News, Smartphone

Huawei P40 Series Unleashed: Ultra Vision Leica Camera, 100x Zoom, 90Hz OLED Screen

The Huawei P40 series is finally here, and there are three different devices in the lineup. These include the standard P40, the higher-end P40 Pro, and the top-of-the-range P40 Pro+. Camera performance has always been the P series’ main focus, and this remains true for these three new smartphones.

Let’s start with the highest-end device of the lot, shall we?

Huawei P40 Pro+

As its name suggests, the P40 Pro+ is the main highlight of the series. What differentiates it from the other two smartphones is the Leica-branded penta camera system. It’s made up of a 50MP RYYB f/1.9 primary shooter, a 40MP f/1.8 ultra-wide angle sensor, an 8MP f/4.4 SuperZoom periscope telephoto lens that can do 10x optical zoom, a shorter 8MP f/2.4 periscope telephoto shooter (3x optical), and finally, a time-of-flight (ToF) sensor.

It’s a very elaborate camera system, and just like the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, the P40 Pro+ can do up to 100x digital zoom. According to Huawei, the Pro+ can return sharper shots with superior detail preservation at that level of zoom. It’s a lofty claim, and it’ll be interesting to see if this is really the case once we have the device in for review.

Besides that, the P40 Pro+ also sports a rather unique quad-curve “Overflow” Display. Basically, the glass protecting the display wraps around all four edges of the phone, which makes it more ergonomically-friendly than devices with a flat design. That being said, the display itself doesn’t curve accordingly at the top and bottom; only the sides do, so you’ve got a bit of a chin at the bottom of the screen.

As for the display itself, the P40 Pro+ has a 6.58-inch 2640 x 1200 OLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. That’s right, it doesn’t go up to 120Hz like its main rivals, but that’s still a reasonably high refresh rate. Plus, 90Hz is not quite as power-hungry too. At the top left of the screen is also an oblong-shaped hole-punch cutout that houses the 32MP f/2.2 selfie camera with a depth sensor.

Rounding out the specifications of the P40 Pro+ include Huawei’s own Kirin 990 5G chipset paired with 8GB of RAM, 512GB of internal storage – expandable with the company’s proprietary NM cards – a 4,200mAh battery with 40W fast charging (both wired and wireless), an in-screen fingerprint sensor, as well as an IP68 rating.

Huawei P40 Pro

A tier down is the P40 Pro, which is actually very similar to the P40 Pro+. It has the same chassis, design, and even battery capacity as the Pro+. The only difference, of course, lies in the camera department and memory option. It doesn’t have the 10x optical zoom periscope telephoto lens, and it has half the internal storage at 256GB.

Oh, the P40 Pro only supports 27W wireless charging too, but it can still do 40W charging in wired mode. It is also ever so slightly thinner (8.95mm vs. 9mm) and lighter (209g vs. 226g) than the Pro+, given that it lacks the extra telephoto lens found in the range-topping model.

Huawei P40

Last but definitely not least is the regular P40. Compared to its other two higher-end siblings, it differs quite a bit. Not only does it have a smaller 6.1-inch 2340 x 1080 OLED display, it doesn’t have the fancy quad-curve screen design or 90Hz panel of the other two phones in the series.

Aside from that, it also has a simpler camera system: it comes with a triple camera setup made up of a 50MP f/1.9 main shooter, a 16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle sensor, and a regular 8MP f/2.4 telephoto lens. The selfie camera, on the other hand, is a 32MP f/2.0 unit paired with an IR sensor.

Other specifications of the P40 include a Kirin 990 5G chipset paired with 8GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, a 3,800mAh battery with support for 22.5W fast charging (no wireless charging support here), an in-screen fingerprint sensor, and an IP53 rating.

Without a doubt the Huawei P40 series is impressive, but like other recently launched Huawei smartphones, they don’t ship with Google Mobile Services. This means it doesn’t come with essential Google services out of the box, including the all-important Play Store, Maps, Gmail, and so on.

Of course, there is a replacement in the form of the Huawei Mobile Services, which includes the Chinese company’s own app store dubbed AppGallery. Huawei is aggressively pushing its own ecosystem, but it will take some time before it can match Google’s immense offering.

Anyway, the Huawei P40 and P40 Pro will be available from 7 April for €799 (about RM3,820) and €999 (approximately RM4,775) respectively. The highest-end P40 Pro+, on the other hand, will only be released sometime in June for €1,399 (around RM6,685). No official word yet on the Malaysian availability of the P40 series.

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