Huawei typically likes to use its flagship P-Series phones as a catalyst to show off its fancy new photographic-centric tech co-developed with Leica. With the loss of Google services, and a growing range of bans on its products in international markets the latest P-Series Phone needs to be extraordinary. If the new features on the Huawei P40 (particularly the Huawei P40 Pro) are any indication, people with access to Huawei’s phones are in for an amazing treat.

But the main highlight of the P40 series has to be its Leica quad camera setup. Similar to Samsung’s Galaxy S20 line, the P40 line is split between three different models: the standard P40, the P40 Pro, and the P40 Pro+, with the latter being the only one to feature all of Huawei’s new tech. That means not only does the P40 Pro+ come with a 50-MP primary wide-angle camera, a 40-MP ultra-wide Cine Lens, an 8-MP 3x telephoto lens, and a 3D time-of-flight camera, the Pro+ also gets another 8-MP 10x optical zoom lens. And when those two zoom lenses are combined, Huawei claims it has created the world’s first dual optical telephoto camera system.

Another cool thing about the P40 series is its overflow display, with curved edges on all four sides. The 6.1-inch bezel-free screen is not only beautiful to look at, it's actually really comfortable to hold. But enough about that. Lets get to the meat and potatoes.

Huawei The Pro

At first glance, you'll immediately notice the hole-punch display, with a dual selfie camera at the top left of the screen. This not only allows you to take stunning 4K selfie videos, it also supports Air Gestures and Face Unlock in low light conditions.

Main camera
The primary camera comes with a very large 1/1.28″ 50MP Quad-Bayer sensor that produces 12MP image output. As with other devices with similar sensors, it uses pixel binning to increase dynamic range and low-light capabilities. The lens features an f/1.9 aperture and nominal 23mm-equivalent focal length; however, Huawei crops the field of view to a more conventional 27mm. This decision was presumably made in order to design a thinner camera unit, but it should also help with reducing such artifacts as corner softness and distortion. Optical image stabilization, which can be challenging to implement on such large image sensors, is on board as well.

Ultra-wide camera
Like with the Mate 30 Pro, Huawei implements a large and high-resolution image sensor (40MP 1/1.54″) in its ultra-wide camera, which combined with a fast f/1.8 lens, should make for excellent low-light image quality. The downside of such a large sensor in the ultra-wide is lens design. It’s a challenge to design a lens that provides a very wide angle of view and still fits into the thin body of a high-end smartphone. This is why Huawei settled on a compromise at 18mm, which is noticeably wider than the main camera, but not as wide as that of some competitors, such as the latest Samsung devices and iPhones, which offer 12mm and 13mm lenses, respectively.

Tele-camera
The P40 Pro’s tele-camera comes with similar technology to last year’s P30 Pro. The module is optically stabilized and uses folded optics to achieve a 5x optical zoom factor (125mm equivalent).

“Field-of-view fusion” zoom
The P40 Pro doesn’t rely just on hardware alone for zooming, however. Like the P30 Pro, the P40 Pro uses software systems which Huawei calls field-of-view fusion and AI RAW, a combination of optical and algorithm-powered digital zooming that adapts to the chosen magnification factor. Only the primary camera is used for up to 2x magnification; the tele-camera takes over from 5x and longer. For intermediate zoom factors, the P40 Pro uses a fusion algorithm that combines image data from both cameras, merging several RAW frames from the main and tele cameras into one high-resolution frame, which is then cropped for zooming.

For optimal detail, the 5x tele-cam records image data at the center of the frame; it uses AI-refined image data from the primary camera to fill in the “missing” image areas around the edges. A deep learning algorithm improves detail on fine patterns and textures—quite an impressive feat, considering that autofocus, white balance, and other image parameters of both cameras all have to be in perfect sync for good results.

At the long end, the camera is capable of achieving a 50x zoom factor using a combination of optical zoom and super-resolution processing that stacks multiple RAW frames from the tele-cam.

Key camera specifications:

• Quad camera setup, including ToF sensor
• Primary: 50MP 1/1.28″ sensor (12MP output), 23mm-equivalent (1x defined as 27mm) f/1.9-aperture lens, full-pixel Octa-PD, OIS
• Ultra-wide: 40MP 1/1.54″ sensor, 18mm-equivalent f/1.8-aperture lens, PDAF
• Tele: 12MP 1/3.56″ sensor, 125mm-equivalent f/3.4-aperture lens, PDAF, OIS
• ToF 3D depth-sensing camera (78-degree FOV)
• LED flash
• 4K video, 2160p/60fps (2160p/30fps tested); default is wide-angle camera 1080P/30fps
• Multispectral colour temperature sensor

Huawei The Pro +

If you were already mind-blown by the 50 times zoom capability previously, take this. The Huawei Pro + can zoom up to 100 times!

100x zoom

The phone features are largely similar to P40 Pro. What differentiates P40 Pro+ from P40 Pro is the camera zoom function. With two telephoto cameras, the zoomed photos are also much clearer and sharper.

Honestly, the number of improvements and new tech Huawei has packed into the new P40 line is damn impressive. In sum, the Huawei P40 Pro’s camera blows the competition out of the water. If you want the best camera in a smartphone, there is currently no better alternative.

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