"The Huawei P40 Pro has the best camera in the industry, but many will find it quite difficult to get the apps they need."
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Outstanding design and comfort
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Raised OLED screen with a refresh rate of 90 Hz
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Brilliant, versatile camera
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Long battery life
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No Google services or apps
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Audio is not great
There is a risk in everything. From mountaineering over the road to buying a used car, some decisions can go either way, good or bad. It often pays to take the risk and we are better people for it.
This is an analogy that fits the Huawei P40 Pro. If you buy it, you'll need to disconnect from Google and try something else.
I spent several weeks with the Huawei P40 Pro. The following happened when I took the risk.
design
This phone is beautiful. After juggling the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, the OnePlus 8 Pro and various other modern smartphones over the past few weeks, the Huawei P40 Pro stands above everyone in terms of perfect design, clear identity and sensible design decisions.
The best thing is the choice of matt, matt glass on the back. Yes, the OnePlus 8 has something like the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro, but they don't look as fabulous as the P40 Pro.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
My favorite section? The way the Huawei logo is reflected deep in the glass. The curved sides of the body catch the light, and the matte silver paint shown here changes between blue, gray, white, and silver.
The elegance is affected by the bumpiness of the monster camera, which gives the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra a run for its money when it comes to how big it is. Calls. It sticks out a few millimeters and although the lenses and sensors are neatly arranged, it distracts attention from the simple beauty of the frosted glass.
It is one of the most convenient phones I have ever held. It's not sharp on the sides and all corners are rounded to make sure they don't dig into your palm. The real triumph, however, is the rounded glass at the bottom of the screen. Swipe-based gesture control means you always swipe up from the bottom of the phone. This is a tactile nightmare if there is a bezel, comb, or sharp edge there. The P40 Pro has nothing but a cascading piece of glass that smoothes the progress of your finger on the screen.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
This makes the P40 Pro really feel different from any other Android smartphone you can buy today. Only the Apple iPhone 11 Pro can keep up with the ergonomics of the P40 Pro.
It is less positive to note that the P40 Pro – admittedly due to the camera sensors and the battery capacity – is chunky with a thickness of 9 mm and a considerable 209 grams. Though strong, it's well balanced and many other big phones this year are even heavier. For comparison, the Galaxy S20 Ultra weighs 222 grams and is 8.8 mm thick, while the iPhone 11 Pro Max is 226 grams and 8 mm thick.
Yes, the P40 Pro is a bit slippery at the edges. Apart from that, the P40 Pro is professionally designed, has real stylistic flair and manages to obscure part of its weight.
Display quality, security
There is a 6.58-inch OLED screen on the front of the P40 Pro. It has a resolution of 2640 x 1200 pixels and a refresh rate of 90 Hz. There is a built-in fingerprint sensor and a face release. There is a very narrow border around the display and a slight curvature on the sides. The selfie camera with two lenses is punched on the top left of the screen and may be three times the size of a standard pinhole camera with a lens. This means that valuable space on the screen for notification icons is eliminated and is always recognizable when watching videos.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
How is the video YouTube looks great, although I had to look through the Firefox browser (no Google Apps, do you remember?). It still supports 2160p video with no problems, but features like double tap to advance 10 seconds don't work.
Amazon Prime videos, like Netflix, can be viewed via the browser with a resolution of up to 4K. However, the user interface is not as intuitive as a native app. Everyone looks great, and the screen of the P40 Pro can match the details and balance of the iPhone 11 Pro, while the Galaxy S20 Plus lives up to that of the Galaxy S20 Plus. It is wonderful.
Unfortunately, the great viewing experience is diminished by the sound. I found the same problem with the Huawei Mate Xs, a device that's even more video-focused than the P40 Pro. There's a single main speaker on the bottom of the phone that's fairly thin and uninspiring. This is not supported by the fact that the sound to the right of the phone is biased. When the screen looks as good as it does, the overwhelming audio is even more noticeable, especially if the competing Oppo Find X2 Pro manages to do both aspects just right.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
The fingerprint sensor is located high up on the screen and makes it easier to find when holding the phone with one hand, although it wasn't quite as reliable as some others I've used, including the physical button on the Apple iPhone SE. The face unlock is excellent and usually still hits me for the fingerprint sensor. I also like the way the screen stays active when you look at it.
Camera performance
The outstanding function of the P40 Pro is the camera. The P30 Pro's camera is difficult to track, but the P40 Pro is definitely up to the task. A 50-megapixel 1 / 1.28-inch sensor is the headline grabber, followed by a 40-megapixel ultra-wide angle sensor and a 12-megapixel telephoto camera. Finally, there is a 3D depth sensor. The telephoto camera enables a 5x optical zoom and a 10x hybrid zoom as well as a 50x digital zoom.
Extras include image stabilization controlled by optical and artificial intelligence, 4K video at 60 fps and the improved XD Fusion image signal processor from Huawei. Huawei also worked again with Leica to produce the camera on the P40 Pro.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
The P40 Pro has a powerful zoom function. All others simply follow Huawei here, up to a maximum of 50x digital zoom. The app prompts you to use the 5x and 10x zooms, and there isn't a big difference in quality between the shots you take with both. This is proof of the excellent A.I. and camera tuning.
In reality, this means that you can safely use 5x and 10x zoom without questioning whether the results are reasonable. Huawei A.I. then miracle works with 50x zoom. No, you don't want to share the photos taken at this magnification level very often, but it is impossible to deny how good they are compared to the catastrophic photos that were taken a few years ago with even moderate zooms. The stabilization at long zoom is excellent and holds the subject with little movement on the screen in the viewfinder.
I am also impressed by the bokeh of the P40 Pro – both the artificial bokeh mode in aperture or portrait mode and the natural bokeh generated by the large sensor. Edge detection is great in artificial modes. In normal mode, you can also get close to small objects like flowers and achieve a strong natural bokeh effect. I am also glad that there is a standalone monochrome mode that gives your photos the atmospheric Leica look.
What about night mode? It has been a mainstay of Huawei cameras for several years and not the mainstay for night shots here because the standard camera is incredibly good in and of itself. You have to experiment with the camera, as night mode sometimes provides a brighter and more detailed picture. However, if you often leave it in normal mode, you'll get amazingly good pictures in low light.
Without night mode Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
With night mode Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
Without night mode Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
With night mode Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
All of this happens before you start looking at the video, where you can not only take wide-angle and zoom shots, but also 4K resolution at 60 fps and slow motion at 7,860 fps. The stabilization is excellent, the colors are vivid and an extensive video editing mode is integrated in the standard gallery app.
Does the P40 Pro camera have anything bad? Shots with different lenses look different. Exposure, color balance, and atmosphere vary in a scene depending on whether you take the photo with the wide-angle or standard lens. However, this does not only apply to the Huawei phone, as this is the case with all smartphones with multiple lenses.
It is difficult for me to complain about something else, since most people do not notice tiny inconsistencies in dynamics and colors. It's the new smartphone camera to beat.
software
You want the camera, don't you? Of course you do. But to get it, you have to make some compromises.
No Google Mobile Services (GMS) are installed on the Huawei P40 Pro. This means that neither Google Play nor Google Pay, Google Maps or other apps or services supported by Google are used. Instead, the phone uses Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) and the Huawei App Gallery App Store, which are all based on Android 10 and have Huawei's own EMUI 10.1 user interface.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
If you've used the Mate 30 Pro, the P30 Pro, or previous phones like the P20 Pro, the software is a familiar area. With Huawei, you can either hide apps in an app drawer or spread them across multiple home screens. There's a great dark mode and plenty of great Huawei apps instead of the Google apps. For example, Huawei's email client and calendar are excellent, as is Huawei Health's fitness tracking app.
Using the P40 Pro is very fluid, quick and easy. Huawei has refined EMUI so much that it comes close enough to the standard Android that it doesn't require much learning for newbies, but it's still quite obvious that Huawei overall has its own design experience. I haven't encountered any of the annoyances I found on the Huawei Mate Xs and found the P40 Pro's software to be polished and reliable.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
However, the app gallery does not meet all of my app requirements and possibly not all of yours. I've explained in detail what was missing and why it affected me when using the Mate Xs, and the situation with the P40 Pro is essentially the same.
There is good news. Maps is now officially available in the app gallery and is an excellent alternative to Google Maps, even if you cannot simply import all saved places from the Google app. The navigation is effective, although I haven't been able to test it much due to movement restrictions. The swipe-in newsfeed on the start screen contains links that not only lead to websites behind a paywall, but also significantly increase their usefulness.
By using the Phone Clone app, the Amazon App Store, and some APK files to install most of my required apps, the P40 Pro can be fully used for users who are not deep in the Google ecosystem. But that's still the problem.
I can't easily access my files in Google Drive, so importing / saving WhatsApp and Line conversations is not possible. I can't use Google Pay, my Google Smart Home devices can't be controlled by an app, and my YouTube Premium subscription is less fun when I'm forced to use the browser to access the website. Using the browser as a replacement for apps is generally not the best experience, but you'll need to get used to it with the P40 Pro.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
I doubt some of the decisions that Huawei's app ecosystem has made. When I open the app store I am often greeted by an ad that cannot be skipped for a few seconds, which I think is unacceptable. Opening the music or video app leads me directly to the new Huawei content stores and pushes me into the payment areas instead of immediately to my own saved files. Huawei is still learning and finding its feet, but these actions won't help many make the transition to the App Gallery and HMS easier.
There is another issue with the random installation of apps outside of the app gallery, with notifications. For example, Twitter and Instagram are installed through the Amazon App Store, and the arrival of notifications is incomplete. Then there is an update of apps that does not happen automatically if they come from multiple sources and I have security concerns when installing apps from unofficial sources. All of this makes using the phone more time consuming and cumbersome than many prefer.
Bottom line? If you use Google’s services on a daily basis or rely on certain apps that are not available through the app gallery, you will encounter some problems when switching to the P40 Pro. If Google is not essential for your mobile life and your apps are available in the Huawei App Store, life with the P40 Pro is easier. Huawei is confident that the app gallery will improve in the future, but we can only assess today's app situation.
The software, more precisely the app store and the availability of apps, is the risk when buying and using the Huawei P40 Pro every day.
Performance and battery life
Huawei's own Kirin 990 processor, an octa-core chip based on the ARM Cortex A76 architecture with a separate Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for artificial intelligence tasks, is in the P40 Pro. It also has a built-in 5G modem instead of a separate modem for improved reception and efficiency. Due to movement restrictions, I was unable to test the 5G connection on the P40 Pro, but found it excellent on the Mate Xs. It has 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage space.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
Depending on your taste, there is a healthy selection of games in the app gallery. Asphalt 9 is available and is rendered flawlessly in high quality display and performance mode. Games can also be downloaded from the Amazon App Store. Although those that I tried out were played perfectly, I found that the selfie camera with two lenses disturbed the user interface by hiding the buttons on the screen. Benchmark tests downloaded as APK files gave the following results:
3DMark Sling Shot Extreme: 5,303 (volcano)
Geekbench 5: 755 single core / 2,993 multi core
These values are far below the Oppo Find X2 Pro, which contains a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, and cannot keep up with the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus with Exynos 990 drive. Since the apps had to be installed outside of an official store, there might have been compatibility issues affecting the results as there was no sign of slowness during my time on the phone.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends.com
The battery life is great, just like you'd expect from a Huawei P-series device, and the 4,200 mAh cell easily lasts two days. It has both a quick wired charge that took an hour and 10 minutes to get the battery from 5% to full and a quick wireless charge.
Price, guarantee and availability
The Huawei P40 Pro is now available in the UK via Huawei's own website and the Carphone Warehouse. However, it was not officially released in the United States, but could be obtained as an import. It costs £ 900, which is about $ 1,120. Huawei grants a two-year warranty against manufacturing defects on its phones in the UK.
Our opinion
The Huawei P40 Pro has fantastic hardware and a dreamy camera with a long-lasting battery so you can get the most out of both. You have to compromise on software that is not in the Google Play Store through no fault of Huawei. This means that you may need to find new work and communication methods to enjoy the P40 Pro.
Is there a better alternative?
Yes. Let's start with Huawei's own alternative, the P40 Pro Plus, which will come on the market sometime in June or shortly after. The camera promises to be even better because it has a state-of-the-art 10x optical zoom. So if you want to use life without Google, it might be worth waiting for the best model of the P40 family to do so.
If you spend $ 1,000 to $ 1,100, you should go for the Apple iPhone 11 Pro at £ 1,000 or £ 1,000, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus at £ 1,200 or £ 1,000, the Oppo Find X2 Pro at £ 1,300 or £ 1,100 or so $ 900 or £ 800 OnePlus 8 Pro. All of these phones have great cameras and impressive screens, as well as better access to all the apps they want.
You can even turn the clock back and find Huawei's flagship for 2019, the P30 Pro, which is still outstanding today, costs less, and has Google Mobile Services installed on it.
How long it will take?
The P40 Pro is IP68 waterproof, but is not particularly durable because it is made of glass. A case is recommended to keep it safe. The hardware itself will be fresh in the coming years and there will certainly be no shortage of skills. Interestingly enough, there is a big chance that the App Gallery – the biggest disadvantage of the P40 Pro today – will get better over time and offer more apps that we want.
Should you buy one?
No, I say that with a heavy heart, because the Huawei P40 Pro has a lot to offer. However, access to apps is currently too limited for the majority of people.
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