Huawei P40 Pro review - the smartphone with the best camera on the market

Every new generation of Huawei smartphones is accompanied by loud slogans about outstanding design and amazing performance, but most of all the company praises the cameras. In the new P40 Pro, photo and video quality is again at the forefront. We are checking whether the new product justifies the title of "camera phone number 1 according to DxOMark" and whether it has something to offer besides an unusual camera.

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

Specifications

Platform	Android 10, firmware EMUI 10
Display	6.58 inches, 2640 x 1200 pixels, AMOLED, 90 Hz, 441 ppi, Always on Display
Chipset	HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G, video accelerator Mali-G76
Memory	RAM - 8 GB, ROM - 256 GB, support for NM memory cards
Cameras	Primary: 50 MP, 1/1, 28 ″, RYYB, f / 1, 9, 23 mm, PDAF, OIS; 40 MP, 1/1, 54 ″, RGGB, f / 1, 8, 18 mm (wide), PDAF; 12 MP, RYYB, f / 3, 4, 125 mm (5x zoom), PDAF, OIS; depth sensor ToF. Front: 32 MP, 1/2, 8 ″, f / 2, 2, 26 mm
Connection	2 × nanoSIM, Wi-Fi 6, GPS, GLONASS, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, GSM / GPRS / EDGE / LTE / 5G
Battery	4 200 mAh, fast charging (40 W), wireless charging (27 W)
Dimensions (edit)	158, 2 × 72, 6 × 8, 95 mm
The weight	209 g

Design and ergonomics

This year Huawei has made a bet on utility. The body is traditionally made of glass and metal, all elements are neatly integrated into the design and predictably located. Even the color scheme is extremely strict: the smartphone is available in black and silver versions. There are no bright colors and gradients, as in the P30 line, here.

Huawei P40 Pro: the body is traditionally made of glass and metal

Also, the solidity is added by the thickness of 9 mm and the weight of 209 g. The P40 Pro cannot be called compact in any way, but the device fits comfortably in the palm of your hand and does not strive to slip out of it. Nevertheless, the very first collision with the asphalt can be fatal, so the complete silicone cover is a nice bonus.

As befits, almost the entire front side is occupied by a screen with rounded corners. The edges of the display are slightly curved, but not to the point of being uncomfortable. Also striking is the large cutout for the front camera and face recognition system. The latter uses an infrared depth sensor and works in any light. We did not forget about the optical fingerprint scanner in the screen: it is located at a convenient height, very accurate and fast.

Huawei P40 Pro: the entire front side is occupied by a screen with rounded corners

It is noteworthy that the P40 Pro does not have the usual conversational speaker - its role is played by a piezoelectric element that delivers vibrations through the front glass. Also, the smartphone is protected from moisture and dust according to the IP68 standard, which means that it can withstand immersion to a depth of up to a meter for 30 minutes.

The power and volume buttons are located on the right side. Above is an infrared diode for controlling equipment. A multimedia speaker, a USB Type-C 3.1 connector and a slot for two SIM cards with support for NM memory cards are placed at the bottom end.

Screen

Huawei P40 Pro received a 6, 58-inch screen with a refresh rate of 90 Hz. The matrix is made using OLED technology, has a resolution of 2 640 × 1200 pixels and a pixel density of 441 ppi - the latter is enough to not notice graininess in small print.

Huawei P40 Pro: display quality without reservations is high

The quality of the display is high without reservations. The brightness headroom is decent, albeit lower than that of the OPPO Find X2 and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. Color reproduction is natural, support for DCI ‑ P3 color space and HDR10 ‑ high dynamic range content is declared. The contrast level and viewing angles are impeccable, which is to be expected from an expensive OLED matrix.

Huawei P40 Pro: color mode and temperature

In the settings, you can calibrate the screen to your liking and hide the notch so that it does not distract when watching videos and playing games. There is also a filtering of blue radiation, as well as suppression of PWM flicker. So Huawei has worked not only on image quality, but also on eye safety.

Software and performance

Huawei P40 Pro runs Android 10 with EMUI 10 shell. The hardware platform is the proprietary Kirin 990 chipset, equipped with a 5G modem. It is complemented by 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of permanent memory, expandable.

Huawei P40 Pro: Google services are not installed on the smartphone

Huawei P40 Pro: there are difficulties with contactless payment

The smartphone does not have Google services such as YouTube or Google Pay installed. The problem with the former is solved with the help of the browser version of the video hosting, but with contactless payment everything is more complicated: the Huawei Pay branded service so far only works with UnionPay cards. Of course, you can use Yandex. Money and other alternatives, but in terms of convenience, they are all far from Google Pay.

Instead of the Play Store, the AppGallery application store is preinstalled, which presents many popular programs and games. You can also use third-party stores, but the assortment in them is unlikely to be richer.

Performance is expectedly high: World of Tanks: Blitz consistently produces 60 FPS at maximum settings. The system and applications are also lightning fast.

Sound and vibration

Since instead of a spoken speaker there is a piezoelectric element, the novelty does not please with stereo sound. Compared to devices such as the OPPO Find X2 and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, this looks like an oversight, with competitors' engineers combining thin bezels and stereo speakers without too much trouble.

Huawei P40 Pro: due to the location of the microphone on the bottom, it is easy to block it

The only speaker in the Huawei P40 Pro sounds unimpressive, and due to its location on the bottom end, it is easy to overlap. The sound quality during calls is also worse than that of competitors, although it is not difficult to understand the interlocutor.

The vibration motor in the smartphone is standard, and it is far from the Taptic Engine in the iPhone. However, the tactile response is very clear and non-irritating, so there is no desire to turn off the vibration immediately.

Camera

According to DxOMark, the Huawei P40 Pro has the best camera system on the smartphone market. And although many are skeptical about this rating, one cannot ignore the extraordinary characteristics that the new product can boast of.

The main camera of the smartphone is built on a Sony IMX700 image sensor with a size of 1/1, 28 ″ and a resolution of 50 megapixels. By default, it shoots at a resolution of 12.5 megapixels, combining data from four neighboring pixels into one. The chip of the camera is a Bayer filter with the RYYB scheme: green photodiodes were replaced with yellow ones. The latter collect information in the red and green spectra, which significantly increases the sensitivity to light.

The RYYB ‑ filter is also used in the 13 ‑ megapixel periscope module with 5x optical zoom. The smartphone also received a wide-angle camera with a resolution of 40 megapixels, it is also designed for 4K video recording with the most effective stabilization. Complementing this is ToF, a depth sensor for portrait mode. Finally, the 32MP front camera captures crisp selfies and is capable of 4K video recording.

Standard camera

Zoom 5X

Wide-angle camera

Selfie

The camera does not seek to twist the colors and sharpness, the bet is made on preserving the midtones and clean details. Huawei's refusal of aggressive compression is also encouraging: the average size of JPG-files at 12.5 megapixels is 5-6 MB. But most of all, the optical blurring of the background is striking - with this, even the portrait mode is not needed. The only caveat: here and there chromatic aberrations are visible, expressed as colored fringing of objects.

The dynamic range is amazing - it's almost impossible to mess up the exposure. However, this is achieved by aggressive HDR, which sometimes makes images look flat. In auto mode, it cannot be forced off, so for more control over the frame, it is better to use the "Pro" mode. If you don't want to mess with the settings, you can simply set all sliders to "Auto" and not worry that HDR will work out of time.

Huawei P40 Pro: for shooting it is better to use the "Pro" mode

Night photography is given to a smartphone without much difficulty, although it often strives to make the frame too bright - you have to manually underestimate the exposure. The shooting of the Moon deserves a separate mention: Huawei has been repeatedly reproached for the fact that its smartphones “finish drawing” the earth's satellite using neural networks, but the result is still impressive.

Standard camera

Zoom 50X

The video is recorded in 4K resolution with a frame rate of 60 FPS and stereo sound. When using the wide-angle module, shaking is eliminated by a short focal length, so the rollers are very smooth and with the greatest angle of capture.

Autonomy

The battery capacity of the Huawei P40 Pro is 4,200 mAh. Not the most impressive indicator, but the engineers did a good job on the optimization. As a result, the smartphone can easily withstand a day of active use with social media, YouTube and a camera. When playing World of Tanks: Blitz, 6% of the energy reserve took half an hour, which is also quite good.

If you still need to recharge, Huawei has provided a fast recharge: up to 40 W via cable and up to 27 W via Qi wireless standard. From the supplied adapter, the battery replenishes its capacity in just 40 minutes.

Outcomes

The Huawei P40 Pro really surprises with its photo capabilities. The company has done a great job on software algorithms, sensors and optics so that the smartphone takes great pictures in any conditions. It is for this that they will buy a new product.

As for the rest, we have before us a quality flagship smartphone with a utilitarian design, good screen, sufficient performance and impressive battery life. The only frustrating thing is the lack of stereo sound and Google services. However, the model costs less than its competitors: it can already be bought for 63 thousand rubles. So this smartphone undoubtedly justifies its price.