Instead, companies are now forced to hold live streams where they unveil their new devices. The same has happened today with the launch of the Huawei P40 family of phones. So what’s new with the new P40 smartphones? Well, first off, it is worth noting that Huawei has unveiled 3 different devices. The P40 Series comprises three devices, the Huawei P40, the P40 Pro and the P40 Pro+. All three devices are very similar with the difference being in the camera setup, battery, storage options and of course, pricing. Let’s first look at the beefier Huawei P40 Pro.
Huawei P40 Pro
In terms of look and feel, the P40 Pro looks a lot similar to the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. It sports a 6.48″ AMOLED panel with good viewing angles. The display has a punch-out, pill-shaped hole that houses the front-facing camera and a time-of-flight (ToF) sensor. This duo should result in better edge detection for selfies and a much faster face unlock. There’s also an improved in-display fingerprint sensor. Unlike the Mate 30 Pro, this device does not have a waterfall display so you get the good old volume rockers on this device, something that was questionably missing from the Huawei Mate 30 Pro.
Camera
Just like the P30 Pro, the Huawei P40 Pro is being offered as one of the most impressive camera experiences from the Chinese OEM. If history is anything to go by, the camera offering of this device will be in direct competition with the likes of Galaxy S20 Ultra. It sports a quad-camera setup. This includes a 50 MP main camera with Optical Image Stabilization, a 40 MP Ultra-wide camera; a 12 MP, 10x optical zoom lens (that’s the periscope lens); and finally, a time of flight sensor. All good on paper and we’ll wait to test it out. The three devices can be distinguished by their cameras. The regular non-pro version of the P40 lacks the 10x Periscope zoom lens.
Battery
The other way to tell these three devices apart is by their battery sizes. The unreleased Huawei P40 Pro+ sports a hefty 5500mAh battery cell while the Huawei P40 Pro has a 4200mAh battery cell. The non-Pro version of the Huawei P40 sports a 3800mAh cell. All these devices support 5G. If that is something that is important to you, any of these devices will do.
Still No Google services
The new Huawei P40 flagship devices are severely limited due to the lack of Google Play Services. This means the device does not come with Google services or the Play Store for that matter. The app ecosystem is limited to Huawei’s own app Gallery or the slew of third-party app stores available for Android. However, due to the lack of Google API, some apps just won’t work on this device. The Huawei P40 family of devices are offered in 5 color options; Black, Deep Sea Blue, Ice White, Silver Frost, and Blush Gold.
Price and availability
These are not cheap devices. As such, their prices reflect just that. The Huawei P40 starts at a rather ‘reasonable’ €799 for the 8GB + 128GB storage option. The Huawei P40 Pro starts at an eye-watering € 999 for the 8GB + 256GB storage option while the beefiest of them all, the P40 Pro+ starts at €1,399 for the 8GB + 512GB storage option. Huawei says that all these devices will be available in select markets as from April 7th, except the Huawei P40 Pro+. This will be available from June 2020.
