Huawei P40 Pro and Plus first impressions: CNET editors react

This is a file a key 40 and a p 40. pro. quo has just taken the wrap of three brand new super phones the P 40. The P 40 Pro and the P 40. Pro Plus. So what do we think? Well, there's no question at all that these phones are very much geared towards photography. I will have to refer to my notes because things can get complicated. The standard P40 comes with three cameras on the back. The Pro ups that to four cameras while the Pro+, the [UNKNOWN] of the bunch has five cameras on the back. But what are those cameras? Well, that is a very good question. All three phones have a standard 50 megapixel zoom lens, which offers things like better low light performance. The standard P40 also has a 16 megapixel ultra wide lens and an eight megapixel three times optical zoom, the P40 Pro upstart a little bit to include a 14 megapixel ultra wide lens as well as a 12 megapixel five times optical zoom. Now there's also a time of flight sensor on there. Which basically gives depth information to get that better artfully out of focus background on your portraits. So the P 40. Pro Plus is of course the hero of the bunch with those five different lenses on the back. So that includes the standard 50 megapixel zoom lens was also the 40 megapixel ultra wide An 8 megapixel, 3x optical zoom, and a 8 megapixel 10x optical zoom on the back as well as the same time of flight sensor for that depth information. So it's definitely the zoom skills that sets the Pro+ apart from the rest. It's the first time that we've seen it. Any smartphone with a 10x optical zoom, I think the biggest we've had before has been the Galaxy S 20 Ultra, which has got a 4x optical zoom. So this is upping that quite a lot Now both the Galaxy S 20 Ultra and the Huawei P 30 Pro Plus can do 100x zoom. Now while we did show a little comparison image of 100x zooms taken on on its phone and on the Samsung phone, and while it did look a little bit clearer, but Of course, we're gonna have to leave those judgments until we can get both phones side by side and see how they're actually compared. For obvious reasons, we haven't done that yet. Apart from [UNKNOWN], the P42 range also promised big improvements in Lower light imaging which is pretty exciting because Huawei phones are already amazing at taking photos in very, very low light. We've done landscapes, we've done portraits using low light with their phones and the results can be amazing. So really looking People to seeing what these updates actually bring. They also get various Artificial Intelligence upgrades, including a mode that can apparently take out passers by who might walk through your scene while you're taking a photo. It's difficult to know exactly how that's gonna work. So we're looking forward to taking that onto the streets eventually and putting it to the test. Beyond the cameras though the phones do have some impressive hardware, the screens on the P 40. Pro and Pro Plus. Basically wrap all the way around. There's there's basically no bezel on besides the phone and in the videos and photos that we've seen so far. It looks really really cool, but Whether it makes it a little bit difficult to hold, maybe particularly your gaming or texting you might actually touch the screen. I remains to be seen so looking forward to giving that a thought test. The screens themselves are OLED, they have high resolutions and they support HDR, all of which we would expect from a top end phone. Under the hood is Huawei his latest Kirin 990 processor, which of course supports 5G because you didn't expect anyone to launch a flagship phone in 2020. Without 5G, that would be ridiculous. Of course, the chip also promises better performance and better power management, just what you'd expect from a new chip basically, and again, we'll be putting that to the test in our full review later on The treats include an improved in screen fingerprint scanner, which apparently can unlock the phone even faster. We've got faster wireless charging, and various updates to Huawei software to include things like better multi Multitasking. So speaking of software, these phones Of course won't launch with Google services on board so you can't use the Google Play Store. Now that is going to be a big problem for a lot of you. But Huawei has been making a lot of noise about how many developers have been getting on board with his own app system called the Huawei app gallery, apparently is supporting more and more apps and is getting more and more users. So It's not necessarily that you can't find any apps but it's definitely worth looking to see if your favourite apps are already available before you spend your money. So overall, these phones look pretty great and they are pretty much in line with what we would expect from Huawei launching a great phone right now. It should have a really amazing camera. The design looks good. It's packed with top tech. I'm really looking forward to seeing how that actually works out in the real world. Very excited to get my hands on these phones, take them out, do some shooting, see what they're really, really like of course, unfortunately because of the coronavirus restrictions, we're staying at home and I'm I'm not gonna be able to actually take them out into the real world for some time. But do make sure to keep your eyes on cnet.com for a lot more on these phones, and hopefully we can give them a real test too. [BLANK_AUDIO]