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Huawei introduced the P40 family during a global online-only event, making its second flagship move away from Google, writes Naman Arora.
The P40 family will be comprised of three P series devices – the P40, P40 Pro and P40 Pro Plus. The P40 and P40 Pro will be available next week, and the P40 is set to launch in early June.
Since the launch of the P40’s predecessor, Huawei has faced a tumultuous year with the US-China trade war raising significant questions about the Chinese company’s smartphones.
However, starting last September, Huawei has introduced Huawei Mobile Services and focussed on developing its own operating system EMUI to rival Google Mobile Services and Android, and in addition to its own app store (AppGallery), it is introducing its own first-party applications, like video-chat application MeeTime and digital assistant Celia.
Despite bold inroads offering developers the chance to penetrate the Chinese market, Huawei’s biggest challenge remains the significant shortage of applications, compared to Google and Apple.
On the hardware side, losing access to American processors has helped Huawei show off its Kirin processors, which have shown strong GPU performance and energy efficiency. With the P40 family, the Kirin 990 processor will only be offered in 5G, with no 4G-only option.
The display too is a significant upgrade, with the Pro and Pro+ offering a 6.58-inch 90Hz refresh rate OLED Overflow Display that curves at the top and bottom as well as on the sides. The P40 is the smaller handset, on account of its 6.1-inch flat screen.
There is no notch but the elliptical punch-hole for the 32MP dual-front camera may not be for everyone either.
The cornerstone of the P series is the camera, and the P40 does not disappoint, both on the software and hardware end. The P40 family has a Leica multi-camera array - The P40 has a triple camera rear, the P40 Pro a quad setup and the Pro+ a penta system.
Consistent across all models is a 50-megapixel SuperSensing sensor with two variants of the wide-angle camera: the P40 has a 16-MP sensor at a 17mm focal length, while the Pro and Pro+ offer 40MP at 18mm (so it’s slightly less wide for the sake of edge/corner quality). The higher-resolution ‘cine lens’ is also used for 4K video.
All three P40 models have optical lenses: the P40 a 3x zoom, the P40 Pro a 5x zoom, the P40 Pro+ a 10x zoom.
The Pro and Pro+ also come with a Time-of-Flight depth sensor, deriving distance information, which the software utilises in layers to create background blur in portrait mode.
All three P40 cameras offer advanced Artificial Intelligence and Night Mode modes. The launch teased features like removal of passers-by from photos and a better-photograph suggestion mode that captures a burst of photos in the background.
Overall, the P40 is a solid phone, especially if you are looking for a phenomenal camera setup. However, if you depend on Google features like Gmail and YouTube, you may be better off looking elsewhere. At least for now.Promising P40
Huawei introduced the P40 family during a global online-only event, making its second flagship move away from Google, writes Naman Arora.
The P40 family will be comprised of three P series devices – the P40, P40 Pro and P40 Pro Plus. The P40 and P40 Pro will be available next week, and the P40 is set to launch in early June.
Since the launch of the P40’s predecessor, Huawei has faced a tumultuous year with the US-China trade war raising significant questions about the Chinese company’s smartphones.
However, starting last September, Huawei has introduced Huawei Mobile Services and focussed on developing its own operating system EMUI to rival Google Mobile Services and Android, and in addition to its own app store (AppGallery), it is introducing its own first-party applications, like video-chat application MeeTime and digital assistant Celia.
Despite bold inroads offering developers the chance to penetrate the Chinese market, Huawei’s biggest challenge remains the significant shortage of applications, compared to Google and Apple.
On the hardware side, losing access to American processors has helped Huawei show off its Kirin processors, which have shown strong GPU performance and energy efficiency. With the P40 family, the Kirin 990 processor will only be offered in 5G, with no 4G-only option.
The display too is a significant upgrade, with the Pro and Pro+ offering a 6.58-inch 90Hz refresh rate OLED Overflow Display that curves at the top and bottom as well as on the sides. The P40 is the smaller handset, on account of its 6.1-inch flat screen.
There is no notch but the elliptical punch-hole for the 32MP dual-front camera may not be for everyone either.
The cornerstone of the P series is the camera, and the P40 does not disappoint, both on the software and hardware end. The P40 family has a Leica multi-camera array - The P40 has a triple camera rear, the P40 Pro a quad setup and the Pro+ a penta system.
Consistent across all models is a 50-megapixel SuperSensing sensor with two variants of the wide-angle camera: the P40 has a 16-MP sensor at a 17mm focal length, while the Pro and Pro+ offer 40MP at 18mm (so it’s slightly less wide for the sake of edge/corner quality). The higher-resolution ‘cine lens’ is also used for 4K video.
All three P40 models have optical lenses: the P40 a 3x zoom, the P40 Pro a 5x zoom, the P40 Pro+ a 10x zoom.
The Pro and Pro+ also come with a Time-of-Flight depth sensor, deriving distance information, which the software utilises in layers to create background blur in portrait mode.
All three P40 cameras offer advanced Artificial Intelligence and Night Mode modes. The launch teased features like removal of passers-by from photos and a better-photograph suggestion mode that captures a burst of photos in the background.
Overall, the P40 is a solid phone, especially if you are looking for a phenomenal camera setup. However, if you depend on Google features like Gmail and YouTube, you may be better off looking elsewhere. At least for now.
