After Samsung announced its premium S20 Series of devices, it was the time for Huawei to come up with its first lot of flagship smartphones of the year. The Chinese tech giant has launched the P40, P40 Pro, and P40 Pro+ with up to five rear cameras, up to two front camera sensors, Kirin 990 5G chipset, and 90Hz display. Huawei has again teamed up with Leica for its smartphone camera tech.
The P40 is the most affordable offering, the P40 Pro is the go-to device in the series, and the P40 Pro+ is the ultra-premium version of the Pro variant. They are to Huawei what the Samsung Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra are to Samsung.
The Huawei P40 5G comes in a lone 8GB RAM/128GB storage and is priced at 799 Euros (approx Rs 66,300). The Huawei P40 Pro 5G is also launched in just one 8GB + 256GB variant and will cost customers 999 Euros (approx Rs 82,900). Customers can get their hands on these phones in black, deep sea blue, blush gold, and silver frost colours from April 7. The Huawei P40 Pro+ 5G is offered with 8GB RAM + 512GB storage for 1,399 euros (approx Rs 1,16,000). It can be purchased in June in black ceramic and white ceramic colours.
The most balanced smartphone in terms of tech and pricing in the series is the P40 Pro, which sports a 6.58-inch OLED display with a 1,200 x 2,640pixel resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate. The ‘Overflow Display’ has four curved edges and a pill-shaped punch hole, which houses the front camera setup. You also get an in-display fingerprint reader, which is claimed to be 30 per cent larger than before. It means that you will have more space to scan your fingerprint. The company is also offering an infrared face scanner.
The Pro variant is fitted with the same Kirin 990 5G processor like the other models in the series. It has a 4,200mAh battery with wired SuperCharge 40W fast charging and wireless SuperCharge 27W fast charging support. On the software front, the phone runs EMUI 10.1 based on Android 10. It has a 4,200mAh battery with 40W wired fast charging and 27W wireless charging support. P40 Pro gets an IP68 dust and water resistance rating.
Huawei phones offer great camera tech and smartphone photography. The P40 Pro comes with a large 1/1.28-inch sensor, which is larger than the Galaxy S20 Ultra's 1/1.33-inch sensor. The primary camera has a 50MP RYYB sensor with Octa Phase Detection AF. This means all pixels in the sensor support phase detection autofocus. There’s a f/1.9 aperture lens with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS).
Huawei retains the periscope design for zoom from last year’s P30 Pro. There’s a 12MP RYYB sensor with telephoto lens capable of ‘5x zoom’ and OIS. The third 40MP sensor gets an ultrawide angle Cine Lens with f/1.8 aperture. Also, there’s a 3D Time of Flight (ToF) sensor and a colour temperature sensor.
Huawei says that the phone can capture 4K@ 60fps videos. The phone has a Super Steady Telephoto Video feature. The ultrawide camera can capture HDR videos and can boost ISO up to 51,200 in the dark. What’s more, you can capture time-lapse videos in 4K and 7,680fps slow-motion videos.
The Huawei P40 Pro+ is an upgraded version of the P40 Pro. The phone gets the same display as the Pro variant but 512GB of storage. Apart from a 50MP primary camera, a 40MP ultra-wide-angle camera, an 8MP SuperZoom periscope camera with 10x optical zoom, and a 3D depth-sensing camera, the P40 Pro+ variant has another 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom. It also has a 4,200mAh battery with wired and wireless SuperCharge 40W fast charging support.
The Huawei P40 Pro 5G also has a 6.1-inch OLED display with a 1,080x2,340 pixels resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. The phone has the same Kirin 990 5G SoC under the hood and comes with 8GB of RAM. The smartphone has three rear cameras with a 50MP primary sensor, a 16MP sensor with an ultra-wide-angle lens, an 8MP sensor telephoto lens, and a 3D depth-sensing camera. On the front are a 32MPsesnor and a depth sensor. The phone runs Android 10 with EMUI 10.1 on top. The phone has a 3,800mAh battery that comes with 22.5W wired charging.
Huawei’s phones will come preloaded with AppGallery and Android 10. It will not have Google services like YouTube, Google Play, etc. There are MeeTime voice and video call app with screen-sharing. The phone also has Celia, a replacement for Google Assistant, which supports English, French, and Spanish. Currently, it can handle basic tasks like adding reminders, alarms, and making calls and can also undertake tasks like AI touch shopping. It is also equipped with Google Lens-like capabilities. Celia, which wakes up to the ‘Hey! Celia’ command, will initially roll out in the UK, France, Spain, Chile, Mexico, and Colombia.
