Huawei P40 Pro will have two cams with large Sony sensors, plus two zoom cameras

09 March 2020
The flagship will reportedly have a periscope and a more traditional zoom camera.

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  • 13 May 2023

AnonD-914443, 09 Mar 2020I already have Sony RX100 M3. well the rx 100 iii has pretty bad quality, a lot of photos from p40 pro are sharper, better, zoom ones...

    The Last Oracle, 16 Mar 2020In low light photo and HDR, the best smartphones probably a... moreUh, no. I can certainly say that about premium digital cameras. In good light smarphones almost match them, but in low light and zoom it's like night and day.

      Peachy001, 11 Mar 2020Cheers. Not hating on the Ultra. New patch could have helpe... moreInteresting. Hopefully the actual firmware update for the camera should come to places outside of korea and reviewers get to do an actual comparison.

        BliTTzZ, 11 Mar 2020May be, just may be top end smartphones will be a bit bette... moreIn low light photo and HDR, the best smartphones probably already beat almost all point and shoots, I guess (1inch and below).

          From this photo, this looks better than the S20 in terms of looks.

          I have been a Samsung fan for a long time but I have now switched to Huawei. Got tired of Samsung deceptive practices and after what they did to my smartphone and also an official reviewer's smartphone (which the review cursed Samsung about non-stop) I don't know if I have any trust in Samsung again. Nokia was more faithful to me than Samsung ever was. Either way, I suspect the P40 will deliver better quality photos than the S20 series. As somebody said, the S20 series were rushed only because Samsung wanted to release their flagship before Huawei. Not to mention the S20 Ultra's camera being bashed by lots of official reviewers...including GSMArena themselves. A rushed and overpriced S series with the cheapest one being US$1,000???

          I never use to be a fan of camera lens being at the corners. I always preferred it being in the middle which is one reason I use to prefer Samsung phones opposed to Huawei phones back then BUT now Samsung have decided to follow suit and put their cameras at the corners like Huawei always did. Over the years I have seen Samsung slowly following certain trends of Huawei and now the camera position is the latest one. What happened to Samsung's integrity of being different...like they use to? Samsung use to set themselves apart from the world with their S series, not anymore.

            Anonymous, 11 Mar 2020Besides, the video capabilities from the telephoto unit on ... moreI agree with you that the video quality from S20 Ultra is quite consistent between the main and the telephoto camera across all sorts of lighting conditions, and there the larger-than-usual sensor is definitely flexing its muscle. It will be interesting to see how well P40 Pro will handle the low light video and the stabilisation of longer telephoto lens, and whether it will support 4K60 fps like S20 Ultra's does.

              Anonymous, 11 Mar 2020None of them using wrong number. The IMX 586 is 1/2" sensor... more"That small 1/4" sensor can't compete with IMX 586"
              How many times do I have to repeat this? Different zoom factor means that small 8MP sensor can end up being larger than the crop of IMX586 at 10x. Why do you persist in talking about the absolute sensor size so much, you're supposed to compare the relative size if you want to compare the image quality at the same magnification.

              You should already realise that at this stage it's very difficult to judge how its zoom cameras will perform in low light, especially considering that the whole camera spec sheet hasn't come out yet. Criticise it all you want once it comes out and if it actually comes with a even smaller sensor than we speculate or produces unsatisfactory results even after receiving bunch of software updates, but don't you dare calling me a fanboy when you're the one who's making the negative assumptions without even looking at a single full resolution samples, while here I am simply saying it might not be as bad as you think and it's way too early to draw any solid conclusions. As of yet we don't have any information on its telephoto sensor(s), we only know for sure what it will have for the main and the ultra wide cameras, so it might end up being larger or smaller than we both think. Who knows.

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                • Anonymous
                • KSu
                • 11 Mar 2020

                Nick Tagataka, 11 Mar 2020"Why are you dragging equivalent GW sensor" I said GM2, a ... moreBesides, the video capabilities from the telephoto unit on S20 ultra are simply exceptional irrespective of lighting conditions.
                Can the Huawei shoot excellent 4k footage using telephoto camera? I don't think so!

                Tiny sensor can't compete with last year's budget flagship sensor.

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                  • Anonymous
                  • KSu
                  • 11 Mar 2020

                  Nick Tagataka, 11 Mar 2020"Why are you dragging equivalent GW sensor" I said GM2, a ... moreNone of them using wrong number. The IMX 586 is 1/2" sensor (8mm diagonal).
                  This is official specs. If they were wrong, they would have already made corrections.
                  Also the auto focusing is simply better. The tests are already there.

                  That small 1/4" sensor can't compete with IMX 586.
                  This was clearly visible in tests done in low light.
                  IF Huawei is serious about telephoto, they could've implemented bigger sensor for their telephoto, like the did with Ultrawide and Main Camera.
                  Another year with weak low light through telephoto on Huawei. Atleast on the Find X2 pro, you'll get better quality through gcam despite smaller sensor (inbuilt night mode right now is doing a great job) .

                  Fanboii can't handle simple facts.

                    Anonymous, 11 Mar 2020Your Huawei bias is showing pal. S20 ultra has IMX 586 w... more"Why are you dragging equivalent GW sensor"
                    I said GM2, a 48MP sensor with 0.8µm pixels that have identical surface area to IMX586 and Samsung advertises it as 1/2.25". Also if you can do some simple math you can tell that the numbers simply don't match up if you compare it to 12MP 1.55µm sensor that is a 1/2.3" sensor. I'm dragging GM2 because when two sensors have identical specs but companies advertise their sensor size differently, that means one of them is using a wrong figure or calculating the value in a different manner.

                    "IMX 586 equipped with 2*1 chip on lens AF system"
                    ..that's pretty much how all PDAF works by nature. Some pixels are "split" into 2 smaller pixels and used to detect the phase difference, and here the size of the sensor is nothing to do with the focusing speed or mechanism.

                    "SD865 ISP way better than anything last year had to offer"
                    Yes it is, if you look at its total capability - but whether it has better NR algorithms than Kirin 990 and whether Samsung is properly utilising it for still image processing are separate topics to be discussed.

                    You should stop throwing other people some random insults like "uGh yoUrE bIaSEd" just to trigger them especially when you're the one who's trying to make an assumption about a device that hasn't even come out yet. Don't rush out and wait for the real life camera samples to show up before running around screaming "It's gonna suuuuck!", yes? Good boy :)

                      The Last Oracle, 10 Mar 2020This is going to be an Insanely Good Year for smartphone ca... moreMay be, just may be top end smartphones will be a bit better than cheapest point and shoot cameras.

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                        • Anonymous
                        • KSu
                        • 11 Mar 2020

                        Nick Tagataka, 11 Mar 2020Considering the fact that a 12MP 1.55µm sensor has a ... moreYour Huawei bias is showing pal.

                        S20 ultra has IMX 586 which is 1/2" sensor . Why are you dragging equivalent GW sensor when it isn't even used in the phone? Besides Huawei p30 pro has 1/4" sensor in comparison.

                        Also not all PDAF is same. IMX 586 equipped with. 2*1 chip on lens AF system.
                        It's a Budget flagship sensor from last year for God sakes.
                        You can't possibly compare it to a tiny 8MP sensor of the P30 Pro.

                        There is a reason why Samsung & Oppo went with the IMX 586 for the telephoto and the Ultrawide respectively. They wanted to give great telephoto and Ultrawide experience.

                        SD865 ISP way better than anything last year had to offer.

                          Anonymous, 11 Mar 2020The IMX 586 is 1/2" sensor not 1/2.25. Plus its got better... moreConsidering the fact that a 12MP 1.55µm sensor has a very close surface area to IMX586 and is 1/2.3", and Samsung advertises their identically spec'd counterpart, Isocell GM2, as a 1/2.25" sensor, I believe it's actually not as large as Sony advertises to be.

                          "Plus its got better auto focus system than the one on the P30 pro telephoto lens"
                          Both have PDAF.

                          "At 10x range, it'll barely be able to give you a proper non blurry image"
                          Because..? Please don't give me your usual small sensor argument because I already explained to you how longer focal length cancels out the disadvantage in physical sensor size. For this let's just wait until the actual phone comes out and receives enough software updates before jumping onto conclusions, yeah?

                          "S20 ultra using SD865 (this year's) ISP"
                          So is Samsung now using a NR algorithm that is better than the the method Huawei uses (BM3D NR), by fully utilising the ISP of the newest SD865? Looking at samples it seems that Samsung didn't changed the actual image processing as much as Huawei did from P30 Pro to Mate 30 Pro. The image is retaining more details overall compared to last year's Note 10+, but to me it looks like the improvement is mostly coming from greater light intake from the new sensor.

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                            • Mahontas
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                            • 11 Mar 2020

                            Nick Tagataka, 11 Mar 2020"no amount of image processing" It's not just image proces... morePrice of this P40,is it in use already.

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                              • AnonD-731363
                              • SH3
                              • 11 Mar 2020

                              Well its like i am looking on Nokia 9 pureview where are 5 cameras which does equally same.

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                                • Anonymous
                                • KSu
                                • 11 Mar 2020

                                Nick Tagataka, 11 Mar 2020"no amount of image processing" It's not just image proces... moreThe IMX 586 is 1/2" sensor not 1/2.25.
                                Plus its got better auto focus system than the one on the P30 pro telephoto lens.
                                At 10x range, it'll barely be able to give you a proper non blurry image without tripod (in low light).

                                Not to forget that the p40 pro will be using Kirin 990 which is basically last year's chipset.
                                S20 ultra using SD865 (this year's) ISP.

                                  The Last Oracle, 10 Mar 2020The Huawei and Ultra will have similar zoom at 50x and 100x... moreCheers. Not hating on the Ultra. New patch could have helped. Just remember seeing some of the pics taken at the reveal, of the Eiffel Tower, and being super impressed. There video was poor though, and slow Mo was awful.

                                    Anonymous, 10 Mar 2020Blah blah, no amount of image processing from Kirin 990 wil... more"no amount of image processing"
                                    It's not just image processing but also the relative sensor size at 10x zoom factor, which is larger on 1/4" sensor with 240mm equiv. lens compared to 1/2.25" sensor with 104mm equiv. lens. I repeat this for the 3rd time in case you didn't read what I said in my previous comment.

                                    "I specifically mentioned how having longer focal length negates the sensor size disadvantage hence implied that it will NOT struggle in low light as much as you think it will"

                                      This is going to be an Insanely Good Year for smartphone cameras. I could even bet, that after a few updates, some of them will start beating 1inch Point and Shoot cameras (in many shooting conditions).

                                        Peachy001, 10 Mar 2020From what I have seen, Huawei had epic zoom. The zoom photo... moreThe Huawei and Ultra will have similar zoom at 50x and 100x respectively, and the Ultra will be possibly sharper after the latest firmware. At 10x too, the Ultra is better. The Huawei isn't without tis advantages, but in zoom terms they aren't.