Huawei P40 Pro Review: Flagship Camera Phone

Huawei smartphones are legendary, and in a good way. The P30 camera phone has become so good that it still makes sense to buy it, although it was released over a year ago. Why do we need a P30 if Huawei has updated its flagship line and made the P40? I have in my hands the Huawei P40 Pro, the top model of this smartphone.

It differs from the P40 Pro only in a couple of camera functions, but the difference between the P40 and P40 Pro is more noticeable. The regular version has a 6.1-inch display with a resolution of 2340×1080 (the Pro version has 6.58 ″ and 2640 × 1200), the battery in the P40 is 3800 mAh versus 4200 mAh in the P40 Pro. And of course, other camera sensors, 50 + 16 + 8 megapixels versus 50 + 40 + 12 megapixels in the Pro version. The rest of the smartphones are identical.

Packaging: Huawei P40 Pro

Huawei has traditionally bundled its smartphones with a complete set. There are headphones, a charging cable, and a 40 W fast charging adapter (generally a rarity, usually put the simplest one). There’s even a case!

Usually, such a package is found in budget models, but Huawei values ​​its consumers and gives them everything possible. Nice care from the brand, of course. True, a silicone case for a premium flagship is not a great story. But for the first time, it will go.

Appearance: Huawei P40 Pro

The brand new P40 Pro looks as premium as a smartphone design can be in 2020. A combination of glass and metal, heavy and pleasant to hold in hand. You immediately realize that you are holding a flagship device and not a cheap parody of a smartphone.

On the back is a huge camera module. No, he is really healthy, both in size and in the number of cameras, there are already 4 of them, but we will talk about them separately later and see them in action.

On the right is the volume rocker and the on/off button, on the bottom is a USB Type-C port, everything is standard, even a little boring. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack, of course.

The slot for the SIM-card is double. This is also a standard. You can put a SIM card, a memory card.

On the front side, there is one notable change – the hole for the selfie camera. It became similar to the Samsung Galaxy S10 + module, although Samsung itself in the Galaxy S20 + model left one camera in the middle. Otherwise, there is the same 2.5D bezel-less display (rounded at the edges).

The design of smartphones in 2020 came to the same trends, and almost all gadgets are similar to each other. Someone adds something, someone removes it, but in general, if you put all the gadgets in a row, you won’t be able to tell the difference the first time. In general, this is not particularly important. The most important thing is that all the flagships have become very cool. Finally, smartphones have gotten rid of frames, extra connectors and have become waterproof. It is even more difficult for manufacturers to prove why the user needs to choose their direction. However, Huawei successfully copes with the help of very cool cameras, but more about them later.

Bild: Huawei P40 Pro

Here Huawei does not change itself, and the flagship smartphone is made based on its own flagship Kirin 990 processor. Most likely, you will not be able to use it 100%. This processor is gaining 450 thousand points in AnTuTu so that you will have 60 frames per second and no brakes in any game.

The memory here is 256 gigabytes for applications, not 1 TB, of course, but enough for the eyes. RAM 8 GB, which is also good. There is a fingerprint sensor. It works extremely well, you need to touch the screen, and it is already unlocked. Of course, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and even 5G are so far, however, to nothing.

The battery for the flagship is not maximum, but large, 4200 mAh. What pleases me is that it charges very quickly. From 0 to 100%, the smartphone needs only 40 minutes, and in 10 minutes, it will charge as much as 35%. Let me remind you that 40 W charging is included. Wireless and reverse charging are also included.

Huawei P40 Pro: Cameras

The camera module in Huawei is simply gorgeous. Just read it. The main module is 50 megapixels (f / 1.9). In addition to it, there is an ultra-wide-angle lens of 40 megapixels (f / 1.8), a telephoto 12 megapixels (f / 3.4), and a 3D depth sensor. In general, the set is wonderful. You can do a lot with it.

The main module and telephoto also support optical stabilization, so the pictures will not be blurry. The smartphone can shoot with 5x optical zoom. The maximum digital zoom can be turned up to 50, but believe me. You will not use it. Artificial intelligence draws too much here to remove the flaws of shaking hands and lack of light. And if you shoot from a tripod and in the bright sun, you can already take a DSLR camera and not try to shoot some distant object with a smartphone. With hands, it will not work, do not even try.

Shooting with this smartphone is a pleasure. Even in automatic mode, photos are bright and clear. Sometimes, however, artificial intelligence distorts colors; however, this appears only on the main sensor.

When shooting portraits, of course, the wild beautifier turns on, and it seems that the person’s face is perfectly even. I don’t really like it, but many will surely come.

Night mode is also good. I tried to shoot the stars, and it worked. I had to play a little with the settings, and, perhaps, it really could have been done even better.

There are tons of possibilities in the chamber. The smartphone shoots video with 4K 60 FPS quality, even in ultra-wide format. I really liked the time-lapse more. I wrote down how the peas grow on the window.

Huawei P40 Pro: Software

For a very long time, I did not want to start this section of the article. I am unfortunate to observe Google and Huawei’s situation, and I hoped that everything would be fixed until the last. However, a year has passed, and things are still there. Huawei cannot use Google software on its smartphones. And, of course, this did not go unnoticed by users. While you can somehow manage without YouTube or Google Maps, most applications refuse to work without Google Play Services. As a result, the smartphone is like Android, but with limitations. In my opinion, a terrible injustice and a huge loss for the market because Huawei makes excellent smartphones, particularly the P and Mate series.

Of course, Huawei assumed such a development of events and developed its own platform for applications and services, AppGallery. And even though a lot of applications appear there every month, there is not everything there. And, of course, the main problem with Google apps. Thus, Gmail, YouTube, Google Assistant, and other American company tools will not work for you. However, this is critical only if your life is tied to this ecosystem.

Otherwise, there are already many applications, banking programs, text editors, photos and videos, music services, various dialers, Instagram, WhatsApp, even State services, and many other things Huawei is actively promoting its developer platform.

Installing apps is as simple as possible and doesn’t differ much from using Google Play. Although sometimes a browser opens from the application, you need to download the APK file and manually install it. It’s simple, but you need to make a couple of additional clicks. It reminded me of when I did a Jailbreak on iPhone to install programs from Cydia or download software on Android. Now I do not do anything like that!