No Google, Huawei P40 Pro Hands-On Review – Undeniable Power

Martin Guay
Martin Guay - Chief Editor
10 Min Read

Huawei P40 Pro without Google GASP!

The Huawei P40 series is going to be released in Canada soon. You will not find anything Google related on it. You can thank the United States for putting Huawei on the entity list. I'm here to inform you that you can live without Google. I don't need to hide that it's been tough at times.

The P series from Huawei has always been to strive in the photography field. Huawei has maintained that level of photographic performance and ability.

You should expect Canadian availability in June. As for price, the exact cost has not been released, but you should expect the device to be in the $1599 range for the P40 Pro.

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Before I get deeper into my Huawei P40 Pro Hands-On Review, you should check out the unboxing I did! It's also important to note I'm using a NON-COMMERCIAL version of Huawei's P40 Pro. There's a chance that things could still change before it gets to the Canadian market.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmeoBfIsH5k[/embedyt]

Beast Hardware

Under the hood of the Huawei P40 Pro, you can aim to find a boatload. In plain English, it's crazy fast. Powered by the HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G processor and driven to the edge with Mali-G76 MP16 GPU. The device I'm handling offers 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage. The best out of this is this fluid 90Hz display for one of the best viewing experiences.

Other reviewers might say that the screen isn't 120Hz or QuadHD, however for most of us out there, much like consumers on the market, we're not that fancy. I believe that for most, a 90Hz display will be noticeable right away.

I'll get you folks who are interested in more hardware information to feast your eyes on the hardware specs list.

SPECS
Body

Dimensions

Weight

Build

SIM

158.2 x 72.6 x 9 mm (6.23 x 2.86 x 0.35 in)
209 g (7.37 oz)
Glass front, glass back, aluminum frame
Single SIM (Nano-SIM/eSIM) or Hybrid Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins)
Display

Type

Size

Resolution

OLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours
6.58 inches, 105.2 cm2 (~91.6% screen-to-body ratio)
1200 x 2640 pixels (~441 ppi density)
HDR10
90Hz refresh rate
Platform

OS

Chipset

CPU

GPU

Android 10.0 (AOSP + HMS); EMUI 10.1
HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G (7 nm+)
Octa-core (2×2.86 GHz Cortex-A76 & 2×2.36 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4×1.95 GHz Cortex-A55)
Mali-G76 MP16
Memory

Card Slot

Internal

NM (Nano Memory), up to 256GB (uses shared SIM slot)
128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM, 512GB 8GB RAM
UFS 3.0
Quad Main Camera

Features

Video

50 MP, f/1.9, 23mm (wide), 1/1.28″, 2.44µm, omnidirectional PDAF, OIS
Periscope 12 MP, f/3.4, 125mm (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 5x optical zoom
40 MP, f/1.8, 18mm (ultrawide), 1/1.54″, PDAF
TOF 3D, (depth)
Leica optics, LED flash, panorama, HDR
2160p@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, 720@7680fps, 1080p@960fps, HDR; gyro-EIS
Dual Selfie Camera

Features

Video

32 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8″, 0.8µm, AF
IR TOF 3D, (depth/biometrics sensor)
HDR
2160p@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps
Battery

Charging

Non-removable Li-Po 4200 mAh battery
Fast charging 40W
Fast wireless charging 27W
Fast reverse wireless charging 27W

Crafted Design & Display

If you've used a Huawei device of the P series, you are aware of the craft and the design that goes into it. It should be no surprise that this continues well into the P40 series.

It's no secret that the curved glass from all edges is mighty sexy. The way the curves rollover into the body of the phone almost makes it seamless. The 6.58-inch screen on the Huawei P40 Pro has a resolution of 1200 x 2640. It's not precisely Quad HD, but it doesn't matter to most. I keep reminding myself that consumers that aren't part of the tech sphere get lost with all these different things.

Suffice it to say my hands-on give me a lot; Full display, thin bezels, curved smooth glass, fluid screen experience and marvellous time watching content.

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A personal favourite of mine from the P30 series was the dual gradient colours. When it comes to the Huawei P40 series, it's more a classic look.

Huawei P40 Pro Display 2

5G & WiFi 6

Most of you should be familiar with LTE, which most smartphones operate on. 5G is the new standard starting to surface on the market, faster speeds, higher bandwidth capacity for the ever so demanding use we are making of the internet.

While the phone supports WiFi6, as consumers, we aren't going to see this being used in most of the places we will be using WiFi. I expect to see routers, WiFi, in general, to start switching to the newer standards in roughly 3 years from now.

If only we could all be at the same place in terms of technology to really make use of it.

Battery? How good is it?

Stuffed with a 4200mAh battery, I can assure anyone it's not hard to get a full day without charging until the next day. Given that the P40 Pro comes with a 40W fast charger, it's not hard to get 20% of battery juice in 5 minutes.

You can also do fast wireless charging, provided you have a fast wireless charger that can output more than 7.5W.

Reverse wireless charging is also very present in the Huawei P40 Pro. I've had no use for this feature.

With the Huawei P40 Pro Hands-On Review, I'm attempting to see how far the battery will carry me. I'm 19-hours in and I'm still kicking, albeit, I'm not surprised, Huawei is doing something right.

Camera Setup?

Alright, you do remember the spec list you saw earlier? Let's break this down just a bit.

The P40 Pro is comprised of a 50MP f/1.9 primary and 40MP f/1.8 ultra-wide cameras, and a 12MP telephoto camera that’s capable of 5x optical zoom or 50x digital zoom. There’s also a time-of-flight (ToF) sensor for creating bokeh effects in portrait-mode shots.

Huawei uses an RYYB sensor, and the one here is 1/1.28, which is the largest sensor Huawei has ever used.

The P40 Pro continues to impress me with its capabilities. I took some great photos with it over the past several days. Ok, they are just photos of random stuff, but the outcome and the pictures themselves were stellar.

Huawei P40 Pro Camera Huawei P40 Pro Camera 2 Huawei P40 Pro Camera 3

While the hardware is impressive, the only way to really see how it does is with a hands-on approach.

Take the time to look at the sample pictures I've taken. They are unedited in their original saved format. I've included all sorts of modes. Compare the pictures with your own similar ones. Once you're done doing that, why not comment, message, reach out to me and let me know what you think.

EMUI 10 & AppGallery

The Huawei P40 Pro is running Android 10, the latest version of Google’s operating system, but without Google services, such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Mobile Services etc.

Instead, the Huawei P40 Pro is using the HMS, which is Huawei Mobile Services. Some functions are still limited here in Canada. I'm looking at experiencing more of Huawei's ecosystem.

The AppGallery offers a lot of the same applications you've been accustom to, Browser, texting, gallery, photo edit, social media etc. You can also install other reputable app stores to get more such as the Amazon App store.

EMUI 10.1 supports Android's system-wide Dark Mode natively, which is to be expected, as this is part of the core of Android 10.

Huawei is also introducing a voice assistant named Celia and a video chatting app, both of which will be added through software updates to the Huawei P40 series.

Huawei P40 Pro Apps 2 Huawei P40 Pro Apps Screen Huawei P40 Pro Apps[penci_review id=”10098″]

You can find everything else directly from Huawei Canada.

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By Martin Guay Chief Editor
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I write, talk about technology, gadgets, the latest Android news as much as any other fellow geek, nerd, or enthusiast does. I work in the IT field as a System Administrator, and I enjoy gaming when possible. I'm into plenty of things, and you can usually find me around Ottawa, Canada!For all business inquiry email business-inquiry [@] cryovex [dot] com.
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