Huawei P40 hands-on review

Introduction

Huawei's mainstream "P" flagship family has been experiencing a veritable growth spurt this year. First, there the P40 Lite and the P40 Lite E popped-up on the scene. Granted, these are, kind of honorary P40 devices, given that the first is basically a rebranded Huawei nova 6 SE, while the latter - a Huawei Y7p.

But, even setting rebrands aside, we have a trio of actual P40 devices this year. Judging by competitor lineups and the Galaxy S20 line, in particular, three seems to be the new magic number. And speaking of which, this is hardly and rather unsurprisingly, not the only point of comparison between Samsung's and Huawei's current mainstream flagship devices. But, more on that later.

Huawei P40 at a glance

• Body: 148.9 x 71.06 x 8.5 mm, 175g; Metal frame, glass back and front; IP53 rating.
• Screen: 6.1" AMOLED, 1080x3240px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio; 60Hz refresh rate.
• Chipset: HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G (7 nm+): Octa-core CPU (2x2.86 GHz Cortex-A76 & 2x2.36 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4x1.95 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G76 MP16 GPU; Dual Big Core + Tiny Core NPUs (Neural-network Processing Unit).
• Memory: 8GB RAM, 128GB built-in storage, Nano Memory Card slot.
• OS/Software: Android 10 (no Google services), EMUI 10.1.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50MP Ultra Vision Wide Lens, 1/1.28" RYYB sensor, 4-in-1 pixel binning, 23mm equiv. focal length, f/1.9 aperture, OIS, Octa PD Autofocus. Telephoto: 8MP, 80mm 3x telephoto lens, f/2.4, 80mm equiv. focal length, OIS, Autofocus. Ultra wide angle: 16MP Ultra Wide Angle Lens, 17mm equiv. focal length, f/2.2, Autofocus; 8 color channel multi spectrum Color Temperature Sensor.
• Front camera: 32MP, f/2.0, fixed focus; Depth sensor.
• Battery: 3,800mAh, 22.5W fast charging support.
• Misc: Single, bottom-firing speaker, Extended Sub-6 5G support, Optical under-display fingerprint reader; NFC; Wi-Fi ac + Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, Dual Nano-SIM support, NanoMemory card support.

We're sure the Huawei P40 Pro and P40 Pro+ are going to soak-up all the spotlight in the foreseeable future. Still, the vanilla P40 definitely deserves some attention. Frankly, it is a very different best, compared to its bigger brothers. Of course, it comes close in many respects. But even a quick glance at its significantly less-curvy silhouette and more traditional bezel design instantly reveal a less-flashy, yet not necessarily less premium device.

Follow along as we take a quick first look at the Huawei's least-expensive P40 flagship, what it has to offer and the big things it lacks, compared to its siblings.