Huawei P40 Pro review

Portraits and variable aperture

The portraits are shot with the primary camera of the Huawei P40 Pro and you can choose between many different blur effects. The important part is that thanks to the ToF camera, the subject separation is very proficient and then the blur - quite professional-looking.

Indeed, these are among the best portrait shots we've seen to date - with very balanced tone, sharpness, and good transition between person and background.

Huawei P40 Pro 12.5MP portraits

We decided to give the P40 Pro variable aperture one very complex object - an orchid flower - and see what happens.

We expected the phone to fail, but the camera got everything right and separated the whole flower from the background, brilliantly at that. We guess we finally reached the level of separation proficiency we've hoped for many years. Nice job, Huawei!

Normal • Simulated f/1.0 • f/2.4 • f/4.0

Selfies

The main selfie camera on Huawei P40 Pro probably has the same 32MP sensor we already met on the P30 Pro and Mate 30 Pro. It is now sitting behind f/2.2 26mm lens and for the first time in a Huawei flagship - autofocus is available. Finally!

The P40 Pro also packs a ToF setup next to the selfie shooter, which should be of massive help in subject separation.

So, the quality of the selfies is very good even if the resolution is too high. We suspect this is a Quad Bayer imager and we would have been plenty satisfied with 8MP snaps, but it is what it is.

There is enough detail in the selfies, while the contrast and colors are excellent. The dynamic range is wide, too, and the color rendition nice. 32MP or 8MP - everyone will be happy with the photos, and thanks to the autofocus - no more sweet spot hunting. Yay!

Huawei P40 Pro 32MP selfies

The ToF setup is indeed helping a lot when shooting portraits and the separation is excellent, one of the best you can squeeze from a selfie snapper. You can use various blur effects for selfies, too, so there are plenty of options to express yourself.

Huawei P40 Pro 32MP selfie portraits

Video recording

The Huawei P40 Pro records video up to 4K at 60fps with both the ultrawide and the regular camera. The telephoto is capped at 30fps in both 4K and 1080p. The P40 Pro has 3 microphones and in addition to the stereo sound capturing (192kbps), the camcorder also supports audio zoom - when you zoom in the video, the audio also intensifies.

You get a choice of the h.264 and h.265 codecs and we stuck with the h.264. 4K60 footage gets a lowly bit rate around 26-27Mbps, while 4K30 is treated to a more generous, yet slightly lower than usual 39-40Mbps - that's right - the 4K30 has some 50% more bits per second than 4K60.

The 1080p videos make slightly more sense, and the numbers are in line with competitors, too - 30fps bit rate is 17Mbps and 60fps gets 30Mbps.

When shooting in 1080p resolution with the main camera, the P40 Pro bins 16 pixels (4.48µm size of the fused pixel)into one making for very sharp footage and as wide as possible field of view. Other makers just crop 1080p image from the middle of the sensor and this results into much narrower FoV in 1080p resolution.

The Huawei P40 Pro supports a ton of video shooting modes - real-time bokeh video, 4K HDR time-lapse, 7680fps slow-mo, dual-video with two cameras at once, and in the Manual video mode you can shoot at ISO 51,200 for super low-light quality. Now, you can even use directional audio zoom when you are zooming in or out when capturing a video.

The main camera captures very good video with excellent contrast. 4K footage has very good detail in 30fps but a noticeable drop in sharpness at 60fps. There's virtually no difference between the 1080p modes and 60fps is as sharp as 30fps, both a match for the best in class.

Dynamic range is also nice and wide and colors are mostly accurate, save for a slight reddish tint visible when comparing side by side with other phones or the ultrawide camera (so not really that big of a deal).

The ultrawide camera videos are similar in quality as the ones from the primary shooter. The 4K60 is soft, the 4K30 footage is sharp enough. The contrast and the dynamic range are simply great.

Interestingly, there's a distinct difference in color between the 30fps and 60fps modes, in both resolutions, with the 60fps footage looking warmer and more colorful, and the 30fps clips have a more muted, and potentially more accurate rendition.

The clips from the telephoto camera are pretty great as well. The 4Ks are not as sharp as the others, but sharp enough, while the 1080p excel in detail. The footage is contrasty no matter the resolution and dynamic range is wide. The colors are a bit warmer than they should be.

The Huawei P40 Pro takes great nightime videos with its main camera. The exposure is even and the highlights are well preserved. There is no visible noise and the footage is quite sharp.

The clips from the ultrawide camera are not so impressive, especially when you consider it's marketed for its video capabilities. The output is still nice, especially for an ultrawide shooter.

Finally, the 4K footage from the selfie snapper is quite good, too. The clips aren't that detailed, but still up to the task. The colors and contrast are good, the dynamic range is great in 4K30 but limited in the 4K60 footage.

Huawei's AIS video stabilization, whether it's just EIS for selfies and ultrawide, or EIS+OIS for primary and tele shooters, is available at all times in all modes, including 4K60. There is no toggle to turn the AIS off, which isn't ideal, but we do appreciate the enhanced stabilization everywhere - it's still a rarity even on flagships.

The P40 Pro also supports crazy 7680fps slow motion recording at 720p resolution, though from what we gather the actual recording takes place at 1920fps (still mighty impressive) and the in-between frames are extrapolated through the magic of AI. The resulting video is saved at 30fps, with reality slowed down 256 times. Here's an impromptu sample (from the Mate 30 Pro) to give show you what you should expect.

Here's a glimpse of how the Huawei P40 Pro compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete comparison.

2160p: Huawei P40 Pro against the Huawei P30 Pro and the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G in our Video compare tool