1. Huawei P40 Pro

The hardware of the Huawei P40 makes it the most capable and polished device of the company. But the phone’s software without Google Mobile Services is a disadvantage.

Launched in April 2020, the phone comes with a luxurious design, a beefy battery and one of the best cameras.

Because of the US’ Huawei ban, the phone doesn’t offer Google Mobile Services. This means, US consumers can’t access popular Android apps such as Google Play Store, Gmail, YouTube, and others. And not being able to use these Android services hampers users’ experience when using the Huawei P40 Pro.

But with the Huawei P40 Pro, consumers can enjoy a premium design and a high-resolution screen.

2. Display

This is truly Huawei’s best-looking phone ever released. It has a premium feel using other top-end phones’ similar materials.

Huawei equipped the P40 Pro with what’s called a “Quad-curve Overflow Display.” This essentially means that all four edges of the phones are curved glass. On the market, there have already been some smartphones with curved sides like the Galaxy S7 Edge from Samsung. But both the top and bottom edges of the Huawei P40 Pro are curved.

However, the display curves only at the sides while at the top and the bottom, the curved part is the glass on top. The handset has a unique feel and the look of the screen doesn’t change all that much.

The bezels at the bottom and the top are very thin. Compared to competing phones, they do look thinner. But it isn’t a drastic difference when compared to the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

The Huawei P40 Pro comes with a 6.58-inch screen with a 1200x2640 resolution and a pixel density of 441ppi. This is slightly slower than some other brands’ current flagships.

The Galaxy S20 Plus of Samsung has a 1440x3200 resolution and a pixel density of 525ppi. Meanwhile, the iPhone 11 Pro from Apple has a resolution of 1125x2436 and a pixel density of 458ppi.

The screen looks gorgeous. It is bright and large, which is particularly good for streaming video. The maximum refresh rate of the display has been increased to 90Hz. This is faster than the 60Hz rate of its previous phones but isn’t as fast as other devices like the Oppo Find X2 Pro and the Galaxy S20 with a 120Hz display.

A high refresh rate means smoother animations when you are scrolling through Twitter, Instagram, etc. or playing mobile games.

The 90Hz rate is enabled by default. However, keep in mind that your battery will be drained faster. So if you want to save battery life and don’t need a smoother display, you can change the rate to 60Hz via the settings.  

3. Chip

The Huawei P40 Pro uses the Kirin 990 5H chipset, the same chipset used on the Mate 40 Pro 5G, and the Mate XS, Huawei’s folding phone. It is fast enough to compete with the latest flagship phones of rival brands. In Geekbench 5, it scored 2997, which is similar to the score of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus with a top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset.

4. RAM – Internal Storage

The Huawei P40 Pro offers 8GB of RAM and there isn’t an option with higher RAM. For internal storage, you can choose between 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB. You can expand the storage with microSD cards. The 256GB model, for typical usage, is more than enough.

5. Battery life

Inside the Huawei P40 Pro is a 4,200mAh battery. And its performance is phenomenally well. At the end of a busy day, the phone still has 20 to 30% of its battery left.

It seems like Huawei has well optimized the processor of the P40 Pro for power management, to make sure that it can last the whole day with average use.

To be able to use the phone in two days with a single charge, you will have to use the smartphone pretty lightly.

40W fast-charging is available with the charger comes in the box. Users can also charge the phone wirelessly. Fast reverse-wireless charging is supported as well. This means you can share the battery of your phone with other devices like another phone or headphones.

6. Camera

The camera tech is what sets the P series lineup of Huawei from other smartphones on the market. In terms of mobile photography, P20 and P30 smartphones raised the bar. And with the P40 Pro, it seems like Huawei is wanting to raise it even higher.

The camera setup consists of a 50MP main camera with an aperture of f/1.9, a 40MP ultra-wide lens with an aperture of f/1.8, a 12MP telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom/50x digital zoom. There is a time-of-flight sensor to create bokeh effects for portrait mode shots.

For the primary camera, Huawei uses an RYYB sensor again. The one used for the P40 Pro is the largest ever used by Huawei. It is bigger than the one used on the Galaxy S20 Ultra of Samsung. The RYYB sensor design is to replace the more traditional “Bayer Pattern” filter. And theoretically, it can collect more light.

Using pixel binning, the cameras of the P40 Pro perform really well in a low-light environment.

In the P40 series, Huawei is introducing its XD Fusion Engine which uses AI for photo optimization. The smartphone-maker is one of the first manufacturers to use AI. The results that the P40 Pro delivers are impressive.

The P40 Pro has impressive zoom capabilities, 5x optical zoom/50x digital zoom. Photos taken at high zoom levels are not very clear. For better picture quality, it is best to stick to 10x.

The zoom capabilities of the smartphone are comparable to that of top-end phones like the Galaxy S20 range.

The P40 Pro can record videos in 4K. There are options for improved low-light video and slow-mo as well. You can also record videos with the telephoto camera.

On the front, the smartphone has a 32Mp camera with an IR depth sensor for portrait mode shots and face unlocking.