Over the past few years Huawei have been refining their two flagship series, the spring P-series, usually released in the first half of the year, and the autumn Mate-series, released in the latter half. The latest in the P-series, the P40 is aimed towards the creative, focusing on multimedia and photography. The Mate-series is the one pushing the limits of performance. It is also the device that usually introduces the latest iteration of the Kirin chipset, and other advancements.
That has certainly been the case with the Mate 40 Pro, bringing even more power to the palm of your hands.
Design
The Mate 40 Pro comes in a variety of colours, including White, Black, Olive Green, Sunflower Yellow, and the very interesting Mystic Silver. The display is curved towards the edges, and so are all the extremities of the back panel. This makes the phone incredibly easy to grab, and ergonomic. The buttons are easily reachable with the power button on the lower side being painted in vibrant red. The volume rockers are placed towards the top, but you also have the option to control output via the virtual buttons on the left side of the display.
Specs
The Mate 40 Pro, as the case with any Mate model before it, is powered by the 5nm octa-core last-gen Kirin 9000 processor, which contains a 24-core Mali G78 GPU, three NPUs, as well as modems capable of operating on most 5G networks and frequencies. Couple that with 8GB of RAM and future-proofing just got an entirely new meaning. It also features 256GB of storage, and a 4,400mAh battery capable of 66W wired, and 50W fast wireless charging.
Underneath the display, you’ll find a fingerprint scanner that is fast and accurate and gives you an easy alternative to unlock your phone in case facial recognition fails, you know, due to the fact that you’re wearing a mask most of the time when you’re out.
Camera
Just in case HUAWEI needed to prove that they really mean business with the Mate 40 Pro, they packed a total of 5 cameras, 3 on the back and 2 on the front. On the back, you’ll find a trio of 50MP Ultra Vision Camera (Wide Angle, f/1.9 aperture), 20MP Cine Camera (Ultra-Wide Angle, f/1.8 aperture), and 12MP Telephoto Camera (f/3.4 aperture, OIS), as well as the LED flash.
Huawei's ultrawides have recently acquired a reputation for being the least ultrawide out there, and this one is no exception, at 18mm. Quality-wise, however, it's exceptional. This is easily one of the best, if not the best ultrawide cameras on any smartphone ever. You get great levels of detail, almost no noise, and good sharpness throughout that tapers off slightly only towards the corners. Dynamic range is excellent too, while colors are vivid and ever so slightly different than the main cam's colors - this created a weird situation for us where we unexpectedly liked the ultrawide's look during the daytime more than the main cameras.
App gallery
Huawei released AppGallery worldwide in 2018 and since the trade ban between the US and China came into effect, newer Huawei models have been released with the AppGallery only. The Huawei AppGallery can also be downloaded to any Android device directly from the Huawei website. Find out everything you need to know about the new app store here.
