The price is high — $2099 — but the specs are very, very good. The Kirin SoC, Huawei's in-house designed processor, more than matches any Qualcomm chip.
With 8GB of memory, the Kirin is so smooth that there is no need to switch to the 90Hz refresh rate to see really smooth scrolling, top-notch video performance or game play.
And it has a pretty good sized battery too, at 4200mAh. Face and fingerprint recognition are the fastest I have seen in the phones I have reviewed.
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Taken in bright sunlight.
The outstanding performer on the P40 Pro+ is the camera setup. The company has been known for putting superlative cameras on its smartphones and this one does not disappoint.
The Leica optics help produce excellent pictures, no matter the light conditions. There are five rear cameras and two front selfie cameras and together they make up the best photography unit I have seen on a smartphone to date, the Google Pixel included.
The sound is acceptable and the supplied USB-C headphones are of good quality. But the device could do with a plastic case, given that the rear cameras make such a big bump.
A ghost town aka a shopping centre in the days of COVID-19.
As anyone who has not been living under a rock is aware, Huawei is no longer able to use the proprietary Google apps on its smartphones. This means that the PlayStore, Gmail, Maps, Photos, and YouTube apps among others are not installed on this phone.
How difficult is it to sideload these apps? As someone who did it a long time ago — I did not try it out with the review model as it was supplied by the company — it is really not all that difficult.
Some popular apps, like WhatsApp, can be obtained from the Web itself and there are HOWTOs for loading all the others. Of course, YouTube and Gmail can be accessed through a browser, without bother about the apps themselves.
Huawei's efforts to find substitutes for these Google apps has been going on for just a year and Google has had more than a decade to perfect its offerings so the difference shows. But there is nothing that diligence cannot solve.
However, you would not buy the P40+ Pro and give it to your nanna. She would not be able to cope.
The 5G performance is good and I got constant 300Mbps+ download speeds when testing. This is an excellent piece of hardware and it is a pity that the ambitions of the world's lone superpower — under the guise of national security — have cruelled Huawei's efforts.
Something tells me that things will change after 3 November, but then this is just my gut feeling and I could be wrong.
The HUAWEI P40 Pro+ has an RRP of $2099 and can be bought from the Huawei Authorised Experience Store and Mobileciti. It is available in ceramic white.
Network GSM / HSPA / LTE / 5G
Body 158.2 x 72.6 x 9 mm (6.23 x 2.86 x 0.35 in)
Weight 226 g (7.97 oz)
Build Glass front, ceramic back, ceramic frame
SIM Single SIM (Nano-SIM) IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins)
Display OLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 6.58 inches, 105.2 cm2 (~91.6% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution 1200 x 2640 pixels (~441 ppi density) HDR10 90Hz refresh rate
OS Android 10, EMUI 10.1, no Google Play Services
Chipset Kirin 990 5G (7 nm+)
CPU Octa-core (2x2.86 GHz Cortex-A76 & 2x2.36 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4x1.95 GHz Cortex-A55)
GPU Mali-G76 MP16
Memory Card slot NM (Nano Memory), up to 256GB (uses shared SIM slot)
Internal 512GB 8GB RAM UFS 3.0
Main camera Five 50 MP, f/1.9, 23mm (wide), 1/1.28", 2.44µm, omnidirectional PDAF, OIS
8 MP, f/4.4, 240mm (periscope telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 10x optical zoom
8 MP, f/2.4, 80mm (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
40 MP, f/1.8, 18mm (ultrawide), 1/1.54", PDAF TOF 3D, (depth)
Features Leica optics, LED flash, panorama, HDR
Video 4K @ 30/60fps, 1080p @ 30/60fps, 720 @ 7680fps, 1080p @ 960fps, HDR; gyro-EIS
Selfie camera Dual 32 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8", 0.8µm, AF IR TOF 3D, (depth/biometrics sensor)
Features HDR
Video 4K @ 30/60fps, 1080p @ 30/60fps
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack No
32-bit/384kHz audio
Comms WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth 5.1, A2DP, LE
GPS Yes, with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS, NavIC
NFC Yes
Infrared port Yes
Radio No
USB 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go
Sensors Infrared face recognition, fingerprint (under display, optical), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, color spectrum
Battery Li-Po 4200 mAh, non-removable
Charging Fast charging 40W
Colours White Ceramic
Price $2099
Performance AnTuTu: 529687 (v8)
GeekBench: 3203 (v5.1)
GFXBench: 31fps (ES 3.1 onscreen)
Display Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal)
Loudspeaker -27.4 LUFS (Good)
Battery life Endurance rating 95h
Thanks to Singtel Optus for the SIM supplied a long time ago which was used to measure the 5G speed.
