Huawei P40 and P40 Pro first looks: the milestone in Huawei's phone photography

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Note: This feature was first published on 26 March 2020.

Huawei officially launched their 2020 variant of its flagship P series, the Huawei P40 and P40 Pro. Here are some quick first looks at the photography-oriented, 5G-capable smartphone with Huawei Mobile Services, and running on their in-house EMUI 10.1 operating system (based on Android 10).

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Here’s a quick overview on what the Huawei P40 Pro offers. The front panel features what Huawei calls the Quad-curve Overflow Display. This aesthetic design is similar to the P30 Pro’s dual-curved edge display, with the additional ‘screen overflow’ towards the sides that resembles a full glass of water right before it goes past the overflow limit. Flip the P40 Pro it on its rear and you’ll find a glass finish.

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Specs-wise, the P40 models packs Huawei Kirin 990 5G SoC which – as the name implies – is a 5G-ready phone processor compatible with both SA (standalone) and NSA (non-standalone) 5G bands and networks. The Kirin 990 5G SoC is also responsible for many of the phone’s performance upgrades over its predecessor (Kirin 980, as found in the Mate 20 and P30 series). Notably, the P40 series supports Wi-Fi 6 up to 2.4Gbps in transfer speeds.

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Other shared specs include the in-screen fingerprint sensor (30% faster than the P30 series’s), low-light 3D Face Unlock, and several photo-related features. The first is Huawei Golden Snap, an AI-based feature that helps you select the best frames from a continuous burst of photos. Also new is AI Remove Passerby – a polite name for a feature that unforgivingly removes photobombers from photos, and AI Remove Reflection – which removes unwanted subjects reflected on shiny surfaces.

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The P40 and P40 Pro would have other minor similarities, but they really do not share that much in common. While both phones have a display that supports 16.7 million colours within the DCI-P3 colour space…

The P40 packs a 6.1-inch Huawei FullView Display (OLED) at 2,340 x 1,080 pixels resolution at 60Hz refresh rate, working out to a pixel density of ~422 PPI (pixels per inch).

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The P40 Pro’s Overflow Display (OLED) sits at 6.58-inches, rocking a screen with 2,640 x 1,200 pixel resolution and 90Hz refresh rate, with a pixel density of ~441 PPI.

The P40 is rated at IP53 for its dust and water resistance. P40 Pro instead has IP68 rating, which is common in flagship-worthy phones of late. Both phones support Dual SIM Standby (user indicates which SIM card is active), USB Type-C interfacing, and expandable phone storage via microSD card.

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While the entire P40 range uses the Ultra Vision Leica camera system that gives both models Octa PD AutoFocus and the Huawei XD Fusion Engine for detail reproduction, the rear camera hardware sees variations between all three models. The P40 is a triple camera system uses:  50-megapixel Ultra Vision Camera for wide-angle shots, f/1.9; 16-megapixel Ultra-Wide Angle Camera, f/2.2; 8-megapixel Telephoto Camera with OIS, f/2.4.

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The quad-camera system on the P40 Pro’s rear has: 50-megapixel Ultra Vision Camera with OIS, f/1.9 aperture, 1/1.28-inch sensor, 2.44 μm pixel size (through pixel binning); 40-megapixel SuperSensing Cine Camera for ultra-wide-angle shots, f/1.8; 12-megapixel SuperSensing Telephoto Camera with OIS, f/3.4; 3D Depth Sensing Camera (for supporting 50x SuperSensing Zoom).

The P40 Pro+ camera system has perks that the others don’t, which we will cover separately.

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Over here, we tried the 50x SuperSensing Zoom, a digital zoom feature found on the P40 Pro. From where we were (along Fraser Street, Bugis), we were able to snap a clear shot of Fairmont Singapore’s logo located 800m to 1km away (along Bras Basah Road). This one-handed shot is an impressive display of the phone camera’s zoom capabilities, as it relied heavily on the P40 Pro’s built-in image stabilisation feature as the other hand lined up the Olympus camera for this shot.

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We’ve shared plenty of details that make the Huawei P40 and P40 Pro different from the current crop of smartphone industry’s 2020 flagships, and there’s so much more to talk about that can be left to a detailed review or in-depth explainer (such as the incoming updates to AppGallery, their charging capabilities, and EMUI 10.1 itself).

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More details on the pricing and availability in Singapore will be out soon. For now, we know that the phones have Ice White, Deep Sea Blue and Black glossy finishes, or Blush Gold and Silver Frost matte finishes. You can also read more about the phone from our keynote reporting.