Afterpay has made around its risk management decisioning, low account balances and high receivables turnover as key advantages,” RBC analysts said.

As at March 31, Afterpay had a total cash position of $541.1m and a net debt position of $355.7m.

As part of its COVID-19 response plan, Afterpay tightened spending limits to the majority of its customer risk profiles and changed payment rules.

Australian customers must now pay an upfront instalment; a change which has already been implemented in the US and UK. It has also implemented stricter credit approval checks on high risk purchases.

“Contingency plans are in place to introduce further restrictions should there be a deterioration of portfolio payment recovery lead-indicators measured on a daily basis by region,” the company said.

The company’s performance indicators also ascertain customers are beginning to shift towards more responsible spending habits.

Afterpay noted the intention to launch within US stores has been placed on hold while the country’s retail sector remains in shutdown.

It also noted its expansion into Canada is progressing well, but is yet to confirm a launch date.

Under its new CEO, Hugo Adams, and chair Julia Reynolds, ethical kidswear brand Frugi is positioned for rapid growth. Drapers visits the brand’s headquarters in Cornwall to learn more about its expansion plans.

A Morgan Stanley report last year found that restaurants signing up with aggregators needed to boost sales by more than 50 per cent to avoid squeezing profits.

EatClub's dynamic pricing technology enables restaurateurs who find themselves with empty tables to offer last-minute discounts ranging from 20 per cent to 50 per cent on one or more tables.

The restaurant pays a "cover charge" of $2 per diner to EatClub, a fraction of the price of the meal and well below the 35 to 40 per cent commission or service fees levied by Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Menulog.

Move aside, millennials.

This is the year that Generation Z becomes the biggest consumer cohort globally, displacing millennials as a top obsession for investors trying to figure out how to cash in on their unique shopping, eating and media habits. While they might still be in school, they have spending power to the tune of $143 billion in the U.S. alone, leaving fund managers salivating at the chance to harvest some of that potential alpha.

“Gen Z has their finger on the pulse on the companies that speak to them, that they think are going to grow with them,” said Phil Bak, CEO of Exponential ETFs. “Therefore they’re probably better suited to pick those investments than some of the more seasoned financial professionals.”

Investors have always been interested in young consumers and how their habits might open up new opportunities, but much of the long-held thinking on college kids and tweens—invest in beer stocks or TV networks or junk food—don’t hold up today. Gen Z, roughly between the ages of seven and 22, were born after the internet went mainstream and occupy a world where marijuana is going legal. Anything and everything can be delivered to their front door with a swipe of a finger and they grew up on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram, where the influencer culture has taken hold.

For investors looking to factor Gen Z into their portfolios, here are some broad trends they may want to consider:

1. They Can Be Influenced 

While older millennials graduated college before the rise of Facebook, or even mobile phones, these new consumers live on Instagram and other platforms. In fact, 52 percent said they primarily find out about new products from social media, a jump of 10 percentage points from millennials and double the rate for their Gen X parents, according to a recent survey by Bloomberg News and Morning Consult.

That means influencers—celebrities or everyday people with big social media followings who are paid to promote products—can have an outsized impact with this cohort where nearly six out of 10 self-diagnose spending too much time on their phones. 

Take for instance Kylie Jenner, 21, who promoted her makeup line on Instagram and is now considered the youngest self-made billionaire. Her makeup line made its way over to Ulta Beauty Inc. last year and the company’s shares are up more than 40 percent in 2019. She’s so influential, one tweet from her in February 2018 disparaging Snapchat wiped out $1.3 billion in market cap.

Bloomberg recently constructed a hypothetical stock portfolio called The Influencer Economy ETF, or ticker GENZ. The fund is up about 15 percent since the start of 2018, outpacing the gain in the S&P 500 Index over the same period.  GENZ’s holdings are weighted based on the rank of their associated influencer, per Forbes.com, which incorporates social media followers and rankings from other agencies. The top holdings include Electronic Arts Inc., Nike Inc., Adidas AG, Coca-Cola Co., T-Mobile US Inc.and Under Armour Inc. based off of partnerships with influencers such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. 

2. They Have Different Vices

Younger consumers are wary of nasty hangovers and eager to wake up on the weekends feeling fresh so they can get outdoors and capture selfies. Beer in particular is going through a slump as Americans cut back on alcohol. That’s bad news for Anheuser-Busch InBev SA and Molson Coors Brewing Co., which make the mass-market brands like Bud Light and Coors Light that are getting hit the hardest.

Marijuana, meanwhile, is going mainstream. It’s perceived as healthier than alcohol by many Gen Z consumers and is now legal for adult use in 10 U.S. states. Gen Z consumers are coming of age in time when the decades of stigma around weed—think reefer madness—are fading away as more states legalize and stressed out, tired Americans look to cannabis compounds to alleviate insomnia and anxiety, or just unwind after a hard week of work.

Investors have two main options for betting on weed. They can invest in Canadian companies—think Canopy Growth Corp. and Aurora Cannabis Inc.—which benefit from federal legislation there but also are operating in a country with a population smaller than California.  There are also the so-called multi-state operators in the U.S., like Curaleaf Holdings Inc. and Green Thumb Industries Inc. The U.S. legal market is already larger than all of Canada’s, but federal prohibition creates hurdles for the American companies—and leaves some money managers wary of advertising their bets.

3. They Don’t Have to Go to Stores

Gen Z could be the first generation to truly embrace online grocery shopping—though maybe not yet. Just 83 percent of them said they primarily purchase groceries at a physical store, compared to 95 percent of baby boomers and 87 percent of millennials. Surveys have also indicated that Amazon is one of the favorite brands of Gen Z consumers, who’ve never lived in a time without the e-commerce giant.

It’s worth noting that the oldest members of Gen Z are barely out of college by most measures, not exactly peak grocery-buying age. Still, they’ve grown up in a world where digital shopping is ubiquitous. As of now, a tiny percentage of groceries are purchased online, because most people still want to touch their tomatoes. But since Amazon.com Inc. announced a deal to buy Whole Foods almost two years ago, Kroger and Walmart, the largest sellers of groceries in the U.S., have spent billions investing in technology and keeping prices low as they brace for the digital invasion. Whoever figures out the equation for grocery delivery—human-delivered or self-driving cars—will have a lot to gain.

4. They Choose Their Brand Loyalties Carefully

The rise of Gen Z could be bad news for traditional clothing retailers like Gap Inc. and Macy’s Inc., already battered by the shift to buying clothing online. The next generation is also embracing second-hand apparel, which will be bigger than fast fashion within the decade, according to Thredup’s 2019 Resale Report. Thredup, fashion resale website, says more than one in three Gen Z shoppers will buy used clothing this year, versus less than one in five boomers or Gen X consumers. That seems to stem, in part, from the generation’s interest in environmental issues and ethical shopping.

Apparel brands looking to connect with younger shoppers have tried embracing edgier brand ambassadors, a departure from the days when consumer companies went to great pains to avoid politics. That's because Gen Z actually wants corporations to take a stand on issues, with 40 percent saying they’d pay more for a product if they knew the company was promoting gender equality issues and 42 percent for racial justice initiatives.

Nike understands. Last year, it released an ad featuring Colin Kaepernick, and while the inclusion of the controversial quarterback-turned-activist initially spooked investors, the shares have since rebounded. And there are indications that ads have helped boost sales.

“A lot of times in this industry people want to overcomplicate the process of picking stocks,” Exponential ETFs’ Bak said. “We think that there’s a pretty high correlation between companies that from your personal experiences you think are good and high-growth companies.”

5. They Eat (Somewhat) Differently

Gen Z consumers are more likely to skip meat than the older U.S. cohorts, the latest dining disruption with big implications for fast-food restaurants and packaged-food giants. Burger King this week announced a test of a plant-based Impossible Whopper, another sign that even the purveyors of indulgent onion rings and big burgers see a shift ahead.

It’s more Big Food that's feeling the pain. Large packaged-food makers like Kraft Heinz Co. and Campbell Soup Co. have been battered in recent years by the shift away from traditional brands that dominated grocery stores for decades. They’ve tried to reshape their portfolios, but have struggled to resonate with younger consumers.

Meatless Monday

More Gen Z Americans choose to skip meat compared to other cohorts

So what does this all mean for savvy investors trying to tap into Gen Z’s buying habits? People in generational cohorts are never as uniform as marketers would like, and with the youngest still in elementary school, there's still some time before the preferences of the wider generation shake out. But for some forward looking investors, now’s the time to start thinking about how to structure a portfolio for a post-boomer economy.

“Gen Z are likely still on the younger end to consider investing in their consumption patterns,” said Jay Jacobs, head of research and strategy at Global X, which created a millennial-tracking ETF called MILN. But “the millennial demographic tells us that there can be clear and obvious differences in the ways that certain generations spend their money. As Gen Z eventually enters their prime earning years, some of these trends could start to become more concrete and visible.”

Delivery fees are typically between $3 and $6 on the platform, meaning customers ordering multiple times a week may be encouraged to order more.

It's a move the business said would help small businesses generate more orders and it comes at a time when restaurants are increasingly ambivalent about the cuts that food delivery platforms take for facilitating a delivery.

Deliveroo has increasingly positioned itself as a 24/7 food option and now has two 'dark kitchen' food preparation sites in Melbourne.

The company is gunning to have 17,000 restaurants on its platform by the end of 2019 and has positioned this latest program as a win for increasing order volume and deliveries for drivers, who get paid $9 per delivery.

Deliveroo launched its plus service in the UK earlier this year. It is the only food delivery platform offering a subscriber model so far Australia, though competitors do offer promotional deals and vouchers to users throughout the year.

The company isn't ruling out the possibility that other platforms will follow suit in the "competitive landscape" of food delivery.

While the subscription only covers delivery fees rather than food orders at this stage, Mr Aron said the program would likely evolve over time with "a whole lot of different initiatives and campaigns".

Locked in to convenience

The subscription model looks to drive loyalty, said lecturer in marketing at the University of Tasmania and retail expert, Louise Grimmer.

"Once a consumer is ‘locked in’ with a regular payment, this behaviour cements their relationship with the retailer or food provider," she said.

Food delivery platforms are considering the subscriptions model much in the same way that Amazon's Prime subscription drives loyalty, Ms Grimmer said.

The flow-on effects of being locked in to these subscription offers could well be a willingness to place delivery orders for lower value goods, she said.

"We are already seeing more and more people subscribing for a range of household products such as grooming products, toilet paper and coffee pods and it makes sense that this will extend to food delivery."

Even for a company as large as Amazon.com, a double-digit percentage gain in 2019 is nothing to a bull expecting the stock to almost double over the next two years.

According to Jefferies analyst Brent Thill, Amazon remains undervalued and "many of its embedded growth opportunities are underappreciated".

The firm now models a road map for the stock to trade hands upward of $US3,000 a share by 2021.

Amazon shares rose as much as 0.8 per cent to $US1,828 a share on Wednesday, the highest intraday since October.

A sum-of-the-parts breakdown by Jefferies forecasts upside of approximately 65 per cent as profitable segments -- such as Amazon Web Services, Advertising, and 3P Seller Services -- are all growing at rates faster than the core retail division.

"Multiples for these high-recurring revenue, high-margin businesses to expand as investors recognise their embedded value," Thill said in a research note to clients.

Thill also mentions the forecast does not include any upside from new businesses like health care, "which could prove a break-out hit" with Amazon expected to play a meaningful hand in medical prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs.

Amazon shares have climbed about 35 per cent since a bottom in late December, but Jefferies still believes the stock has held back since last earnings given "investor concerns about decelerating top line growth and step up in investments."

The firm reiterated its buy rating and 12-month share price target of $US2,300.

China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has emerged as a backer of Bubs, following the Australian infant formula maker’s acquisition of Deloraine Dairy.

Bubs announced the acquisition today of the Chinese-owned company and said private equity firm C2 Capital Partners would become a cornerstone investor in its business.

It is understood that one of the key shareholders in C2 is Alibaba Group

Victoria-based Australia Deloraine Dairy is one of 15 canning facilities nationally that meets regulatory import conditions into China.

C2 will secure shares in Bubs through a private share placement at 65c per share in a move that will raise about $31.44 million.

Following the placement, C2 will also acquire additional shares in Bubs via off-market share acquisitions from existing shareholders, the NuLac Foods Vendors, providing a collective 15 per cent holding in Bubs.

Following the capital investment, C2 managing partner Steve Lin will join the Bubs board as a director.

Funds from the capital raising will be used, in part, for the Deloraine acquisition.

C2 was established last year to invest in companies capitalising on the consumption growth and consumption upgrade of the growing Chinese middle class.

Its strategy is to partner with the management of investee companies, providing value-added growth capital and to support companies with unique China market insights and know-how.

Alibaba is a Chinese multinational conglomerate that specialises in e-commerce, retail, internet and technology.

It was founded in 1999 to offer sales via web portals as well as electronic payment services, shopping search engines and cloud computing services.

It owns and operates a diverse array of businesses around the world in numerous sectors and is named by Fortune as one of the world’s most admired companies.

At closing time on the date of its initial public offering in 2014, the company’s market value was US$231bn and in December was worth US$352.28bn.

Business conditions have bounced, with companies reporting improved sales, profits and hiring, easing concerns of a downturn.

The National Australia Bank’s monthly business survey shows the number of companies reporting improved conditions outnumbered those reporting a fall by seven percentage points in March, up from four percentage points in the previous month.

NAB chief economist Alan Oster said that while profits and sales were now in line with their long-term average, the number of companies reporting increased hiring was about four percentage points above average, which suggests the strong employment growth of the past year was set to continue.

“The increase in business conditions is a welcome development after the weakening trend over the past six months,” he said, while noting the survey still contained some worrying indicators.

A narrow majority of firms reported their forward orders had fallen, while the level of idle capacity has risen from 17.9 per cent last November to 19 per cent in the latest survey. The survey also indicates companies are becoming less committed to raising investment. In November, 15.8 per cent of firms were planning to lift investment, however the latest survey shows that has dropped to just 3.4 per cent.

Business investment will be a key variable in today’s federal budget, with Treasury expecting firm growth of 4 per cent this year and 5 per cent next when it last reviewed its budget forecasts in December.

Although companies are seeing better sales and profits, business is less confident about the outlook. The survey shows companies are equally divided about whether conditions will improve or deteriorate over coming months.

NAB estimates employment should continue rising by about 20,000 positions a month. Although this is below the levels of the first half of last year, it should be sufficient to keep the jobless rate at its 4.9 per cent level.

The Reserve Bank board, which meets today and is expected to keeps the cash rate at 1.5 per cent, will be reassured by these results. The RBA is puzzled over the split between strong performance of the labour market and relatively weak overall economic results.

Mr Oster said the survey still showed sectors of the economy remained weak, particularly retail and wholesale, which were affected by soft consumer spending, while the strongest industry was resources, which was benefiting from strong demand from China.

New Chinese business surveys are also encouraging about the outlook, showing that its manufacturing sector has pulled out of last year’s slump and is growing again, helped by government stimulus measures.

Matching business surveys elsewhere in Asia also showed a lift in business conditions, although a majority of firms in both Japan and South Korea is still contracting.

A 50x digital lens on Huawei’s latest smartphone camera is an insane idea. That’s a significant zoom, something smartphones generally can’t manage. But it’s in the repertoire of the new P30 Pro, the successor to Huawei’s P20 Pro, one of the best handsets of 2018. 

Phone cameras perform lots of tricks but zooming isn’t generally one of them. The 50x digital zoom managed some detail at long range. Distant signage that you barely see on a non-magnified image was readable. But these highly magnified images were distorted and show that high-resolution zoom has a way to go on smartphone cameras.

Besides, it’s hard to keep the camera steady at 50x despite the image stabilisation. At the least find a ledge to support it, a DJI Osmo handheld image stabiliser, or use a small tripod. A tripod could also come in handy for light painting at night, which this phone supports.

There’s 5x optical zoom and 10x hybrid zoom too. Generally resolution was good up to about 30x. Normal daytime shots without zoom were excellent, and Huawei’s night shots are second to none.

Nevertheless photography is the hallmark of the P30 Pro which sports wide-angle, macro, and night photography as well. The P30 Pro has an arsenal of cameras with four lenses on the back: a 40MP wide-angle lens, 20MP ultra-wide-angle lens, 8MP telephoto lens and a time-of-flight sensor for depth sensing.

You don’t need to physically swap between lenses. A slider in the camera app seamlessly moves from a 0.60x macro to 50x zoom. Macro photos displayed slightly more detail than even the rival Samsung Galaxy S10+, but both were very impressive.

The P30 Pro’s front-facing snapper is so high in resolution (32MP) that it should take the best selfies in the business. Portrait mode includes a slider for adjusting the warmth of the colour and smoothness of your skin. Amazingly, there’s an option for making your face look thinner, although that didn’t seem to change mine much.

The phone feels a tad heavier and thicker than the S10+, its main rival, although the difference isn’t big: 8.44 to 7.8mm in thickness and 192g to the S10+’s 175g in weight.

The P30 Pro looks slick with glass front and back, and a very thin bezel. However the glass back attracts fingermarks and the glass surface makes the P30Pro feel a little slippery without a case.

So far 2019 is a neck-and-neck tussle between the Mate 20, P30 Pro and S10+. All have an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, 15 watt wireless fast charging and wireless reverse charging. You can place another wirelessly chargeable device on the phone and charge it.

The P30 Pro doesn’t support a standard microSD card. However you can add a Huawei nano memory card which offers a theoretically fast 90 megabyte per second transfer rate.

It’s smaller than a microSD card but there’s not much other benefit. And there’s a downside. The NM card capacity limit is 256GB which is a quarter of the 1 Terabyte microSD card you can add to the Galaxy S10+. And the NM cards are more expensive.

You may also be swayed away from the P30 Pro’s omission of a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The P30 Pro has a bright full HD+ 6.47-inch bright OLED display, although its resolution is less than both its cousin the Huawei Mate 20 and the Galaxy S10+.

It has a fast Kirin 980 8-core processor. I ran the AnTuTu benchmark, which scored the P30 Pro a healthy 285,331. The Galaxy S10+ scores better at 324,447 but both are impressive. The Huawei CPU rated better but its graphics performance was down.

The P30 Pro will retail in Australia for $1599. A cheaper version, the P30, costs $1099.

Huawei will throw in a Sonos One smartspeaker if you pre-order before April 16, when both handsets go on sale at telcos and retailers. Phones come in two colours: “breathing crystal” and “aurora”.