Huawei P40 Pro Plus Specification and Review

Although Huawei Mobile Services has grown rapidly in a relatively short span of time, this situation still cannot completely improve the situation where the Huawei P40 Plus does not come with services from Google.

When talking about flagship smartphones with the best cameras, the Huawei P40 Pro Plus smartphone series definitely comes to the minds of mobile photography enthusiasts. Since some of its previous series, the Huawei P series is known for its superior cameras, working with Leica in the making.

This distinctive feature continues to be carried over to 2020 when Huawei released the P40 series. The best variant, the Huawei P40 Pro Plus we reviewed, has a total of seven camera sensors (two on the front, five on the back). Of course, this is the main attraction. Are the results satisfactory? True to the title, yes, it could be one of the best.

However, the excellent, versatile, and complete camera capabilities are hampered by the trade situation that Huawei is currently experiencing. If the Huawei P30 Pro comes as an almost perfect smartphone, the Huawei P40 series will have to launch without Google services. Huawei Mobile Services also come as an alternative.

Even though its development is fast, the application availability situation when I reviewed this smartphone still made it difficult for me to call it one of the flagships worth buying. Is that also the case for Gizmo friends? Here is a complete review of the Huawei P40 Pro Plus.

Design

For a smartphone with a price tag of nearly Rs. 199,999, the Huawei P40 Pro Plus design is appropriate, looks very premium, and feels expensive. Especially for the Plus series, the frame or frame and back cover are made of ceramic, only available in two color choices (Black Ceramic & White Ceramic). The color variant we reviewed is the second one, feels solid and heavy.

Its own weight reaches 226 grams, with a thickness of 9mm. The camera bulge doesn't come out too much like the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra, for example, even though the total sensor is more with larger dimensions. If your palms sweat easily, they will feel a little slippery. And when placed on an uneven surface, be prepared to slip it over. This has happened to the unit we reviewed, and the bezel remains intact, aka sturdy.

Starting from the front to the back, from the four sides it is made very seamless, there are no sharp edges on the palms. The screen design is also quite special which I will discuss later in the next section. Overall, the design is not boring, feels premium, and worth the budget we have spent to buy this smartphone.

Screen

This is one of the most special parts of the Huawei P40 Pro Plus. In terms of specifications, it's not the best. Use a type of OLED panel with dimensions of 6.58 inches, the refresh rate is up to 90Hz with a resolution of 1200p, resulting in a pixel density of 441ppi. This screen also of course supports the HDR10 video content standard.

Color reproduction is excellent and quite accurate. The special part of the Huawei P40 Pro Plus screen is the curved glass. If generally a flagship smartphone only has curved glass on the left and right, the P40 Pro Plus is precisely on all four sides. Apart from making them look much more elegant, they are comfortable when navigating from the edge of the screen.

It's just that, the dimensions of the punch-hole camera have to be made slightly larger because all essential sensors are placed in it. Also, there is no visible earpiece at the top of the screen. Huawei uses Acoustic Display technology to transmit sound through screen vibrations. The sound quality is exactly the same as the earpiece sound output in general.

Behind the screen, there is an in-screen fingerprint scanner that is claimed to be 30% faster than the previous generation. And indeed the fingerprint reading process was very accurate in a short time. However, Huawei did not provide information about the protective layer that is built into this windshield. So it's good to stick to the built-in protection.

Huawei P40 Pro Plus camera

Ultra Vision Leica Penta Camera. The camera setup carried by the Huawei P40 Pro Plus is claimed to be very versatile, so it can provide perfect quality 24/7, regardless of the lighting conditions. Not surprised, though, considering that previous generations also brought superior quality camera setups. So it's only natural that Huawei makes a pretty high claim for the P40 Pro Plus.

The main 'Ultra Vision' sensor on this smartphone has a resolution of 50MP, use the Quad Bayer system with a sensor dimension of 1 / 1.28 ”, the largest among other current flagships, even beating the 108MP of Samsung and Xiaomi. The sensor is also equipped with Octa-PD autofocus technology, which has fast and good accuracy.

Then there are two 8MP sensors, each of which has a different function. One with 3x optical zoom, f / 2.4, perfect for portrait photos. Another 10x optical zoom, f / 4.4 for photos of distant objects, up to a maximum of 100x digital zoom. These three sensors have OIS, coupled with AIS or Huawei's artificial intelligence-based stabilization.

The other sensor is quite unique and different from most smartphones. Namely the 40MP Cine Camera, f / 1.8. This camera is basically an ultra-wide-angle camera, uniquely it has a diaphragm that is actually bigger than the main sensor. When this sensor is used, the photo ratio automatically changes to 3: 2. Including when recording video, the default sensor is first, then it can move to the wide/normal sensor.

To produce a natural bokeh effect, there is a fifth sensor which is a 3D time-of-flight (ToF) sensor. While in the video sector, the Huawei P40 Pro Plus can record at a maximum resolution of 4K 60fps with both the rear and front cameras. Especially for the rear camera, there is a super slow-motion feature of 960fps at full HD resolution.

For the video recording itself, the quality is quite good. It's stable both at the front and back and the field-of-view on the 32MP f / 2.2 the front camera is still relatively wide, not cut much. The dynamic range is also wide thanks to HDR video support. Switching between sensors when recording can also run smoothly. Professional features are available for both photo and video shooting.

Then what about the photo quality of the total five main camera sensors? Of course, a large number of sensors makes this smartphone very flexible for taking photos. Scenery? Ultra-wide. Best quality? Use the main sensor. Portrait? 3x optical zoom, and another for long-distance objects. The tone of the photo is also close to the original, except at certain times when photos of human objects use night mode.

Issues in Camera

But even so, the Huawei P40 Pro Plus camera still has several issues. At least 2-3 times a week, when I try to take a photo, the result is as if I pressed the shutter button late, resulting in a blurry photo with my lowering the smartphone like this. It's rare, but when it happens, especially when I take a photo only once, so I don't have a backup. Especially for moments that only happen once.

The second issue is the camera's tendency to make the lighting situation brighter than it actually is. This is most often experienced when taking photos in the evening into the night. Even without night mode and AI enhancements, the sky will look much brighter like daytime. Well, detailed photos, buildings, or other objects look detailed. But the atmosphere of the photo is not suitable, like during the day.

Also, the night mode is not as flexible as the Google Pixel or the latest Samsung and iPhone flagships. No matter how dark or bright it is, the time it takes to take a photo in night mode is in the range of 5-6 seconds. Even so, this mode is able to provide additional detail needed even in dark light conditions.

Features

Unlike other Android smartphones, I will fill in this section with more descriptions of the situation when Gizmo friends decided to buy a Huawei smartphone without Google services. Yes, there is indeed a way to pair the GMS into this smartphone. However, this method is not official, and there is no guarantee that it will be able to be used permanently or not.

Therefore, I seem to challenge myself to use the Huawei P40 Pro Plus 'as is', as it should be. From the beginning of use, the situation is more or less similar to the old Nokia X (if any Gizmo friends have, yes). There is no Google Play Store, so applications can only be searched on AppGallery or Petal Search.

Huawei continues to strive so that the essential applications needed for its everyday smartphone users are on AppGallery. The local application itself is actually quite complete, both in banking such as BCA Mobile and BNI Mobile Banking, Tokopedia, Teacher Room, Vidio, and several others. For navigation, there is HERE WeGo, a navigation platform made by Nokia which is now owned by the automotive consortium, used in luxury cars like Jaguar.

So if Petal Search is not like the usual Google Search widget. Through this application, we can get the applications we need from third-party application providers. For example, when you want to download Spotify, the application is still absent on the Huawei AppGallery. When searched on Petal Search, it will automatically be redirected to the source from APKPure and can be downloaded immediately.

The applications displayed in Petal Search are not guaranteed to run normally. Without Google services, I use this smartphone as a laptop. I have to access almost all needs from a browser.

My notes are saved in Google Keep. I upload all the photos to Google Photos. The smartwatch I usually use on a daily basis requires the WearOS app. The first two needs I access from the browser, while for hours ... well, I can't connect.

Performance

Apart from Samsung, Huawei also always uses chipsets made by itself. The difference is, you really only use Kirin, aka there is no Snapdragon version or other. In theory, smartphones powered by self-made chipsets should run more optimally. And this is indeed felt when using the Huawei P40 Pro Plus.

The Kirin 990 chipset on this smartphone supports the 5G network, even though it is in a locked status thanks to the absence of regulations. Using an octa-core CPU architecture, the 2-core Cortex-A76 cores have the highest clock speed reaching 2.86GHz. In addition, there is a 16-core GPU and a special triple-core NPU for artificial intelligence features such as the camera.

Although fast, this chipset is also made power efficient, using a 7nm + fabrication. Especially on the Huawei P40 Pro Plus, Huawei uses a 4-in-1 cooling system, consisting of a graphite layer, heat pipe, vapor chamber, and graphene film.

Okay, enough with the technical explanation that is quite a lot carried on this smartphone. And indeed during use, Huawei P40 Pro Plus feels very fast to open and close applications. Even though it is used for playing heavy games or tinkering with the camera, the smartphone does not feel hot. Even cooler than the Galaxy Note20 Ultra.

Storage is very spacious at 512GB and still added a memory card up to 256GB capacity. But with a note; will take a SIM 2 slot (aka hybrid), and the type of memory card is NM (Nano Memory), aka different from microSD cards in general. Well, at least the internal capacity itself is quite wide.

Battery

Having a large screen with five cameras, the battery capacity is arguably quite loose, only 4,200 mAh. Slightly below standard, especially for middle-class smartphones with an average battery capacity of 5,000 mAh. But don't worry, thanks to an efficient chipset combination, the Huawei P40 Pro Plus can last up to a day of use.

The 'advantage' of only sufficient battery capacity is its fast charging process. Moreover, this smartphone supports 40W SuperCharge, either via cable or wirelessly (with a separate accessory). 30 minutes alone is about 75%, while a full charge takes about 70 minutes.

However, because Huawei uses its own protocol when I charge it using a 65W GaN charger, the 40W benefit will not be active, so we have to use Huawei's default charger for optimal charging. This smartphone also supports a fast reverse wireless charger up to 27W, just in case you are thinking of charging other flagships wirelessly via the back of this smartphone.

Conclusion

Pros

The quad-curved 90Hz display is stunning

Fast charging both wired & wireless

Super flexible camera, superior ultra-wide lens

Superior performance

Cons

HMS cannot replace Google services yet

Mono speaker

The accuracy of the photos in several conditions

Using this smartphone, as a whole, reminds me of the experience of owning a smartphone in the Lumia series, or 808 PureView in 2013. At that time, I was holding the smartphone with the best camera, but the applications were also limited. Every moment I catch is quality, but in the end, I rarely use this smartphone.

Why? Due to limited applications available. Because even though the features of the UI are abundant, what does it mean if the application we want to access on a daily basis is not available, right? Even though I'm also an iPhone user, I don't really depend on Android. That's all I feel 'left behind' a lot.

Even so, once again, I appreciate Huawei for providing alternatives such as AppGallery which is growing rapidly, including Petal Search for alternative application searches. It's just that, now still can't catch up with the absence of Google services. With that said, the reason to buy the Huawei P40 Pro Plus is purely for its camera capabilities.