I have been trying my best to use the P40 Pro as my main phone Huawei for about a month now. During this time, I thoroughly “got used” to some of its features, but I cannot get rid of the feeling that something is wrong with it. Of course, we are talking about the absence of Google services and the Google Play store as well. Without them, it is very difficult for a modern smartphone to convince you that they are not needed, I will not, but I changed my mind. Recently, a lot of things have appeared in AppGallery that can be installed, and it is relatively normal to use a smartphone. All this and much more I will tell in this experience of use.
The body does not glare in the sun due to the frosted glass.
First impression of the Huawei P40 Pro
My very first impression of this smartphone was formed even before I took it out of the box. It concerned the price of the device. It seems to me that hanging a price tag with the figures of 70,000 rubles for a product that has at least some restrictions is not entirely correct. Even if I install all my apps there, and I did, I won't be able to use the native Google services I'm so used to. This, of course, is wrong and the price should have been set lower.
When I finally got my Huawei P40 Pro out of the box, I was pleasantly surprised. The body of the smartphone is very pleasant to the touch and fits perfectly in the hand. Although the camera sticks out very much, it looks beautiful. Especially the lens flare that radiates from the main camera module, emphasizing it. The color of the back wall is also, as they say, “my respect”. It is beautiful in any light, and the deep texture looks voluminous. However, what am I explaining? Huawei has always been good at making beautiful body colors and textures. It is not for nothing that this color was chosen for the case of the P30 Pro reissued in Europe Huawei.
In general, the smartphone looks very status.
At that moment I realized, and later I was additionally convinced that if this smartphone cost 50,000 – 55,000 rubles, it would be just perfect, even taking into account the limitations. Against the background of the price of 70,000 rubles, it is clear why Huawei P40 Pro Plus was not brought to us. Nobody would have understood its price here. But with both of these smartphones there are no problems in China. Google doesn't work there anyway.
Unlike Huawei Mate 30 Pro, which at first attracted, and then began to frighten with its rounding of the screen in the “waterfall” style, the Huawei P40 Pro screen looks very harmonious. The fillets remain, but now they are exactly as they should be. This feeling did not leave me even after a month of use.
The company assures that there are fillets at the top and bottom as well, but if this is the case, then it is very difficult to notice. The glass does get scared, but the screen isn't.
Here is the rounding of the side faces
What I really can't get used to is the hole in the screen. I don't like them. For me, bangs are better.
How Huawei works without Google services
If you have not tried to work on a smartphone that does not support Google services, it will be difficult for you at first. First of all, you will have to get used to the fact that there is no Google Play, which you can go to and download what you are used to. Google apps won't be installed out of the box either, but if you need them, you can handle that. I did not waste my energy on this, since I am completely satisfied with the branded browser Huawei, and there is not much point in installing applications. Normally, you can only use Chrome, and then you will not be able to log into the application itself for synchronization. Applications like GMail will be useless at all. However, mail can be used through a browser – that's what I did. You can log in to the browser either simply on the Google home page or in the mail. YouTube works too, but only through the browser, like everything else.
From the rest of the applications, I found almost everything that I use every day, including the bank and mobile operator's application in AppGallery. There are even TikTok, Wildberries, and applications for obtaining a pass during the period of self-isolation. I emphasize once again that we are talking about important applications. From the usual Google Play, I would have installed two dozen different “ups”, but I had to do without.
It is possible to install applications, but it is a little more complicated than usual.
How the camera shoots Huawei P40 Pro
Unfortunately, now is not the time to fully test the camera under different conditions. Due to the quarantine, the scenarios for shooting have become several times less. Regardless, I still tested the camera in as many scenarios as possible.
The main conclusion that I drew from this testing is that it would be good to turn off the AI image processing function sometimes. Sometimes she misinterprets the colors too much, trying to make them more beautiful. Subjectively, it seemed to me that the effect was not so pronounced before.
These photos look great on a smartphone screen and on social networks. Even saving them to a computer for archiving is not so bad either, but for later processing it would be a bad option. The green tint of the grass changes especially strongly, which will not be easy to combat with the help of the general sliders.
The camera sticks out, but everyone is used to it.
Another feature is a slight but chronic shift towards colder shades. Sometimes it is the other way around, but it is the blue color that is much more often present in the pictures than yellow.
What there are definitely no questions about is the detail. The 50MP main sensor perfectly handles any scene, even with a lot of small details. But the rest of the sensors remain function for the sake of function. Especially 10x and even more so 50x zoom. The quality leaves much to be desired and the pictures will not be drawn to high artistic quality. It is needed rather in order to simply fix the object.
City landscape:
Wide angle lens
1x
5x
10x
50x
A bit of nature:
Wide angle lens.
1x.
5x.
10x.
50x.
But the main sensor, thanks to the huge measurement, which significantly exceeds this indicator of competitors, allows you to make pictures very bright. Even at the f / 1.9 aperture level, the camera does not raise any questions about this indicator.
As usual, the signature feature of flagship smartphones Huawei is the ability to take good photos in the dark. However, on a wide-angle sensor, such pictures are too ugly. Due to the large amount of digital noise and the way the electronics deal with it, the resulting image is very “dirty”.
In total darkness with night mode. It was impossible to discern details even by eye. Exposure 8 seconds.
With night mode.
No night mode
At night without night mode
At night without night mode.
In the evening, no night mode.
In the evening without night mode
The situation is better with the main sensor. For example, in the dark, sometimes even without a special night mode, the picture turns out to be no worse than with it. However, in complete darkness, only the night mode is capable of producing a normal image. To do this, you will have to wait 6-8 seconds until the camera picks up the required amount of light.
For video shooting, I had only one question, which was the correct focus during the shooting itself. Sometimes, you could notice how the shooting started with normal focus, and then lost it a little. Most likely, this will be fixed with updates, but for now the fact remains. It caught my eye when the front camera was working. Otherwise, there are no questions for her. This is the usual front-facing camera of an expensive smartphone that fulfills its price.
Front-camera
Photos are highly compressed. The originals of the photographs above and some others can be downloaded from this link.
To shoot video with a slowdown of 256 times, I feel like a toy. It's interesting before you shoot such videos a couple of times, admire how cool it is, and after that you don't shoot anything else in this mode.
Flare emphasizes the main camera.
Performance Huawei P40 Pro
There is no need to talk about the performance of the top-end flagship, of course, if it is not the Samsung Galaxy on Exynos, which has its own problems. Everything here works as quickly as possible and with very high smoothness of internal animation. Some gamers will notice a drop in frame rates in games, but for a simple user who plays from time to time, there will be no difference even in the most top games at maximum graphics settings.
A hole in the screen for an amateur.
A couple of times in a month I had some slowdowns. I didn't even understand what they were connected with, but the fact remains. There were no problems with the work of the unlocking tools. Both the fingerprint scanner and the face scan are very fast. The scanner sometimes crashes, but it feels like it happens about once every 60-70 operations. And then, in this case, it was enough just to apply it a second time. Face scans are faster than fingers and that's enough. In both cases (unlocking immediately and unlocking with a swipe), the lock is removed faster than putting your finger on the screen. And more is not needed.
Huawei P40 Pro – user recall
As a result, I can say that Huawei has once again released an excellent smartphone. The only problem is that it cannot work with Google at the same level as before. The company is trying to fill its app store, but it still has room to strive for. Thanks to the ability Android to install applications via APK, this problem is partially solved, you just have to go a little longer than clicking the “download” button.
Google services also work, but not as we would like. There is no native support for them. That is, applications can be installed, only they will hardly work. There are some solutions, but they are difficult for a common user and are periodically blocked by Google. On the other hand, anyone can display shortcut icons for web versions of services on the home screen and use them. They are very well adapted for this.
About a month ago, there was a rumor that Google would add its applications to the AppGallery store, but this also contradicts the sanctions imposed on Huawei. And this is not in the principles of Google. The exception, apart from the AppStore, was only made by Samsung and its app store, but these smartphones have Google Play.
The screen looks bright even in the sun.
Huawei P40 has the ability to link the card to the Wallet application. To be honest, I did not use this, since I got the smartphone even before the launch of such a function. And there is no special place to use such payment in conditions of self-isolation. But Huawei has another way to compensate the user for what he was deprived of by the sanction.
Otherwise, this is an excellent smartphone with its own characteristics, but overall very good. For myself, I noted only a slight bias of the camera towards cold shades and a hole in the screen, which I simply do not like on their own. I started out by criticizing the price Huawei of the P40 Pro. After a month of use, I understand that if the problems with installing applications are solved, the price of the smartphone will be fully justified.
If I have not answered any questions, ask them in the comments or ask the opinion of other users in our Telegram chat.
By problem solving, I mean a simpler installation of what we still have to try for now. But if you are an experienced user, this will not be a big problem for you. I just think that a smartphone should work simply and be fun. Let him have the possibility of customization and whoever wants to can use it at an advanced level. The main thing is that for the average user there was an opportunity not to make unnecessary movements. That's why I value modern smartphones.