The latest line up from Huawei’s P-series flagships, the P40 and P40 Pro, have launched in South Africa. The new devices feature improved camera features that perform better in low light, as well as a new 5x optical zoom camera.
On the day the devices launched in South Africa, Huawei gave away a free P40 Lite with the new P40 and P40 Pro devices purchased from the Huawei store. This promotion has expired, but Huawei is now offering a free set of FreeBuds 3 premium wireless earphones with the P40 and P40 Pro devices purchased from the Huawei store.
The new P40 series sports the new Ultra Vision Leica camera systems, which have different configurations, depending on the device. The P40 comes with a triple-camera system, which comprises ultra-wide-angle, wide-angle, and telephoto lenses. The P40 Pro features a quad-camera system, which features a similar camera set as the P40, with an improved ultra-wide sensor and an additional Time-of-Flight (ToF) camera.
The Ultra Vision Sensor, which comes with every P40 device, is Huawei’s largest CMOS sensor and measures 1/1.28 inches diagonally. This helps the device support pixel binning to achieve a pixel size of 2.44 μm. The P40 Pro features a 5x optical zoom, 10x hybrid zoom and 50x maximum digital zoom.
One of the coolest features of the P40 series devices is AI Remove Passerby and AI Remove Reflection, which remotes unwanted subjects and glare from the frame, allowing users to alter their images after the fact.
With great photography comes a great display, which Huawei calls a “quad-curve overflow display”. This means it has curved edges that drop off on all side of the device to provide a near bezel-less display. Huawei says the new curved-edge display is still ergonomic to hold and the devices can tell the difference between intentional and accidental touches. The display also features a revised in-screen fingerprint sensor which is 30% faster at recognizing a fingerprint compared the previous generation.
The new devices also feature the Kirin 990 5G system-on-chip, which enables faster AI processing for photography, as well as faster speeds and lower latency with 5G support.
One thing that’s missing is Google Play Services, which includes the Google Play Store, Gmail, and Google Calendar, among many other Google apps. That said, apps like WhatsApp, TikTok, Snapchat, and every banking app (except FNB, for now) are available on the Huawei App Gallery. Huawei’s app store is being constantly updated, as app developers tweak their Google Play Services apps to work with Huawei App Services.
If you’re ready to go Google-less – and experience some of the best battery life as a result of ditching Google – the P40 series devices fits the bill.
The P40 series devices are available in Ice White, Deep Sea Blue and Black, as well as two new matte finishes: Blush Gold and Silver Frost.