X
CNET logo Why You Can Trust CNET

Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. How we test phones

How Huawei P40 Pro's specs compare to its rivals: Pixel 4 XL, iPhone 11 Pro, Galaxy S20

We compare the Huawei P40 Pro to three comparable phones from Google, Apple and Samsung.

Sareena Dayaram Senior Editor
Sareena is a senior editor for CNET covering the mobile beat including device reviews. She is a seasoned multimedia journalist with more than a decade's worth of experience producing stories for television and digital publications across Asia's financial capitals including Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mumbai. Prior to CNET, Sareena worked at CNN as a news writer and Reuters as a producer.
Expertise Huawei, Oppo, smartphones, smartwatches Credentials
  • More than a decade of journalism experience
Sareena Dayaram
2 min read
10180772

Huawei unveiled its P40 series (pictured) on March 26 over YouTube livestream after its earlier launch event was canceled over fears of the novel coronavirus. 

Huawei

Huawei is playing to win with the release of its P40 Pro superphone. The hardware includes the phone-maker's winning camera capable of 10x optical zoom, a generously sized 6.58-inch screen and a 4,200-mAh battery, which is all impressively crammed into a comparatively compact handset. But it's hardly the only high-end phone around. In fact, the premium smartphone playing field is only becoming more crowded.

Samsung released its boundary-pushing Galaxy S20 Ultra in February, which takes 108-megapixel photos and introduced 100x zoom to the world. Apple meanwhile released the iPhone 11 Pro Max last September, and it boasts impressive photo and video chops along with facial scanning. But the Google Pixel 4 XL has a pretty big price advantage ($899 when it launched) along with comparable specs but a smaller screen and battery. Meanwhile, Huawei's P40 Pro has a pretty high price tag, starting at a converted price of $1,100, £910 or AU$1,820. It shipped in June but isn't available officially in the US.

Watch this: Huawei's P40 Pro Plus has an incredible camera

Of course, it's difficult to talk about a new Huawei phone without addressing the elephant in the room: the conspicuous absence of Google Mobile Services and its suite of widely used apps such as Gmail and Google Maps, as well as the Play Store, which has been replaced by Huawei's own fledgling ecosystem. For its part, the Chinese phone-maker has been racing to close the gaping void. The company says it's making sizable investments into developing its own Huawei Mobile Services, and has courted developers to produce apps and services for its own app store. Meanwhile, the iPhone's iOS 13 and the pure Android 10 of Google's Pixel are the gold standard for phone software.

For more on how the Huawei P40 Pro stacks up against its competitors, take a look at CNET's spec chart below.

Read moreBefore you buy that Huawei P40 Pro, you should know these 5 things

Huawei P40 Pro vs. Rival Phones


Huawei P40 ProiPhone 11 ProGoogle Pixel 4 XLSamsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
Display size, resolution 6.58-inch Flex OLED 2,640x1200-pixels5.8-inch OLED Super Retina XDR; 2,436x1,125 pixels6.3-inch OLED; 1,440x3,040 pixels6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X
Pixel density 441ppi458ppi537ppi511ppi
Dimensions  158.2x72.6x8.95 mm144x71x8.1 mm75x160x8.2 mm76x167x8.8 mm
Weight 209g6.63 oz.; 188g6.8 oz.; 193g7.76 oz.; 220g
Software Android 10 + EMUI 10.1iOS 13Android 10Android 10
Camera (rear) 50-megapixel (ultra vision wide) 40-megapixel (ultrawide) 12-megapixel (5x optical telephoto), 3D ToF camera, Color temperature sensor12-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 12-megapixel (telephoto)12.2-megapixel (standard), 16-megapixel (telephoto) 108-megapixel (wide-angle), 48-megapixel (telephoto), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), time-of-flight camera
Camera (front) 32-megapixel & depth sensor12-megapixel with Face ID8-megapixel40-megapixel
Video capture 4K4K4K8K
Processor Kirin 990 5G SoCApple A13 Bionic2.84GHz octacore Qualcomm Snapdragon 85564-bit octacore processor (Max 2.7GHz + 2.5GHz + 2GHz)
Storage 128GB/256GB64GB, 256GB, 512GB64GB, 128GB128GB, 512GB
RAM 8GBNot disclosed6GB12GB, 16GB