A year has passed since the Huawei P30 series presentation, but now the company is showing its next flagship top phone in the form of the Huawei P40.
The Huawei P40 family includes three different devices: Huawei P40, Huawei P40 Pro, and Huawei P40 Pro+, which is the flagship line of 2020.
These three have the best specs to try their hand at battling the Samsung Galaxy S20, Google Pixel 4, and the upcoming iPhone 12 and OnePlus 8. But keep in mind that Huawei has an insufficient selection of apps compared to these alternatives because no one has canceled the Google sanctions.
Huawei P40: Release date and Price
You can pre-order the HUAWEI P40 Pro and HUAWEI P40 from April 2, 2020 (with pre-order, HUAWEI FreeBuds 3 wireless headphones are offered as a gift). From April 10, smartphones will be available for sale in HUAWEI branded stores and partner stores. The MSRP is $949 for the HUAWEI P40 Pro and $649 for the HUAWEI P40.
The two new devices will be available in shimmering silver and black, with the P40 Pro going to go on sale in a deep blue.
Huawei P40: Design and Display
The lineup of Huawei P40 phones is not much different from its predecessors. The main difference is that the camera array is slightly larger. All the back lenses are placed in one large block (this year, it is so fashionable).
The Huawei P40 lineup comes with a glass back, except the P40 Pro Plus with a ceramic bezel, which is more scratch-resistant and seems to feel more premium in hand.
Huawei’s P40 has IP53 water and dust resistance rating, while the P40 Pro and Pro Plus have an IP68 rating to ensure their survival in water immersion.
One improvement here is the in-screen fingerprint sensor, which is 30% larger, making it easier to use and 30% faster.
Camera Huawei P40
All three devices deliver the highest photo quality level, but the Huawei P40 Pro Plus is the best the camera has to offer.
Let’s start with the Huawei P40, which comes with a 16MP f / 2.2 ultra-wide-angle shooter, a 50MP RYYB f / 1.9 50MP camera, and an 8MP telephoto camera.
This phone is capable of shooting 3x optical zoom and can probably do more with digital zoom. This is the same as the Huawei P30.
This “superzoom” camera provides 10x optical zoom, which is impressive enough to rival the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.
The Huawei P40 Pro Plus camera even has the same 50MP main lens and 40MP ultra-wide angle lens and an 8MP f / 4.4 periscope with 10x optical zoom and an 8MP f / 2.4 telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and ToF sensor. These dual zoom lenses also offer 20x hybrid zoom and 100x maximum zoom.
Each of the phones is equipped with a 32MP front-facing camera, while the Huawei P40 Pro and Pro Plus models also have ToF sensors on the front.
While pictures taken on phones should be great, Huawei noted new and improved video modes such as 4K period, 7680 fps ultra-slow, audio zoom (so when zooming in the video, the audio-only focuses on that in the frame), and a maximum 4K 60 frames / s video shooting (in particular, not 8K, like many new phones).
Huawei P40 Specifications and Battery
Each of the three Huawei P40 phones has the Kirin 990 5G chipset, which we have seen in the Mate 30 since late 2019. It should return some pretty good benchmarking results when we test it out, and Huawei also said it’s good for optimizing the phone to use less power. This chipset also means the entire lineup is 5G compatible.
As for the battery, the Huawei P40 has a capacity of 3800 mAh, while the P40 Pro and Pro Plus have 4200 mAh, so they are not huge, but when combined with optimization, the phones can still last a long time without recharging.
The Huawei P40 has 22.5W charging, but that’s the only way to charge it – there is no wireless charging. On the P40 Pro and Pro Plus, however, you can use 40W charging, both wired and wireless.
Huawei P40 Software
These three phones come with Huawei’s EMUI 10.1 software, which doesn’t include popular Android apps like the Google Play Store, YouTube, or Google Chrome.
This will create many problems for Western users who are already accustomed to these services, as it means that you will not be able to download the most popular apps as easily. Instead, Huawei offers its own alternatives through the Huawei App Gallery.
There are various apps available on this store, but it doesn’t compare to the number available on iOS or other Android devices. Huawei aims to include more and more apps in the future, but few choices are available.
Apart from the app situation, the software should be familiar if you’ve used Huawei phones before, but there are some new features, such as a new voice assistant called Celia. There is also a multi-window feature for multitasking and a video calling app called MEETime.
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