Huawei P40 Pro – All About its Release and Amazing New Features

Huawei launches P40 Pro, the newest smartphone on the block, built with an exceptional camera quality and several other user-friendly features.

Huawei, the largest Chinese telecommunications company, has been in the market since 1997 manufacturing mobile phones. To be precise, Huawei has been producing impressive android devices including smartphones and tablets.

However, it is one of the leading smartphones manufacturer, which has curated several models of advanced smartphones. Some of its popular models are Huawei P30 Lite, P30 Pro, Mate 30 Pro, Mate 20, and Mate 20 Pro. Although each model is quite different from others and so are the prices, yet its P series is best in terms of quality and performance. With several models launched till date, Huawei crafted another high-end smartphone recently, the P40 Pro.

Release Date and Overview of Huawei P40 Pro

As mentioned already, Huawei P40 Pro was manufactured in China and was released there in April 2020. Further, Huawei decided to release this phone P40 Pro worldwide in July 2020.

Huawei’s P40 Pro features the recent Kirin 990 5G chipset, a 6.58-inch Full-HD+ OLED display with rounded edges, and dual front camera. Also, Huawei uses P-series models to showcase the company’s latest mobile camera technologies.

So, its latest launch P40 Pro, which is also a P-series flagship device for 2020, is no different from the other P series models, with camera specs and features that any competitor will find hard to match.

Since the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing political tension between China and U.S governments, several IT companies have withdrawn their services from the Chinese market. And one such company is Google! So, this ongoing controversy with the U.S government has resulted in Huawei P40 Pro’s lack of Google Services. Nevertheless, the company has covered up for the lack of proper software in the device by providing P40 Pro an exceptional hardware.

On the whole, Huawei P40 Pro is one of the most refined smartphones to be released this year with some impeccable features that offer a stable performance. Read on to know more.

Features:

· Design and Display

The most ergonomic aspect of this device is its design. P40 Pro’s edges are raised with glass, which has curved ending on all four sides. This curved and raised edges mimic water on the brink of breaking the surface tension. This results in an exclusive aesthetic, which might not impress everyone’s taste. Especially the ultra-thin bezels look quite odd with the complete design of the phone. But with the P40 Pro’s curved glass, swiping in from any direction feels smoother as compared to other smart phones. Further, the slightly angled aluminum sides help the phone to rest in the hands of the user effortlessly.

Compared to the P30 Pro and the Mate 30 Pro, Huawei P40 Pro’s design is quite different in terms of comfort. When you hold the P30 Pro, you can feel the sharpness due to the thin side rails while the Mate 30 Pro is too slippery to hold because of the excessively rounded waterfall display glass. P40 Pro, on the other hand perfectly distributes the weight throughout, which gives a phenomenal feel when held.

The volume button and the home-button on the right edge, when pressed respond smoothly and quickly. Further, the IR-blaster and microphone are wonderfully aligned, and this alignment is same with the bottom-mounted SIM tray, microphone, USB-C port, and speaker. Also, the device is IP68-rated. Overall, the design of the P40 Pro is satisfactory because of the excessively rounded corners and the massive camera bump.  

The display of Huawei P40 Pro is refreshed and is of quite high end. The P40 Pro’s 90Hz amoled panel looks great and is one key element of its display. Although it has a typical resolution compared to the other devices, P40 Pro’s display looks like the best screen ever fitted to a Huawei device. The viewing angles are well-made and when the device is tilted off-axis there is little to no color shift. Lastly, the 440 Nits Sustained Brightness gives the device the required amount of brightness.

However, there are some pitfalls in the design and display as well, which is a cause of major disappointment for Huawei users.

Firstly, the shadowing caused by the curved glass edge is noticeable, if you’re looking at the flat colors.

Secondly, P40 Pro’s major improvement is its 90 Hz resolution, but the market already has 120 Hz and Quad HD resolution phones already. This increases its competition on the market. Though, P40 Pro lacks in few elements, which most of the smartphones today do, yet, its display is quite good enough.

Performance and Hardware

P40 Pro has the processor or memory-setup same as Mate 30 Pro, which gives a clear picture of the P40 Pro’s performance. In other words, P40 Pro is built with the same system-on-a-chip used in Mate 30 Pro, which is the Kirin 990.

The Kirin 990 is a decent system-on-a-chip with CPU power similar to the Snapdragon 855, but with reduced GPU performance. Moreover, this Kirin 990 5G and 8 GB RAM ensures the smooth functioning of the device. Although the device experiences some frame drops during high-intensity 3D gaming titles like Fortnite and PUBG, yet this doesn’t affect the games. But these drops were quite noticeable and it is mainly because of the older GPU. To help the phone sustain high frame rates, Huawei really will need to upgrade the GPU in the next iteration of the Kirin chipset.

Gadgets enthusiasts might be disappointed with 8 GB RAM, as there are abundant models with 12 GB and 16 GB RAM. But considering the processes and functions of the P40 Pro, 8 GB RAM is quite sufficient. The 8 GB RAM is capable of freeing up the memory by deleting old apps, as Huawei has a strong RAM management within the device. However, there are possibilities that apps might get deleted automatically due to RAM management of Huawei.

The Kirin 990 5G chipset provides an advantage to the P series of Huawei, as this series is able to support sub-6GHz 5G bands. Kirin 990 5G incorporates its 5G modem into P40 Pro’s chipset, which results in greater power efficiency compared to the Qualcomm’s 5G modem.

However, the device also lacks mmWave support as compared to Snapdragon 865 and this is a huge disappointment for users.

Further, the optical in-display fingerprint scanner is 30% larger and 30% faster than the previous model P30 Pro, and it is a noticeable improvement. Not only is the fingerprint scanner improved and made faster but the face unlock is also super quick. As far the technology is concerned, P40 Pro relies on infrared technology, which helps to detect the user’s face, even in the dark. And it works just as it is advertised.

Apart from the hardware, the phone is developed with quite good battery life. A 40W Super Charge adapter is included in the box, which can take the 4,200mAh battery from zero to 100% in 74 minutes. Even though this might not sound very impressive of this model, if you have previously used the Mate 30 Pro, which has the same 40W charging, but it gets all the way to 97% in just 60 minutes. So, even if you use the phone with full resolution, full refresh rate and with maximum brightness alongside playing 3D games, P40 Pro still manages to survive at least 7 hours of screen on time.

Apart from this, P40 Pro also supports 27W wireless charging and even reverse wireless charging. On the whole, the hardware and the performance supported by it, are quite good enough for a 2020 flagship model.

Camera

The staple feature of Huawei smartphone model is its camera. In the P series, Huawei brings major improvements and refinement in its camera. One distinctive feature of this model is the combination of cameras, which is quite uncommon among the recent models. Moreover, the main 50MP RYYB camera has a huge 1/1.28-inch sensor, which makes it the largest of any smartphone on the market; even more massive than Samsung’s 108MP S20 Ultra’s 1/1.33-inch sensor.

So, the resulting images are amazing with bright and vibrant colors. This is due to the Huawei’s HDR tuning, which makes the details appear great even in the pixel-binned mode, while the natural subject isolation is simply remarkable.

P40 Pro is also built with four cameras- wide, ultra-wide, telephoto, and time of flight (ToF). Even the front camera is a 32MP selfie shooter and it is backed up by laser-guided autofocus. The setup is pretty loaded, as it needs to be to compete with other 2020 flagship devices.

Although some have predicted that the P40 Pro might incur autofocus problems similar to the S20 Ultra but P40 Pro is quite good. Most of the time the phone locked focus without a hitch, but particularly close or small subjects would throw the system off briefly. From a zoom perspective, it’s the same 5x periscope optical and 30x digital hybrid setup from the P30 Pro. And, for a clearer zoom picture, its sensor has been upgraded to a 12MP RYYB affair, which drastically improves the amount of detail captured in these photos.

However, with the proper amount of light, the optical zoom feature results in great pictures. But, if the light is below a specific level, the software switches to the primary camera and crops the object digitally that result in softer images of good quality.

Certain modes like Portrait and aperture doesn’t need too much tweaking to set the focus, as Huawei has refined these features. As a result, the Portrait mode of P40 Pro turns out superb. Also, the subject isolation and focus roll-off are sharp on point, and so there is no division between in focus and out of focus points. Apart from this, the low light photography is one of the strong points of Huawei’s smartphones and P40 Pro isn’t any different. It is because of the RYYB sensor, which helps to capture lots of minute details. Even the night mode of P40 Pro is great.

The 40MP ultra-wide cine camera is a brilliant upgrade with a larger sensor which gives four times more resolution. This results in a much better low-light performance in ultra-wide mode, and some really clean-looking images. It uses 18mm lens with a narrower field of view. Further, the 32MP selfie shooter captures lots of detail and color in almost all lighting conditions. Even the rear camera layout is capable of shooting Ultra HD / 4K video at up to 60 frames per second and super slow motion at up to an eye-watering 7680fps.

Overall, the P40 Pro is a complete camera package, which is nothing less brilliant and absolutely worth its price.

Software

Unlike the other features, the software of P40 Pro is different. Although it is built with Android 10, but unlike other Android phones which supports Google Services, P40 Pro doesn’t support the Google-based apps. Rather, Huawei P40 Pro has AppGallery which replaces Google Services. Well, the lack of Google Play Services can be a disappointment among users, who like to use apps like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube. Nevertheless, the solution in this case is Phone Clone. Phone Clone is an app which allows you to transfer apps from your existing Android or IoS device to the new phone. But still, there are a lot of apps which won’t run without Google Services even if it’s transferred via Phone Clone. So, it’s here that Huawei needs to make improvements in P40 Pro by adding alternative apps in the AppGallery.

Besides, Huawei embedded EMUI 10.1, which includes Sound Booster and Find My phone Features. But it’s most unique addition is Huawei’s Golden Snap, which allows creating moving pictures, reducing reflections, and removing passersby. This improves video clarity at a distance and in low-light set-ups.

EMUI also provides several other benefits like the double knock screenshot and the battery optimization tools. Lastly, the EMUI 10.1 integrates the distributed capability to the gallery, which allows you to view, search, and share media on your other Huawei devices that are signed in to your Huawei ID. As most of these benefits enhance the camera of the device, it is clear that P40 Pro is a complete camera package with excellent software.

Price

The Huawei P40 Pro’s price puts it in direct competition with the 5G version of the Samsung Galaxy S20 of $1,155, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus of $1,267, as well as the iPhone 11 Pro of $1,335. From a hardware and camera standpoint, the P40 Pro holds up to its price. Its camera is arguably the best on the market at the moment, the build quality is stellar, and the battery tech is brilliant. These features totally make it worth the price.

However, not only in hardware and camera aspects but in pretty much every category, the P40 Pro backs up its hefty price tag. It’s a killer phone for Chinese consumers, and it’s neck and neck with Samsung’s Galaxy S20 from a value-for-money standpoint.

Some Frequently Asked Questions about Huawei P40 Pro:

1. How to reset P40 Pro to its factory settings?

Well, there are two primary methods of resetting the phone to factory settings. As per the first method, you need to open Settings, and then go to System & Updates followed by Reset and Factory data reset. On clicking Reset Phone, you have to enter your screen lock and post that the reset process begins. However, before you start to reset the phone, ensure that you’ve logged out of Huawei ID, else the phone might face issues during its activation process.

To log out of Huawei ID, just the simple steps:

· Open Settings>

· Click on Huawei ID to access account center>

· Click on log out

In the second method:

· You need to turn off your phone first.

· Next, press and hold the Power button and Volume up button simultaneously until your phone vibrates.

· Continue holding it for another 5 seconds till the phone is in Recovery Mode.

· Then, press the volume button to select the option to clear data, and press the Power button to confirm.

· Once the factory reset is complete, the phone will continue to remain in the Recovery mode screen,

· Now you need to click on the option  Restart to access the home screen of the phone.

With these two methods, you can get away with all unnecessary data. But before you reset the phone just make sure you have a backup of all important files, apps, images and accounts.

2. How to back up and restore your data with an external memory card in Huawei P40 Pro?

Backing up data with external storage devices like memory card, USB, and NAS Device are quite common. Each of them has different steps to back up and restore the data, which again depends on the storage space of the external device.  

Firstly, when you back up with a memory card, just follow these steps:

· Settings > System & updates > Backup & restore > Data backup > External storage and Memory card. To back up, select the files and click on back up.

Next, you need to follow the instructions to set a password and a hint for it. As the data gets encrypted and backed up, you can change the password to restore the data.

 After the backup is complete, you can find your data backup in the Huawei folder in:

· Files > Categories > Memory card.

You can also enable auto-backup through the memory card backup screen. This enables your phone to automatically backup the data every seven days when it is in charge, the screen is turned off, and the battery level is at least 75%.

Further, to restore your backup from the memory card, you need to follow these steps:

· Settings > System & updates > Backup & restore > Data backup > External storage and then click on Memory card.

On clicking Memory card, select the backup you want to restore and then click on Restore along with entering the password. Overall, the backing up and restoring data in Huawei P40 Pro aren’t a difficult task.

3. What is the best feature of Huawei P40 Pro?

Of all the features built-in Huawei P40 Pro, the camera stands out and is the highlight of the phone. Built with wide, ultra-wide, telephoto and time of flight back cameras, P40 Pro is more refined in terms of its camera’s quality. Even the front camera 32MP selfie shooter is backed up by laser guided autofocus. The most uncommon element of this model is the combination of cameras and the excellent quality sensors. All these result in bright and vibrant colors images. On the whole, P40 Pro is a complete camera package that is totally worth its price.

4. Will Google Service enabled apps run on Huawei P40 Pro?

Well, it isn’t possible to run Google Service enabled apps on Huawei P40 Pro, as it doesn’t support the Google services. However, with an app Phone Clone you can transfer some apps from a previous android device. Nevertheless, only a handful number of apps can be used via Phone Clone. So, it is better to go for the alternatives of such apps.  

Review Summary

To summarize, Huawei P40 Pro is a stunner smartphone, which assures excellent quality features to its customers. Whether it is the design, build quality, battery life or the camera system, the P40 Pro has excelled in every area.

Moreover, if you’re looking for a phone with impeccable camera quality, then without any second thought you can pick Huawei P40 Pro. With such camera quality, it is a great competitor to Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus and definitely worth its price. However, the only disappointment for users is its inability to access Google Services. As most of the users are still quite dependent on Google Services, this can drive them away from buying it. But with the alternate apps, Huawei P40 Pro is surely a great model and holds great capability to attract a major customer base.

Overall, Huawei P40 Pro is undoubtedly one of the best smartphone devices available on the market today. So, do check out this latest model and its accessories on Chinavasion, available at a discounted price.

We hope with this review on Huawei P40 Pro, you get a clearer picture of the device and its intricate features. Being the latest model of the brand Huawei with excellent specifications, P40 Pro would be an excellent purchase.