Huawei P40 Pro review
The new Huawei P40 Pro refines the older version of the P series, the P30 Pro, and brings it to near perfection. This model innovates the camera in a big way and updates the internals.
Design and Display
The most refined aspects of this smartphone are the design elements.
The raised corners with glass that’s curved on all the four sides leave the impression of the water on the brink of breaking the surface tension.
The design of the product is fantastic and has ergonomic improvements. The results of the aesthetic of the design will suit every taste.
The body of this phone is made of a Glass front and back with an aluminum frame; with the dimensions of 158.2 x 72.6 x 9mm
The smartphone is also rated IP68 for water and dust resistance. Huawei used the users with this water resistance starting with the P20.
The screen has a big display of 6.58″ with full HD and quad-curved OLED with a resolution of 640px.
The P40 Pro’s curved glass makes swiping feels smoother than anything you can ever use before.
The volume and the home button on the right edge feel both precise and crisp. The top-mounted IR-blaster and microphone are well aligned, and the same are the bottom-mounted SIM tray, the microphone, the USB-C port, and the speaker.
Every single detail feels calculated and clean.
For better security, the new P40 Pro has a 3D face-recognition unlock which is super quick. The P40 Pro uses new infrared technology for the P series, which can detect the user’s face even in the dark.
The optical fingerprint reader is classically positioned under the display.
Camera
What is a little uncommon at this smartphone is this particular combo of cameras.
The main 50MP RYYB camera has a mammoth of a 1/1.28-inch sensor, making it the largest of any smartphone on the market today.
The colors are bright and vibrant; the dynamic range is also fantastic thanks to Huawei’s HDR; the detail is incredible even in the pixel-binned mode. The natural subject isolation is simply amazing.
On the back, you get the wide, ultra-wide, telephoto, and time of flight cameras.
The front camera is a 32MP selfie shooter backed up by a laser-guided autofocus.
The main camera comes with a very large 1/1.28′′ 50MP Quad-Bayer sensor that produces a 12MP image output.
The optical image stabilization can be challenging to implement on such large image sensors but is on board as well.
Huawei implements a large and high-resolution image sensor of 40MP 1/1.54′′ in its ultra-wide camera. This one is combined with a fast f/1.8 lens and makes for excellent low-light image quality.
The downside of such a large sensor like this one in the ultra-wide is the lens design. This is a challenge in designing a lens that can provide a very wide angle of view and to still fit into the thin body of the smartphone.
Tele-camera
P40 Pro’s tele-camera comes with similar technology to last year’s model. The tele-camera takes over from 5x and longer. For the best details, the 5x tele-camera records image data at the center of the frame. It uses the AI-refined image data from the primary camera to fill in the missing image areas around the edges.
The camera is optically stabilized, and it uses folded optics to achieve a 5x optical zoom factor.
The P40 Pro uses software systems that Huawei calls “field-of-view fusion” and an AI RAW, which is a combination of optical and algorithm-powered digital zooming that adapts to the chosen magnification factor.
The P40 Pro uses algorithms that combine image data from both cameras, for intermediate zoom factors, also merging several RAW frames from the main and tele camera into one high-resolution frame.
The details on fine patterns and textures are improved by a deep learning algorithm — a quiet impressive feature, considering that the autofocus, the white balance, and the other image parameters of both cameras have to be in perfect synchronization for good results.
Giving a healthy amount of light, the optical zoom results are simply beautiful.
The portrait and aperture modes didn’t need much tweaking to the previous model. Huawei refined these features and they are working now much better.
The results from the P40 Pro’s portrait mode will don’t disappoint you.
The subject isolation is on point as if the focus roll-off where there isn’t a sharp divide between focus and out of focus points.
Huawei allows you to change the type of simulated bokeh, and you will enjoy playing around with this feature very much.
The 40MP ultra-wide camera from the previous models found its way to the P40 Pro, and it’s a brilliant upgrade.
In ultra-wide mode, the results are much better in low-light performance.
The previous ultra-wide lens was a 16mm equivalent, while the P40 Pro’s is an 18mm affair with a narrower field of view.
The front camera of 32MP can capture a lot of details and colors in almost all lighting conditions.
Hardware and software
The Huawei P40 runs the latest version of Android, the Android 10 with EMUI 10.1, which is a little simplified and user friendly.
Unfortunately, Google Play Services, like Google Play Store and most of Google apps are not available.
The Google Play Store is replaced by the Huawei App gallery, which is not a great thing for users from the west.
It has an octa-core processor with a Mali-G76 MP16 GPU chipset.
It has an 8GB RAM and 256GB memory to stock all your import files.
Battery
The device comes with a 40W SuperCharge adapter which takes the 4,200mAh battery from zero to 100% somewhere around 74 minutes.
A 27W wireless charging is also supported by the device.
Conclusions
The P40 Pro is an amazing device.
It has many great features: a great screen, a superb build quality, an incredible battery life, and of course the camera system.
The P40 Pro provides a premium camera experience, improved sensors and a focus on optical zooming, which can achieve a 50x zoom factor.
The big minus will remain the fact that maybe many users will require Google services in time to be replaced by Huawei Apps on this device.
If you are a technology enthusiast and you like the latest upgrades on smart devices, this phone is definitely for you and it won’t disappoint you.
