Today Huawei unveiled quite the collection of smartphones, within the Huawei Mate 40 lineup, their Fall 2020 flagships. We’ve managed to handle the Huawei Mate 40 Pro for a few hours and we have impressions about it. What’s certain is that it’s a flagship for sure, with a 5 nm CPU, a new triple camera with laser focus and it’s more than ever about filming ahead of photographing. It comes in a beautiful Mystic Silver hue and we’ve unboxed it below.
Inside the box we find a 66W charger, which makes Huawei the proponent of one of the fastest charges on the market, plus an USB-C cable, SIM key, manual and case. We also get headphones, the typical kind, with USB-C connector and Apple EarPods look. The design of the phone is definitely something else, as far as the Space Ring goes. It’s a circle within a circle and feels like the scroll wheel of an iPod seen from afar. The Huawei Mate 40 Pro is made of glass and aluminum, with a 88 degree curve of the screen.
It’s got IP68 certification and the physical volume buttons are back, after being gone from the Huawei Mate 30 Pro. The biggest design achievement is having periscope camera with 5x optical zoom without a protruding module.
This is the full hardware setup:
- Display: 6.67 inch, OLED, 2772 x 1334 pixels, 90Hz
- CPU: Kirin 9000
- RAM: 8 GB
- Storage: 256 GB + nano memory slot
- Battery: 4400 mAh, 66W wired charge, wireless 50W charge, reverse charge
- Connectivity: 4G, 5G, GPS, USB-C, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC
- Selfie camera: 13 MP ultrawide + ToF
- Back camera: 50 MP + 20 MP ultrawide + 12 MP telephoto (5X optical zoom) + laser focus
- Others: stereo speakers, liniar haptic motor
There are some interesting traits to mention here, like the combo of the WiFi 6+ and 5G, with the Turbo feature. We also get stereo speakers separated from the earpiece and 3D Face unlock via the front ToF sensor. The main camera sensor is the same RYYB one from P40 Pro and the camera also comes with a few new features:
- Person Tracking: it tracks the person moving in the frame, even without moving the phone
- Story Creator: you can create a sort of TikTok video with a soundtrack, filters, effects and more
- Steady Shot stabilization
- Pro Video
- Audio Focus/Audio Zoom
- 3 angles for the selfie camera
- 4K selfie video capture
Software-wise we get Android 10 with EMUI 11, with new fonts, new animations and new permissions. The Gallery app now has bigger header pics and we also get an upgrade for the Multi Screen Collaboration feature. It now lets you open 3 apps at a time on the laptop you mirror your phone on. Only a MateBook of course. AppGallery is still the app store of choice, now with 80% of the top 3000 Play Store apps on offer. Fortnite is also here, unlike Play store.
We also get Petal Search as a search engine and app source, Petal Maps and Huawei Docs. There’s also Smart Gesture Control, letting you move the hands in front of the device to browse a gallery of pics or even take a call.
Another new feature is Eyes on Display, which is activated at a glance, with interactive displays, combined with Always on Display. As long as you keep watching the screen it stays on. Also, you can reduce the volume of a call just by looking at the screen. First impressions? A wider and buff phone, but without a protruding camera. The camera has a lot of video oriented upgrades, even more so than the photo ones. There are also some welcome software upgrades and apps to benefit from.
It truly feels more like a Galaxy Note rival than just a Fall flagship.
