Sunday, 29 March 2020 09:20

Huawei P40 series - the new reference? Featured

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Last Thursday we sere brought the mobile launch that has been followed by high expectations. Of course, we are talking about Huawei's new P40 series.

This late winter, it has become a custom for the big launches to be online only, and this also applies at the local level. Where we have been a bit spoiled with a good host from Huawei, this big launch that was perhaps the most important during the year for the Chinese manufacturer, we had to settle for the exeutive director and CEO Richard Yu on the podium, well dressed via a video from our respective home office.

The P*0 series has gradually created an expectation of becoming the leading mobile in the mobile camera exercise, at least at the time of launch. This year's launch was no exception, and symptomatically it went under the hashtag VisionaryPhotography . Or the slightly longer vignette Huawei P40 Series Photography - Inspiration in Focus

 

 

 

Three models

Of course, there has been extensive leaks ahead of this launch, as it is always ahead of the launch of Premium mobiles. So in addition to the fact that it was really elementary mathematics, most people have figured out that the new models would be P40 and P40 Pro. Not equally many people had a good overview over the fact that, in addition to these two, a flagship model named P40 Pro + was to be launched. This may have been inspired by Samsung's Galaxy launch earlier this winter, but it is far more likely to be an independent assessment.

The Huawei P40 will have a price in Norway of NOK 9,490, - while the P40 Pro will have a price of NOK. 11.490, -. The price of P40 Pro + in Norway is not yet known, but based on a price tag of 1,399 Euro, it is reasonable to assume that the price tag will pass the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra by a good margin. We will see what happens with the NOK exchange rate during the  NeXT weeks and months..

During the pre-sale until April 2, a set of FreeBuds 3 with a value of SEK 1,790 will also be included. We reviewed these a month ago and can confirm that they are well Worth applying.

The P40 series as a camera

Camera is a heavy Focus topic on all three models, but of course the biggest on the flagship model. The P40 has three cameras while the P40 Pro has four. And then the flagship is equipped with five cameras, one of which has a zoom with up to 10x optical and 100x hybrid zoom. This tangles the merits of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, but then there is no reason to expect top performance at maximum zoom on any of the models.

Huawei creates expectations of outstanding photo features using three factors. In addition to the collaboration with Leica self-evidently automatically gives a high cred in the photo arena, they now receive credit for previous qualifications in the photo properties of the P20 and P30 series. But perhaps the most important aspect is that they also deliver on specifications, and when they also have a sold experience with AI-related photo enhancements, it's hard not to be optimistic in this field.

Huawei Ultra Vision Sensor

The point where Huawei protrudes from all the others is on the sensor size. Huawei claims to have the world's largest image sensor on a mobile camera, and there's no reason to doubt this statement. It was presented as having 200% more light reception than the iPhone 11 Pro Max, and is also physically larger than the image chip on the S20 Ultra, and a lot larger than on all other mobile phones.

Properties in low light

The P40 Pro and P40 Pro + is claimed to have an ISO value of 409,600. Of course, this is quite an Extreme number, and according to Richard Yu, the iPhone and Galaxy have similar ISO numbers below 12,800. And when it comes to low-light photo features, Huawei's AI expertise comes in handy. And it's probably just under low-light photography that the competitors have the biggest reason to fear that they will be heavily bypassed by the P40 series.

Quad Curve Overflow Display

The design of the P40 series does not differ much from the field of non-foldable mobiles. And, strictly speaking, there aren't very many strings to play in the design of today's mobile regime either, where waterfalls are already last year's News. But the P40 series differs from the crowd at one point. With their HUAWEI Quad Curve Overflow Display, they have an increase in the rounding on each corner that gives a refined little dot over the in-line alignment.

The display has a resolution of FHD on P40, while the two largest models have a slightly higher resolution of 2640 x 1200 Pixels.

The smallest model has a screen size of 6.1 inches, much like the standard iPhone 11. The two largest have a display of 6.58 inches, which is slightly larger than the iPhone 11 Pro Max. At the same time, Richard Yu is proud that they have a significantly greater efficiency, because the maximum size is clearly smaller on both P40 and P40 Pro / Pro + respectively than on the respective iPhone models.

The screen has a refresh rate of 90Hz, a significant improvement over the standard 60Hz.

colors

The P40 and P40 Pro have the same color range. The five available colors are Silver Frost, Blush Gold, Deep Sea Blue, Ice White and Black. If you buy a P40 Pro +, you get access to the two exclusive finishes White Ceramic and Black Ceramic. A lean digital first impression suggests that the latter may be stunning.

More technique

lliAll the P40 series mobiles have the Kirin 990 processor, a chip that was previously introduced on the Mate 30 Pro, the folding Mate Xs and on the new MatePad Pro tablet, which was launched at the same time as the Mate Xs . It goes without saying that the P40 series has 5G, but we still consider mentioning it.

The battery is 3800 (P40)  and 4200 mAh (P40 Pro/Pro+) respectively, which is not very impressive. But here, Huawei has focused on charging time. P40 Pro and P40 Pro+ have a charge of up to 40 Watts, while the flagship model also has the possibility of wireless charging of 40 Watts. We believe this is all time high.

"Hi Celia!"

There certainly is something very familiar with this, we just can`t just remember what…  Huawei has thus launched a personal assistant for their users, which they can babble with and ask about most things in life. And this assistant is not called Siri, but Celia. Of course, how good Celia is at listening is an essential question at such role, but we have no indication of that at this time. All we know is that Siri sometimes talks when she should listen... Just like Sonny Corleone back in ancient times.

AppGallery

Then we got to the elephant in the room. For Huawei still has no access to Googles apps through the Google Store due to the US's banning of Huawei. After the shock that came  a short year ago, Huawei has not been sitting licked their wounds, but worked very strategically on this challenge. And this is on several levels. Many thought that if this ban would keep standing, it would mean the hook on the door for Huawei. But the thing is that the company has only increased its sales over the past year. And this despite the fact that Huawei has been very reluctant to launch the new models in the Western market until last month.

Firstly, they have been working very actively to develop their own apps, available in Huawei AppGallery. They invite all APP Developers to converting to Huawei`s ecosystem, and have also partnered with other major mobile manufacturers in China on a common market. And according to some commentators, this effort has been so offensive that Google is now getting nervous that Huawei may choose not to return to Google, even if given the opportunity. What is happening in this sector is difficult to predict and is a moment of tension in the market.

In addition, Huawei has launched something called Quick Apps. This should be a substitute for apps not available from Google. And also the previously mentioned feature "Hi Celia" confirms that Huawei is gradually building up and strengthening its own ecosystem to make them more independent and less vulnerable to exclusion from external suppliers. Fully integrated interaction and exchange seems to be the focus of Huawei's ecosystem.

Even more fun

In addition to the new P40 series, Huawei had even more news this Thursday at the end of March. The biggest news of these is the smart speaker Huawei Sound X, a speaker that has been developed in collaboration with the French HighEnd Company Devialet, an extra reason for having great expectations for this speaker. We have seen the contours of this for a month, but it has not been clear whether it will reach Europe.

In addition, there are two new variants of the Watch GT 2 smart watch , which we wrote about last fall. In addition to new color and design variants of the main model comes a slightly more affordable and clearly more sporty variant in the Watch GT 2e.

And the latest news was perhaps the strangest of them all. For with X GENTLE MONSTER Sunwear, Huawei has picked up the glove after Bose lasered their sunglasses Frames with wireless speakers integrated just over a year ago. An apparently cracking good idea, which of course depends on how well the implementation works both as sunglasses and as speakers. Huawei has partnered with an existing Premium Sunglasses manufacturer GENTLE MONSTER, which should at least be promising for the use as sunglasses.

We will return with supplementary news articles about both Sound X, GTe and the sunglasses Huawei X GENTLE MONSTER Sunwear.

In the meantime, you can read more about the P40 series at Huawei

 

Specifications for the three P40 models:

Huawei P40

Huawei P40 Pro

Huawei P40 Pro+

     

Dimensions and Weight:

Width 71.06 mm

Width 72.6 mm

Width 72.6 mm

Height 148.9 mm

Height 158.2 mm

Height 158.2 mm

Depth 8.5 mm

Depth 8.95 mm

Depth 9.0 mm

WeightApprox. 175 g (including the battery)

WeightApprox. 209 g (including the battery)

WeightApprox. 226 g (including the battery)

     

Display:

Colour:

Colour:

Colour:

Silver Frost,Blush Gold,Deep Sea Blue,Ice White,Black

Silver Frost,Blush Gold,Deep Sea Blue,Ice White,Black

White Ceramic,Black Ceramic

Display:

Display:

Display:

6.1 inches

6.58 inches

6.58 inches

Colors:

 

Colors:

 

Colors:

16.7 million colours

16.7 million colours

16.7 million colours

Type

Type

Type

OLED

OLED, up to 90 Hz frame refresh rate

OLED, up to 90 Hz frame refresh rate

Resolution:

Resolution:

Resolution:

FHD+ 2340 x 1080 Pixels

2640 x 1200 Pixels

2640 x 1200 Pixels

     

Splash, Water, and Dust Resistant

IP53

IP68

IP68

     

Processor

HUAWEI Kirin 990 5G

HUAWEI Kirin 990 5G

HUAWEI Kirin 990 5G

     

CPU:

CPU:

CPU:

Octa-core

Octa-core

Octa-core

2 x Cortex-A76 Based 2.86 GHz + 2 x Cortex-A76 Based 2.36 GHz + 4 x Cortex-A55 1.95 GHz

2 x Cortex-A76 Based 2.86 GHz + 2 x Cortex-A76 Based 2.36 GHz + 4 x Cortex-A55 1.95 GHz

2 x Cortex-A76 Based 2.86 GHz + 2 x Cortex-A76 Based 2.36 GHz + 4 x Cortex-A55 1.95 GHz

     

GPU:

GPU:

GPU:

Mali-G76

Mali-G76

Mali-G76

     

NPU:

NPU:

NPU:

Dual Big Core + Tiny Core NPUs (Neural-network Processing Unit)

Dual Big Core + Tiny Core NPUs (Neural-network Processing Unit)

Dual Big Core + Tiny Core NPUs (Neural-network Processing Unit)

     

Operating System

EMUI 10.1 (Based on Android 10)

EMUI 10.1 (Based on Android 10)

EMUI 10.1 (Based on Android 10)

     

Memory

8 GB RAM + 128 GB ROM

8 GB RAM + 256 GB ROM

8 GB RAM + 512 GB ROM

     

Camera

Rear Camera:

Rear Camera:

Rear Camera:

50 MP Ultra Vision Camera (Wide Angle, f/1.9 aperture)

50 MP Ultra Vision Camera (Wide Angle, f/1.9 aperture, OIS)

50MP Ultra Vision Camera (Wide Angle, f/1.9 aperture, OIS)

16 MP Ultra-Wide Angle Camera (f/2.2 aperture)

40 MP Cine Camera (Ultra-Wide Angle, f/1.8 aperture)

40MP Cine Camera (Ultra-Wide Angle, f/1.8 aperture)

8 MP Telephoto Camera (f/2.4 aperture, OIS)

12 MP SuperSensing Telephoto Camera (f/3.4 aperture, OIS)

8MP SuperZoom Camera (10X Optical Zoom, f/4.4 aperture, OIS)

 

3D Depth Sensing Camera

8MP Telephoto Camera (3X Optical Zoom, f/2.4 aperture, OIS)

   

3D Depth Sensing Camera

Autofocus Mode: Autofocus

Autofocus mode: Autofocus

Autofocus Mode: Autofocus

Image stabilization: OIS + AIS

Image stabilization: OIS + AIS

Image stabilization: OIS + AIS

Zoom Mode: Digital Zoom, Optical Zoom, Hybrid Zoom

Zoom Mode: Digital Zoom, Optical Zoom, Hybrid Zoom

Zoom Mode: Digital Zoom, Optical Zoom, Hybrid Zoom

Video Recording: Support for 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) 60fps video recording

Video recording: Support for 4K(3840 x 2160 pixels) 60fps video recording

Video Recording: Support for 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) 60fps video recording

Image Resolution: Support up to 8192 x 6144 pixels

Image resolution: Support up to 8192 x 6144 pixels

Image Resolution: Support up to 8192 x 6144 pixels

Video Resolution: Support up to 3840 x 2160 pixels

Video resolution: Support up to 3840 x 2160 pixels

Video Resolution: Support up to 3840 x 2160 pixels

Front Camera:

Front Camera:

Front Camera:

32 MP Selfie Camera (f/2.0 aperture), IR Camera

32 MP Selfie Camera (f/2.2 aperture) + Depth Camera*

32 MP Selfie Camera (f/2.2 aperture) + Depth Camera*

 

Autofocus Mode: Autofocus

Autofocus Mode: Autofocus

Video recording: Support for 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) 60fps video recording

Video Recording: Support for 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) 60fps video recording

Video recording: Support for 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) 60fps video recording

Image resolution: Support up to 6528 x 4896 pixels

Image resolution: Support up to 6528 x 4896 pixels

Image resolution: Support up to 6528 x 4896 pixels

Video resolution: Support up to 3840 x 2160 pixels

Video resolution: Support up to 3840 x 2160 pixels

Video resolution: Support up to 3840 x 2160 pixels

     

Battery

3800 mAh

4200 mAh

4200 mAh

     

Charging

HUAWEI SuperCharge (Max 22.5 W)

HUAWEI SuperCharge (Max 40 W)

HUAWEI SuperCharge (Max 40 W)

 

Wireless HUAWEI SuperCharge (Max 27 W)

Wireless HUAWEI SuperCharge (Max 40 W)

     

Connectivity

Wi-Fi:

Wi-Fi:

Wi-Fi:

802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax, 2 x 2 MIMO, HE160, 1024 QAM, 8 Spatial-stream Sounding MU-MIMO

802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax, 2 x 2 MIMO, HE160, 1024 QAM, 8 Spatial-stream Sounding MU-MIMO

802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax, 2 x 2 MIMO, HE160, 1024 QAM, 8 Spatial-stream Sounding MU-MIMO

Download and upload peak physical rate up to 2.4 Gbps

Download and upload peak physical rate up to 2.4Gbps

Download and upload peak physical rate up to 2.4 Gbps

     

Bluetooth:

Bluetooth:

Bluetooth:

Bluetooth5.1, Support BLE, SBC, AAC, LDAC

Bluetooth5.1, Support BLE, SBC, AAC, LDAC

Bluetooth5.1, Support BLE, SBC, AAC, LDAC

     

Data Cable Port:

Data Cable Port:

Data Cable Port:

USB Type-C, USB 3.1 GEN1*

USB Type-C, USB 3.1 GEN1*

USB Type-C, USB 3.1 GEN1*

     

Earjack:

Earjack:

Earjack:

USB Type-C earjack

USB Type-C earjack

USB Type-C earjack

     

Others:

Others:

Others:

PC Data Synchronisation

PC Data Synchronisation

PC Data Synchronisation

     

NFC

Support Reader Mode, P2P Mode, Card Emulation Mode (SIM*, HCE)

Support Reader Mode, P2P Mode, Card Emulation Mode (SIM*, HCE)

Support Reader Mode, P2P Mode, Card Emulation Mode (SIM*, HCE)

     

Sensors

Gesture Sensor

Gesture Sensor

Gesture Sensor

Gravity Sensor

Gravity Sensor

Gravity Sensor

 

Infrared Sensor

Infrared Sensor

Fingerprint Sensor

Fingerprint Sensor

Fingerprint Sensor

Hall Sensor

Hall Sensor

Hall Sensor

Gyroscope

Gyroscope

Gyroscope

Compass

Compass

Compass

Ambient Light Sensor

Ambient Light Sensor

Ambient Light Sensor

Proximity Sensor

Proximity Sensor

Proximity Sensor

Laser Sensor

   

Colour Temperature Sensor

Colour Temperature Sensor

Colour Temperature Sensor

     

In The Box

Phone (Built-in battery) x 1

Phone (Built-in battery) x 1

Phone (Built-in battery) x 1

Charger x 1

Charger x 1

Charger x 1

USB Type-C Cable x 1

USB Type-C Cable x 1

USB Type-C Cable x 1

USB Type-C Earphones x 1

USB Type-C Earphones x 1

USB Type-C Earphones x 1

Protective Case x 1 (Not available in Western Europe and Northeast Europe)

Protective Case x 1 (Not available in Western Europe and Northeast Europe)

Protective Case x 1 (Not available in Western Europe and Northeast Europe)

Quick Start Guide x 1

Quick Start Guide x 1

Quick Start Guide x 1

Eject Tool x 1

Eject Tool x 1

Eject Tool x 1

Warranty Card x 1

Warranty Card x 1

Warranty Card x 1

* May vary in different market. Contact the local sales channel for a more detailed list.

* May vary in different market. Contact the local sales channel for a more detailed list.

* May vary in different market. Contact the local sales channel for a more detailed list.

Last modified on Tuesday, 29 September 2020 09:52
Karl Erik Sylthe

Redaktør i Audiophile.no

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