Review of Huawei P40 Lite - a spectacular smartphone for 20 thousand rubles

Huawei has not been associated with the budget segment for a long time, but is fighting for a buyer with A-brands such as Apple and Samsung. It is all the more interesting to find out how the Huawei P40 Lite turned out - a novelty worth 20 thousand rubles. Have the Chinese maintained an attractive price-performance ratio, or was the model released just to fill a hole in the product line? Let's find out.

Specifications
Design and ergonomics
Screen
Software and performance
Sound
Camera
Autonomy
Outcomes

Specifications

Platform	Android 10, firmware EMUI 10
Display	6.4 inches, 2 310 × 1,080 pixels, LCD, 60 Hz, 398 ppi
Chipset	Kirin 810, Mali-G52 MP6 video accelerator
Memory	RAM - 6 GB, ROM - 128 GB; support NM up to 256 GB
Connection	Hybrid NanoSIM slot, Wi-Fi 5, GPS, GLONASS, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, NFC, GSM / GPRS / EDGE / LTE
Sound	3.5mm audio jack
Battery	4 200 mAh, 40 W fast charging
Dimensions (edit)	159.2 × 76.3 × 8.7 mm
The weight	183 grams

Design and ergonomics

You can find fault with details like the rather thick bezels or the plastic bezel between the front glass and the aluminum frame, but the overall impression of the Huawei P40 Lite's build and materials is excellent. We tested the smartphone in bright green, there is also a black version for those who like strictness.

The screen has rounded corners and a round cutout for the front camera. The bottom indent is wider than the rest; under it there is a display cable. Contrary to fashion, the edges of the screen are not curved, which has a positive effect on reliability.

Huawei P40 Lite: the edges of the screen are not curved

But the designers still bent the back side, but this decision is dictated by ergonomics: this way the smartphone lies more comfortably in the palm of your hand. The back is made of plastic, although it almost looks and feels like glass. It is non-slip, but very easily soiled - it is not easy to wipe off prints and dust.

A square block with cameras might sound like an iPhone 11, but it's actually a Huawei trick: the company was the first to use such a solution in the Mate 20. However, now the lenses have been moved from the center to the upper corner, which is why the similarity with Apple smartphones is obvious.

Huawei P40 Lite: power and volume buttons

On the right side there is a volume rocker and a power button with a built-in fingerprint scanner. The thumb of the right hand rests directly on the sensor pad, but left-handers will have to retrain.

Below is a multimedia speaker, USB Type ‑ C and - lo and behold! - 3.5 mm audio jack. On the left side there is a hybrid slot for SIM cards and NM memory cards (Huawei's own format).

Screen

Almost the entire front panel is occupied by a display with a diagonal of 6, 4 inches and a resolution of Full HD +. The matrix is made using LCD technology, the pixel density is 398 ppi - enough not to see the "ladders" on small text.

By default, the vivid color mode is turned on, and the picture is a little "blue". For accurate color reproduction, you can choose a regular palette, and there is also an RGB-wheel for fine-tuning to your tastes.

Viewing angles and black depth are good, although the contrast level of the screen is far from modern AMOLEDs. The same applies to maximum brightness: readability drops noticeably in direct sunlight.

Software and performance

Huawei P40 Lite runs Android 10 with EMUI 10 shell. Due to US sanctions, Google services are not installed on the smartphone, and if earlier they could be added independently, then recently the loophole was closed, and a new one has not yet been found.

This creates certain difficulties: at least one has to look for alternatives to popular services, such as navigation applications. There is no YouTube client on your smartphone - you need to open the video hosting through a browser.

Huawei offers its analogue Google Pay, but so far it only works with UnionPay cards and is not supported by many online stores and services.

Instead of Google Play in the company's smartphones, there is the AppGallery store. It contains almost all popular applications and games, and those that do not exist can be installed from APK files. However, not all of them will work correctly.

For example, the game World of Tanks: Blitz presented in AppGallery first notifies about the need for Google Play services, and then crashes. With due diligence, you can still start it, but there is a possibility of problems with authorization if you have previously logged in through the "Google Play Games".

Launching World of Tanks on Huawei P40 Lite

With Asphalt 9, the situation is better: the game is fully available at maximum graphics settings.

The hardware platform is Huawei's own Kirin 810 chipset with eight cores (2 × Cortex ‑ A76, 2.27 GHz; 6 × Cortex ‑ A55, 1.88 GHz) and a Mali ‑ G52 MP6 graphics accelerator. RAM - 6 GB, internal storage is 128 GB.

The system interface works with lightning speed and smoothness, applications launch quickly, and there were no problems with connecting to the network. I was also pleased with the speed of the biometric entry: the fingerprint scanner on the right side works instantly and accurately, the same applies to unlocking in the face. However, the latter uses the front camera and cannot work in complete darkness.

Sound

Huawei did not spoil the user with stereo speakers. The multimedia speaker plays in mono mode and does not differ in quality: an overload is heard at maximum volume, the sound becomes harsh and unpleasant.

The speaker here is quite decent, the microphones also cope with capturing voice during calls. What I really didn’t like was the vibration motor. The tactile response is weak, rattling, and gives the device a budget level.

But for the presence of a 3.5 mm audio jack, we put a bold plus. So you can connect wired headphones without adapters, and AUX in the car. In conjunction with the Beyerdynamic DT 1350 headphones, the volume reserve is sufficient, and the quality is typical for smartphones.

Camera

The Huawei P40 Lite has four cameras on the back: a standard 48 megapixel, 8 megapixel wide-angle, a 2-megapixel macro lens and a depth sensor. Front camera resolution is 16 megapixels.

The smartphone copes decently with shooting in different scenarios, but this set of cameras is bewildering. Why do you need a dedicated depth sensor when neural networks are already so good at separating objects from the background (remember at least Google Pixel smartphones)? A macro lens is also a pretty useless thing: the quality of it resembles a 15-year-old mobile camera. It would be better to provide a "shirik" autofocus for these purposes.

Macro

0, 5x

Portrait mode

Night mode

Selfie

The video is recorded in 1080p resolution with a frame rate of 30 FPS. There is no stabilization, the soundtrack is stereophonic.

Autonomy

The Huawei P40 Lite has a 4,200 mAh battery inside. Taking into account the energy efficiency of the processor, this capacity is enough for a day of active use (calls, web surfing, watching videos, some photos and games), while the smartphone will be asked to charge only late in the evening.

Comes with a 40W Huawei SuperCharge adapter. Half an hour at the outlet replenishes the charge by 70%, and the maximum recharge takes about an hour.

Outcomes

At a cost of 20 thousand rubles, the Huawei P40 Lite offers us a good screen, high performance, a good camera and excellent battery life. All the shortcomings of the novelty boil down to the lack of Google services. If this moment is not critical for you, then the smartphone at least deserves attention.