Immediately after the global launch event, Huawei has released the pre-order details and prices of both the P40 and P40 Pro. The prices are P36,990 and P50,990, respectively. As for the P40 Pro+, which is the Galaxy S20 Ultra alternative, there’s no announcement yet. However, it has a global price of €1,399(~P78,000). Except for the third model, the P40 series can be pre-ordered starting tomorrow (March 27) until April 24. They will ship with Huawei Mobile Services instead of Google services.
Most buyers will probably get the P40 because of its attractive price tag. While it doesn’t carry a fast refresh rate and ultra-large battery, it’s still a decent upgrade over its predecessor, the P30. The OLED display is manageable at 6.1″ diagonal size which further makes the compact body a lot easier to hold, only clocking in at 175g weight. Powered by Kirin 990 chipset, the P40 is 5G ready. There’s a single configuration which is 8GB/128GB, however, you do have the option to expand via nano-memory card. For the rest of the specs, NFC and infrared port are present but headphone jack and stereo speakers are missing. The battery is rated 3800mAh and fast charges at 22.5W rate.
The cameras are the biggest upgrade of the P40 handset. Featuring three main cameras on the back in a large rectangular module, the main RYYB sensor is now a 50MP f1.9 with PDAF. The other two cameras are 16MP ultrawide and 8MP f2.4 telephoto that offers OIS and up to 3x optical zoom. On the front is a 32MP f2.2 selfie camera which is housed in a large pill-shaped cutout.
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You’ll need to spend on the P40 Pro if you want to experience the true upgrades from Huawei. The OLED screen is now 6.58″ with support for HDR10+ and 90Hz. Furthermore, the ceramic body is rated IP68 versus IP53 on the P40. Aside from the specs of the screen, the hardware is somewhat improved. Dubbed as Overflow Display, the four edges of the screen are now curved. The effect is subtle and seems to be noticeable only when holding the device. Given the larger footprint, the battery is also bigger at 4200mAh. It also supports 40W Huawei SuperCharge and 27W fast wireless (and reverse) charging.
There are four main cameras on the P40 Pro and they are a bit different compared to the P40. The RYYB main sensor is still the same but there’s a massive 40MP f1.8 ultrawide now. A 12MP periscope lens has also been added to provide OIS and 5x optical zoom, while the ToF 3D sensor completes the quad-camera experience. Interestingly, Huawei did not include 8K video recording. But on the flip side, the 32MP selfie camera with ToF 3D sensor (and IR) can record 4K selfie videos. Huawei P40 Pro comes in 8GB/256GB configuration.
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The main competition of Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is Huawei P40 Pro+ 5G. It has the same screen size as the P40 Pro, featuring 90Hz 1200p OLED. The spec sheet of the two is nearly the same, except for the cameras and charging rate. The top model can wirelessly charge at 40W which is the same speed as its wired charging. Of course, you’ll need to get its proprietary 40W wireless charger from Huawei to take advantage of the feature.
Due to the hardware camera specs of P40 Pro+, Huawei seemingly introduced the device as a wildlife photography phone. That’s because there are two telephoto cameras here — an 8MP f2.4 with OIS and 3x optical zoom and a periscope 8MP f2.4 that offers 10x optical zoom. Combine that together and you can reach up to 100x Max Zoom. As for the rest, it has the 50MP f1.9 main sensor, 40MP ultrawide, and ToF 3D for depth sensing. The configuration of P40 Pro+ is 8GB/512GB with an option to expand via the nano-memory slot.
Huawei announced a lot of things, in addition to their phones. All three are running on EMUI 10.1 based on Android 10. The new software version features Huawei Share and MEETime which is kinda like FaceTime, Golden Snap which is the Single Take feature of Samsung S20’s camera app, and Huawei’s voice assistant that can be called by saying “Hey, Celia”. The under-display fingerprint scanner is said to be 30% larger for a faster unlocking process. Going back to the camera, the RYYB sensor is the biggest sensor on a smartphone at 1/1.28″. To compare, Galaxy S20 Ultra clocks in at 1/1.33″. This allows for higher light sensitivity which allows the P40 Pro+ to reach 51200 ISO.
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