Huawei P40 Pro review

Design and build

The P40 Pro, as Huawei likes to say, was designed by two principles - simplicity and minimalism. Well, we can say that for plenty of glass-sandwich flagships, but we'd give the maker that the back is indeed reminiscent of the flat point-and-shoot cameras from another era. That is, if you are old enough to remember those.

The first thing we did notice about the new P40 Pro is the curved screen and the wave-shaped aluminum frame. Huawei calls this an overflow display as it is curved at all sides and it just flows into the frame.

Indeed, as you can see, the frame is gets thinner around the sides leaving space for the screen curves, but it rises like a wave at the corners, probably for enhanced durability in addition to the cool look.

The P40 Pro is a great example of Huawei's craftsmanship - the maker has an excellent track record in making beautiful smartphones with attention to detail and we expected nothing less for its 2020 flagship series. The new flagship is water-proofed (IP68-rated), its quad-curved screen is indeed an eye-grabber, and wavy frame easily wins some points for looks, while the back has not only the new Leica camera but some great paintjobs as well.

The P40 Pro is available in Deep Sea Blue as ours (or Ink Blue), Black, and Ice White. These three models feature the usual glossy finish. But Huawei will also be selling the P40 Pro in Silver Frost and Blush Gold (or Apricot Gold) done in the trendy matt finish.

The front is all about the screen - it's an edge-to-edge panel that wraps around all four sides, but its curves aren't as sharp as they were on the Mate 30 Pro and we like them here better. The display is a new generation OLED with high-resolution (1,200 x 2,640) and 90Hz refresh rate. Obviously, it's not 1440p or 120Hz, but you don't need to lower the resolution to achieve high refresh rate, so we'd take it.

The notch is one big black blob, but the elliptical shape does help. It contains the new 32MP selfie camera with autofocus, a ToF camera, the IR flood illuminator, and the ambient light sensor. There is no notification LED on the P40 Pro, but you can enable Always-on screen of you are okay with the battery drain.

One thing you won't see anywhere on the P40 Pro is an earpiece. Just like the P30 Pro and Mate 30 Pro, the P40 Pro vibrates its screen to produce sound in voice calls and that's great. But this feature can't be used as a replacement for an actual speaker, so the P40 Pro has one speaker only and it's at the bottom.

One more thing is at the front, invisible to the naked eye - the optical fingerprint scanner. It's seen improvement since the P30 Pro - Huawei has increased its size and speed by 30%. We used it for a couple of days and indeed it is as fast as the best in the genre - the one we've seen on the Realme X50 Pro and OnePlus 7T. The area lights up on touch and the reader is as speedy as the conventional ones on other Huawei phones.

The back is where the camera magic happens. Huawei is proud how it has designed the camera hump - it has no sharp edges but instead rises from the back in a volcano-esque fashion. The transition is smooth, and we like it, though it still humps and makes the phone wobble.

On this black plate you will find the 50MP primary camera, the 40MP ultrawide shooter, and you can see the end of the periscopic lens on top of the hidden 12MP sensor. Around are also a ToF camera, an IR sensor, a multi-spectrum color temperature sensor, a mic for video capturing and its audio zoom feature, and the dual-tone LED flash.

We mentioned the cool frame a couple of times, but let's see what's around. On top you'd find another mic used for video capturing and for noise cancelling, and the IR blaster. The left side has nothing, while the volume rocker and the power key are on the right.

The bottom is where you'd find the speaker, the mouthpiece (and also the third mic for video recording), the USB-C port, and the hybrid SIM tray.

Handling the Huawei P40 Pro is as premium experience as it can get. We liked both the glossy and matte models, though the sandblasted-like panel provides for somewhat better grip and it is a nice change from the widespread glossy back.

Thanks to all those curves the P40 Pro feels much thinner and compact and it was easy to operate and carry around in a jeans pocket. If you are going to shoot a lot, and you should, you may want to use a case though - it's an expensive piece of tech and some extra peace of mind won't hurt.