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Fast Facts

Height: 148.9 mm
Width: 71.06 mm
Thickness: 8.5 mm
Weight: 175 g
Operating System: EMUI 10.1 (Based on Android 10)
CPU: Octa-core
2 x Cortex-A76 Based 2.86 GHz + 2 x Cortex-A76 Based 2.36 GHz + 4 x Cortex-A55 1.95 GHz
GPU: 16-Core Mali-G76
NPU: Dual Big Core + Tiny Core NPUs (Neural-network Processing Unit)
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 128 GB – SD Card support up to 256 GB
Battery: 3800 mAh
HUAWEI SuperCharge (Max 22.5 W)

What’s in the box?

• Phone (Built-in battery) x 1
• Charger x 1
• USB Type-C Cable x 1
• USB Type-C Earphones x 1
• Quick Start Guide x 1
• Eject Tool x 1
• Warranty Card x 1

Design

I liked the design of the Huawei P40 a lot. The edges are smooth, and it feels incredibly robust. It does have a bit of weight to it, but not enough to feel uncomfortable in hand. My review handset came in the silver frost variant, which looked fantastic.

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One part of the design that will probably split people is the camera housing. It does stick out quite a lot, and when placed on a table, you can see it stand out. For me, it wasn’t an issue whatsoever. In fact, it provided an area for me to hold when using the device in landscape mode.

The P40 is IP53 certified, meaning that it is splash, water, and dust resistant. As this was a review handset, I didn’t test this fact out.

Display and Sound

The display of the P40 is excellent. You get a 6.1-inch FHD+ OLED screen with only a slight bezel around the edge of the screen. The front-facing camera is located in the top left-hand corner of the screen, in a pill-shaped notch. Colours are vibrant and true to life.

The Huawei P40 has a single speaker, located at the bottom of the handset. I was able to listen to music, at full volume, and the sound quality was more than good enough.

Camera

The standout feature of the P40 are the triple cameras found on the rear of the device. You get a 50 MP wide camera, an 8 MP telephoto lens, as well as a 16 MP ultrawide lens. One the front, you will find an excellent 32 MP Selfie Camera. You’re also able to record video in 4K 60fps.

I’m not a photography expert by any stretch of the imagination, but what I do know is that the P40 produces some high-quality photos and videos. You can see the in the slideshow above. It’s so good to be able to take such high-quality pictures, without the need to change too many settings.

Battery

I was impressed with the battery life of the Huawei P40. Typically, I was able to get about two days out of the battery, with regular use. The P40 comes with a 22.5W charger, which can recharge the battery from 0% to 60% in around 30 minutes. An hour of charging will almost fully charge the battery. Unfortunately, the P40 does not support wireless charging.

OS

The Huawei P40 runs EMUI 10.1 (Based on Android 10). As an Android phone user of many years, I found the OS to be very slick and easy to master. You will find Huawei’s native versions of popular apps such as music and video.

You’ll also be able to make use of the Huawei Assistant, using the words ‘Hey, Celia’. As you can imagine, if you have an Apple device in your house, you will inadvertently activate “Hey, Siri”, as the two are so similar. When it did work, the assistant was able to provide me with basic information such as the weather, facts, and math sums. I’m sure that Huwaei will improve this as time goes on.

The biggest issue with the P40 is the absence of the Google Play Store. During my first few weeks with the device, I felt very restricted in terms of the apps that I could download. I found myself able to work around this issue by adding web versions of apps I use daily, such as Twitter and Instagram.

Fortunately, Huawei has recently released its upgraded search app, called Petal. Using this, I was able to search for, and download, APKs of the big apps that were missing at the beginning of my review period. Petal also finds updates for apps that you have installed on your phone.

Performance

The P40, powered by the HUAWEI Kirin 990 5G, and 8GB of RAM, is impressively fast. All apps run smoothly, and available games, run incredibly well. I didn’t encounter any lag or stuttering when playing games and multitasking.

Conclusion

The Huawei P40 is a brilliant phone. It looks the part, takes fantastic photos, and is very quick. Unfortunately, the lack of the Google Play Store might be the sole reason that people won’t go for this handset. However, Huawei is working hard behind the scenes to improve this, and with the release of Petal, it is making huge strides.

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