Huawei P40 Pro+ review

Introduction

What do you know! Apparently, a phone can have a long zoom camera and not brag about it in its model name. And that's exactly the kind of upgrade the Huawei P40 Pro+ offers over the regular P40 Pro - 10x optical zoom instead of 5x.

Huawei P40 Pro+ presents the very best Huawei has to offer to this day - it packs a large and high-res OLED with 90Hz refresh rate, the most powerful Kirin chip complete with 5G modem, the best of Leica-powered cameras, the fastest charging, plus the ceramic overflow design is the most beautiful one Huawei has done so far.

Huawei has had a very fruitful partnership with Leica over the years, and it may as well be the one thing to help it survive in the post-Google era. The maker has been known for its excellent photography skills in a while, but with the P40 series it also focused on improving its video quality.

The penta-camera on the back of the P40 Pro+ is, of course, the star of the show, and it will be the Pro+ key selling feature. It sounds nothing short of amazing. You get a 50MP primary and a 40MP ultrawide shooters, then there is an 8MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom and another 8MP tele with the whooping 10x optical zoom thanks to a periscopic lens. The fifth shooter is a ToF one to help the autofocus, portraits, and some of the more advanced video modes.

The Huawei P40 Pro+ has another major upgrade over the regular Pro version and it is one of the most premium features you can get on a smartphone today. We are talking about the ceramic design - the P40 Pro+ has a ceramic back and a ceramic frame, which makes it much more scratch resistant than the regular Gorilla Glass and the likes options. Making such panels is a complex and costly process and it does add even more sense to the luxurious price tag of the Pro+.

Huawei P40 Pro+ specs

• Body: Glass front, ceramic back, ceramic frame; IP68-rated for dust and water resistance.
• Screen: 6.58" quad-curved OLED, 1,200x2,640px resolution (440ppi); HDR10.
• Chipset: Kirin 990 5G, octa-core processor (2xA76 @2.86GHz + 2xA76 @2.36GHz +4xA55 @1.95GHz), Mali-G76 MP16 GPU, tri-core NPU.
• Memory: 8GB RAM, 256/512 GB UFS3.0 storage (expandable via Nano Memory - hybrid slot).
• OS/Software: Android 10, EMUI 10.1.
• Rear camera: Primary: 50MP (RYYB filter), 1/1.28" sensor size, 23mm f/1.8 lens, OIS, PDAF; Telephoto: 8MP, 1.4µm pixel, 80mm f/2.4 OIS lens, 3x optical zoom, PDAF. Telephoto: 8MP, 1.22µm pixels, with periscope 240mm f/4.4 OIS lens, 10x optical and 100x digital zoom, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 40MP (RGGB filter), 1/1.54", 18mm, f/1.8, PDAF; ToF camera; 4K@60fps video capture, 720@7680fps slow-mo; Leica co-developed.
• Front camera: 32MP, f/2.2, 26mm; ToF camera.
• Battery: 4,200mAh; Super Charge 40W; 40W wireless charging; 27W reverse wireless charging.
• Security: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical), 3D face recognition.
• Connectivity: 5G/4G/3G/GSM; Dual SIM, Wi-Fi 6+, Dual-band GPS, Bluetooth 5.1 + LE, NFC, USB Type-C.
• Misc: IR blaster, acoustic display acts as earpiece, bottom-firing loudspeaker.

There is no perfect smartphone and the P40 Pro+ isn't making history as being flawless, just for its 10x optical zoom in a modern smartphone (remember the Galaxy S4 Zoom? - good times...). The latest Huawei has no Google Mobile Services, obviously, and it has no audio jack. Stereo speakers are no-go as well, because there is no real earpiece to double as a second tweeter.

Still, by having so many cutting-edge features, the Huawei P40 Pro+ is easily the cream of the crop of the smartphones. And now it's time to take a closer look.

Unboxing the Huawei P40 Pro+

The Huawei P40 Pro+ is packed within one of Huawei's white paper boxes - a standard wrapping for most of its smartphones. Looks can be deceiving though, as this box contains a lot of goodies.

Every new P40 Pro+ is bundled with the 40W SuperCharge adapter and the enhanced USB-C cable needed for the fast charging to work. It is a proprietary solution, yes, just like most of its competitors.

Huawei's USB-C headphones are also part of the P40 Pro+ retail package. They are shaped as Huawei's FreeBuds, or shall we say Apple's EarPods. Anyway, these are some of the more comfortable headphones you can have today, complete with mic and volume control, so we appreciate them.

The box may also contain a silicone case in some markets, but our EU package did not offer one.