Huawei P40 Pro long-term review

27 May 2020


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Android Master, 28 May 2020But it has narrow FOV compared to S20 series and iPhone. I'm pretty sure they will address it in Mate 40 Pro since that's the biggest complaint that many people have for P40 Pro's UWA camera.

    Android Master, 28 May 2020So the camera issues at launch are still persistent. -Ni... more"Colors thorough telephoto at night are still all over the place"
    I couldn't spot anything like that from GSMArena's samples, can you point out in which specific scene do you think it's messing up colours? Of course, not including "dull colours" that is normal for any photos taken in low light.

      I think the author of this article is being way too harsh to its camera. Sure, there's a bit more sharpening compared to, let's say, Mate 30 Pro, but its processing is still on the very natural side and there are only a few modern flagship phones that artificially sharpen up the image less than P40 Pro does.
      Its UWA camera even matches the quality of some phones' main cameras and does a superb job at resolving fine textures regardless of lighting conditions, and while the telephoto lens used to have issues with colour rendition and noise reduction, it seems that it has been fixed and now produces virtually noiseless photos with decent colours and details even in low light.

      Night mode, however, needs to be either fixed or removed entirely if it can't be improved. It almost looks like it's there for the sake of being there even though it's clearly not working as intended. Especially the one for the UWA camera is laughable - it doesn't employ any of processing magic happening in auto, all it does is carelessly stacking native 2.5MP output from the sensor and applying tons of edge enhancement to mask the blur. This is unacceptable and I would be seriously upset if they wouldn't fix it in Mate 40 Pro.

        • w
        • wasox
        • 8Vt
        • 28 May 2020

        The thing is, this a very expensive device, it should give EVERYTHING an expensive device does, if not, then there are other full feature devices, period

          Sean, 27 May 2020Ultrawide camera on this phone is best for quality of any i... moreBut it has narrow FOV compared to S20 series and iPhone.

            AhmedSLL, 28 May 2020For people who are complaining, this is a particular situat... moreYou call this the best article? Lol

            Best article for long term review would have involved gsmarena team installing modified play services and play store to make certain things work.

            Still Google pay, Netflix HDR along with games and apps that rely on payment through play services wouldn't have worked.

              So the camera issues at launch are still persistent.

              -Night mode still not fixed to give visible improvements from Main sensor.
              Basically you get diminishing returns.

              -Colors thorough telephoto at night are still all over the place. Night mode fixes this but then you would have to wait 6 plus seconds for a single shot.

              -bitrate in videos is still lower thereby producing artifacts when too much is happening in the scene especially at night.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • gBV
                • 28 May 2020

                Huawei seems to crop the main camera too often.

                  For people who are complaining, this is a particular situation, they did it in 2 months to give an in-depth review about the usability of the phone without GMS. This is the best article, (especially software, part 1) for anyone who wants to know how are things without GMS. That being said, the answer to this is obvious: "Seriously, the usefulness of MoreApps can not be overstated, and we're glad Huawei created it, although we're a bit confused as to why it isn't featured in promos and marketing materials more. Even discoverability on the phone and in the AppGallery isn't great."
                  They know it's not secure at all, they have no control over those apks nor their sources, and they can't be responsible of anything that isn't officially present in the App Gallery.

                    Anonymous, 27 May 2020That's what I was thinking. Long term is apparently a loose... moreI would actually forgive gsmarena for the 2month time frame, but it may be better to just rename the title to 'Huawei P40 Pro after 2 months'.

                    But in all seriousness, I usually get bored with a phone after 1 month of usage and by that time id already know if the device will be with me for the long haul. I love Huawei (and Honor) phones and a couple of the few devices that lasted me for almost a year is the Mate20X5G and another one is the Honor View 20. They make great phones and im sad to see that their growth as a company is being hindered by their issue with US.

                    I know we can install google apps even without Google services but for normal users it can be a turn off especially without Youtube and Maps.

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • atf
                      • 28 May 2020

                      Paul-RP12, 28 May 2020There is no problem installing and integrating GMS and the ... moreWhat about security patches updates does Huawei update there latest phones?

                        • N
                        • Nathan
                        • DkV
                        • 28 May 2020

                        There is NO word about the launch in India. I am a fan of the P Series. Now I am using P30 Pro. sill It is good. But I personally would like to upgrade to P40 Pro.

                          There is no problem installing and integrating GMS and the Google Play Store on the Huawei P40 Pro. I used the hack on May 26, 2020 and everything works fine. There are NO bug google notifications, NO errors, NO crashes. Everything is working! Logging into the google account was successful, as was the linking of all the Google service and ecosystem.

                          100% of external applications (not google) work perfectly from Google Play store
                          100% synchronization of all data with Google servers and the following applications: Youtube, Google Maps, Gmail, G Game, G Book, G Music, G Movie, Google Photo, Gdrive and Google Docs

                          Cloud and sync with Chrome and G fit does not work, but the applications themselves works perfectly.

                          Google Pay, G News and G Keep completely does not work!

                          GMS and G Play store works FINE after rebooting the device and after installing the latest update Huawei 10.1.0.121. Push messages and notifications from all apps works correctly like a standard android device


                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • gBV
                            • 28 May 2020

                            "the Auto mode images from the main sensor at night are simply stunning for a smartphone camera. They do take a bit to capture, though, because while Huawei doesn't outright say it, there seems to be some sort of long exposure going on here even if it's not as long as in Night Mode."
                            At the presentation of the P40 Pro the Huawei manager said that it is a single exposure, though I really doubt that this is correct. The auto mode is probably a fast night mode (also known as multi frame noise reduction mode). Google's zero shutter lag night mode is called HDR+ and Google's fast night mode is called HDR+ enhanced. HDR+ enhanced only takes up to 2.5 seconds (3.5 if you zoom) and gives you basically the same results as Night Sight (if you use exposure compensation for brighter photos), but it takes less time (Night Sight takes up to 7 seconds on a Pixel 3a) and leads to fewer blurry photos than Night Sight due to a shorter exposure time (HDR+ enhanced doesn't choose a longer exposure time than 1/5s per frame whereas Night Sight can choose more than 0.5s handheld) , so you might take a Night Sight photo twice, then Night Sight might take 14 seconds and HDR+ enhanced takes just 2.5 seconds. So HDR+ enhanced is better than Night Sight (especially after the update to Android 10, they fixed the zoom quality), unless you need a longer exposure in extreme darkness. Huawei's auto mode seems to be the same thing as Google's HDR+ enhanced. But the Pixel 4 doesn't have a HDR+ enhanced mode, that's a stupid decision. So even a Pixel 5 with a hypothetically larger sensor might not be able to beat the HDR+ enhanced mode of the Pixel 3a, if Google doesn't bring it back.

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                              • dazed1
                              • 3bm
                              • 28 May 2020

                              is it me, or the low light photos are not nearly as good as needed?

                                • T
                                • TeD
                                • pBI
                                • 28 May 2020

                                Huawei photo sensor replaces the green pixel with a yellow one to get more light in...but it makes all pictures, night and day also, look yellow...terrible. And no Google services...I don't need headaches with my phone ! And the price...must be crazy to buy that crap.

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • gBV
                                  • 28 May 2020

                                  " the main camera produces images that are so good in its Auto mode, that we're wondering whether Night Mode even serves a purpose anymore."
                                  That's the case since the P20 Pro. I never understood why people were praising the night mode. The auto mode of the P20 Pro even had less blown out highlights and the night mode suffered from extreme ghosting. If I remember correctly, people tried the P20 Pro in the 40 megapixel mode. In this mode the low-light image quality was maybe not good. Then they tried Night mode and the image quality was good and they forgot to compare the 10 megapixel mode with the Night mode. That's how the hype started. Later several reviewers noticed that the 10 megapixel mode auto mode is actually better than the Night mode, but the Night mode hype couldn't be stopped anymore.

                                    • B
                                    • Bodygard
                                    • ncI
                                    • 28 May 2020

                                    Awesome phone...for China.

                                    Is the West, Europe, America won't sell because it has no Gmail, no Maps, no Facebook, no Youtube, no Instagram, no Whatsapp etc and 99% of people buy a phone to use those apps. Yeah you can sideload, use tricks to install them but normal users who buy a phone won't do that, most don't even know how to do that. It has no apps? No buy.

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                                      • AnonD-641645
                                      • Kx1
                                      • 27 May 2020

                                      Regarding software, the 700 million Chinese smartphone users probably could've given you a pointer or two

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                                        • Optimus
                                        • gLK
                                        • 27 May 2020

                                        Try taking a picture with Wide lens on a clear sky. Software is buggy. Halos appear all over the sky. Also it seems that many devices have some issues with ip68 certification https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd4rJIbv2IY . Am a p40 pro user and dang that upset me a lot. Mine didnt got water inside the lens but ive seen more than 10 people posting in facebook the same damage.

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