The wait is finally over. All the main flagships of 2020 have launched. All you have to do is select the best one for you. You can either choose to get a Samsung Galaxy S20 or Note20 device, or an Apple iPhone 12 device, or now, you have a third option – the HUAWEI Mate40 device.
You could easily deviate and get a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 or a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, or even get a completely different flagship like an ROG Phone 3, or something like the new Lenovo Legion Duel gaming smartphone for that matter. But we will talk about that later. Today, we are focusing on the big three that every other person will think about. Well, technically one, because the Chinese tech giant just launched their flagship device and this article is actually dedicated to that.
There is plenty to talk about too, with the new HUAWEI Mate40 series. For one is the new design language that is not too different from last year’s Mate30 design language. They call it the Space Ring design, basically moving the camera arrangement from being contained in a circle to now being a ring that encircles, well, a circle with ‘Leica’ printed on it.
There is also the five lensed HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+ and that gives it the ability to zoom up to 100x (digital zoom) in its camera app. Of course, there is an ultra-premium version they only know as the Porsche Design HUAWEI Mate40 RS that could go with your Porsche Design Acer Book RS that was launched just a few days ago. And, there is a new Operating System (OS) based on Google’s latest Android 11. There is still no Google Play Store on the device though.
HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro+
We start with HUAWEI’s most overkill of a device, the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+. There are multiple HUAWEI Mate40 devices, but this is the most powerful. It is just slightly less powerful that the Porsche Design HUAWEI Mate40 RS, but the Mate40 Pro+ is technically just missing a small ingredient that might not change the experience that much anyway.
HiSilicon Kirin 9000 – The Most Powerful Ever
HUAWEI leapfrogged Samsung and Qualcomm in this department for now. They introduced the world to what seems to be the most advanced and their most powerful System on A chip with the HUAWEI Mate40 series. This is quite expected also, mind you.
What is unexpected is just how sophisticated this chip was going to be. You get 15.3 billion transistors packed into the octa-core unit, 3.5 billion more than Apple’s latest A14 Bionic. This goes without saying, the Kirin 9000 also has two more cores than the Apple chip. This is achieved with 5nm process, obviously. We are expecting the new Qualcomm and Samsung chips to be based on th 5nm platform as well though, so only time can tell whether or not this device stands the test of time. HUAWEI did promise a smooth Android performance even after 36 months though. That is 3 years of smooth Android with a speed drop off at only 2.5%.
Embedded within the chip is a larger, more powerful dual Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for even more complex compute power for more special and handy features like HUAWEI’s brilliant air gesture control. Then there is a bigger, more powerful 24-core Mali-G78 GPU that HUAWEI claims to surpass any other smartphones that comes before. That also means better looking games and better video and photo editing experience on the smartphone itself.
But that is not all the NPU offers though. Combined with a new, more powerful image processor chip, photos and videos are even better than before. AI Tracking of a subject is smoother and better, you do not even have to move your smartphone for that, and it looks like the camera is moving to the subject’s movements. The front camera now can shoot videos in 240fps slow motion mode now too, creating more creative possibilities. Of course, stabilisation is even more enhanced now with the combined power of the NPU and Image processor.
5G is not new anymore in these devices. The 5G chip that is on the Kirin 9000 though is a more advance chip that support 5G Super Uplink and 5G Downlink CA technology. That also means that 5G is even faster than before with up to triple data download speeds on supporting networks.
This powerful chip is the beating heart of HUAWEI’s most advanced and most expensive Mate flagship series to date. At least for the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+, the HiSilicon Kirin 9000 should pack enough power to get the best out of the 5-camera set-up. Of course, there is the matter of powering the EMUI 11.
EMUI 11 – Better Than Ever, More Powerful Than ever
We have pointed out before that HUAWEI’s Android based EMUI has come a long way from the early days of being and ‘iOS copy’. EMUI has matured to become a unique ecosystem and OS in its own rights.
While Always-on Display (AoD) is not all that new, there is a new revamp anyway on EMUI that makes AoD even better than before. Rather than just having a static display with preset layouts and graphics, EMUI allows you a little bit more creative space with AoD. They call it Dynamic Graphic AoD, you can take a short video or even put up different photos to spice up your AoD or completely change the layout of the AoD just to get the right looks on your HUAWEI Mate 40 device.
It does not stop there though, they also developed something called Eyes-on Display (EoD). That means your display only turns on when you look at the device. We are guessing that the mechanism uses the front-facing camera to track your eye movement to turn on the display just for the moment you look at the display. It displays the same AoD graphics that you have set for your device too, but it only displays when you look at the display. That is a nifty way to cut back on battery consumption and allow your device to last even longer.
Of course, multi-window is still possible. With the right apps you can have up to three apps open at the same time on the device. Of course, you are going to struggle a little bit with screen real estate at that point, but if you need to multitask with three different apps, EMUI 11 can handle it. The mechanics are exactly the same as well on EMUI 10.1.
They have improved multi-screen collaboration on HUAWEI devices with the new Mate40 series though. You can have your PC, HUAWEI Share enabled of course, running at least three different instances of your HUAWEI Mate40 device all running different apps or instances of a single app. It looks amazing, and we are betting that they should be amazing to work with in terms of productivity. You have to be using a HUAWEI smartphone with a HUAWEI notebook PC though.
The native email app received a little bit of an overhaul. Now you can opt to make your emails look like a chat or a messenger style chat app. The layout is sort of an optimisation for mobile devices and make full use of the small display real estate. It makes your email app looks better too somehow.
Speaking of apps, EMUI also introduced a new navigation app they call Petal Maps. We have not tried it, but it is a HUAWEI developed app that looks like a cross between Google Maps and Waze. In addition to the navigation app, they have Petal Search as well; a Google alternative to search engines made for mobile devices. They say that Petal Search also does not collect your information, does not track your location, and does not expose your preferences or data. We look forward to trying those.
On top of those new features, they took away a few things too. No, that is not a bad thing. It is to protect your privacy from prying eyes.
For example, to prevent unknown eyes from looking at your notifications on your lock screen, HUAWEI automatically hides the notifications from eyes and faces it does not recognise. If you gaze on it, it opens up with more information on the notification. When you share your screen or cast your screen to a smart display too, notifications will only be contained on your own smartphone display instead of the smart display. You can now make plans with your friends on the side while watching a movie casted from your HUAWEI Mate40 device.
The Penta-Camera Combo – HUAWEI’s Most Advanced Camera Ever
Before we start, we have to clarify that HUAWEI’s penta-camera set-up is not actually the first in the market. That honour has to go to Nokia and their PureView smartphone that has not seen the light of the market just yet. This is the first HUAWEI device to feature five cameras pointing out of the back of the glass back though.
The HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+ packs one 50-Megapixel Ultra Vision Camera with HUAWEI’s signature RYYB (Red Yellow Yellow Blue) sensor and built in Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) out of the ceramic back. That main camera is supported by three other lenses that can do ultra-wide photos (20-Megapixel Cine Camera, 100o angle), optically zoom up to 3x ( 12-Megapixel Telephoto Cameaa), and even super zoom up to 10x optically (8-Megapixel SuperZoom Camera). There is an extra ToF 3D sensor in the array for depth information, so you can get stunningly accurate depth-of-field information on your photos. With the zoom lenses too, the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+ can digitally zoom images at up to 100x, technically. You might not use that on a gallery poster though.
The cameras are not just for high-resolution photos though. They are also made for breath-taking videos. With cleverer image stabilisation, your 4K videos should look like they are shot on gimbals and big stabilisation rigs. HUAWEI really pulled all the stops for this one as well with AI Active Tracking. We mentioned earlier too that you do not have to move your device to capture a moving subject zoomed in, the image cropping algorithm just follows the subject and keeps the subject in consistent scale on your frame.
You can shoot videos at up to 3,840fps too, for ultra-slow-motion videos, but that mode is restricted to 720p resolution. Speaking of slow-motion videos though, you can now shoot at 240fps with no limits on your HUAWEI Mate40 device. Of course, it stops when your device overheats or when storage runs out.
Out the front is a combination of two cameras so that you can create stunning contents as well. There is a 13-Megapixel Ultra Vision Selfie Camera that can go up to 100o for a wider shot and a ToF 3D sensor for more accurate Depth information. This also means that the front-facing camera can shoot videos at up to 4K and even shoot unlimited 240fps videos at 1080p. Again, the limit is when you overheat your camera, when your battery runs out, or storage is full.
On both ends though, HUAWEI’s AI eliminates lens distortions. That means that your ultra-wide angle photos or wide-angle selfies will look like they were taken with a regular lens. Your face will not be stretched out and your subject will not look extra funky. This is brilliant stuff.
Everything Else
You see all of the greatness projected out to you via a large 6.76-inch display. It is an OLED panel that projects more than Full HD at 2,772 by 1,344 pixels. Of course, a modern smartphones needs a fast refreshing display and this keeps up at 90hz together with 240Hz sampling rate.
The curve on the sides are sharper than ever at 88o angle. That also means that your palms are technically touching the sides of the display when you hold it. You can still control the volumes using the virtual volume slide on the sides though, but the display is not your main source of interaction with the device anymore, the volume rocker button is back.
That is not all though, thanks to Kirin 9000’s cleverer NPU, air gesture controls are now much more powerful and precise. You do not even have to touch your device to interact with the device. Useful when you get your hands dirty. You can pick up calls, you can change screens, you can control your volume, you can even pause and play videos or music just via your hands moving in front of the display, like magic.
Of course, the processor is just part of the recipe for a smooth running, powerful device. You need a large RAM too, and the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+ has 12GB of it. To contain all the content that you will be making with the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+, there is a 256GB storage to boot.
Of course, HUAWEI is known for their super long-lasting battery. They are touting the Kirin 9000 to be more efficient than the current generation of SoCs out in the market. That also means that the 4,400mAh battery shoehorned into the device should last you a full day of use and maybe even more, depending on how you use your device. If you ever run out of battery and you need to get it going quick, the battery can take on 66W via HUAWEI SuperCharge (included in-the-box) through the USB Type-C port, and 50W wireless charging (Wireless HUAWEI SuperCharge sold separately).
Specifications
| Processor | HiSilicon Kirin 9000 5G w/ Dual NPU Octa-core 1 x Cortex-A77@3.13 GHz 3 x Cortex-A77@2.54 GHz 4 x Cortex-A55@2.05 GHz |
| Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) | 24-core Mali-G78 |
| RAM | 12GB |
| Memory (as tested) | 256GB |
| Display | OLED 6.76-inch 2,772 x 1,344 pixels ~513ppi HDR 90Hz refresh rate 240Hz response rate 100% DCI-P3 |
| Operating System | EMUI 11 based on Android 11 |
| Battery | Non-Removable Li-Po 4,400 mAh Fast Charging 60W (HUAWEI SuperCharge) Fast Wireless Charging 50W (Wireless HUAWEI SuperCharge) |
| Connectivity | Dual SIM Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS A2DP Bluetooth 5.2 OTG Support USB 3.1 Type-C NFC |
| Camera (s) | REAR: 50 MP Ultra Vision Camera (Wide Angle, f/1.9 aperture, OIS) 20 MP Cine Camera (Ultra-Wide Angle, f/2.4 aperture) 12 MP Telephoto Camera (3x Optical Zoom, f/2.4 aperture, OIS) 8 MP SuperZoom Camera (10x Optical Zoom, f/4.4 aperture, OIS) 3D Depth Sensing Camera, support AF HDR LED Flash 4K Video recording 720p@3,840fps FRONT: 13 MP Ultra Vision Selfie Camera (Wide Angle, f/2.4) 3D Depth Sensing Camera 4K video recording 1080p@240fps |
| Sensors | Gesture Sensor 3D Face Recognition Gravity Sensor Infrared Sensor Fingerprint Sensor Barometric Pressure Sensor Gyroscope Compass Ambient Light Sensor Proximity Sensor Laser Sensor Colour Temperature Sensor |
| Miscellaneous | Stereo Speakers IP68 |
HUAWEI Mate40 Pro
You do not need five cameras, you tell yourself. You do not need to spend as much money, you say. But you want that power, the same one as the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+. Then the HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro is for you.
The HUAWEI Mate40 Pro is technically a twin sibling to the HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro+. It packs the same large 6.76-inch display with a very steep curve on the side. The body is made out of roughly the same materials too. Well, save for the ceramic back; the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro has a regular glass back.
It packs the Same HiSilicon Kirin 9000 though. That also means the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro’s EMUI 11 can work as well as the HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro+. You get the same air gesture controls, the same AoD or EoD, and probably around the same battery life with the 4,400 mAh battery.
The biggest visual difference, other than the variety of colour options, is the cameras. Up front, they are still the same sensors; a 13-Megapixel sensor with a ToF 3D depth sensor. It can still record 4K videos and 240fps 1080p videos as well.
The difference is at the back. There are two cameras less on the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro. You lose the ToF sensor and one telephoto lens. Instead you get a 50-Megapixel main sensor (same one as the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+), a 20-Megapixel Ultra-Wide Cine Camera (same on as the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+), and a 12-Megapixel Telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom capabilities.
You get the same camera modes too as the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+. In that case, if you are looking at a slightly tighter budget, the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro might seem like a good choice. While there is only an 8GB RAM for the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro, the differences in experience should be minute enough that you might not notice at all.
Specifications
| Processor | HiSilicon Kirin 9000 5G w/ Dual NPU Octa-core 1 x Cortex-A77@3.13 GHz 3 x Cortex-A77@2.54 GHz 4 x Cortex-A55@2.05 GHz |
| Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) | 24-core Mali-G78 |
| RAM | 8GB |
| Memory (as tested) | 256GB |
| Display | OLED 6.76-inch 2,772 x 1,344 pixels ~513ppi HDR 90Hz refresh rate 240Hz response rate 100% DCI-P3 |
| Operating System | EMUI 11 based on Android 11 |
| Battery | Non-Removable Li-Po 4,400 mAh Fast Charging 60W (HUAWEI SuperCharge) Fast Wireless Charging 50W (Wireless HUAWEI SuperCharge) |
| Connectivity | Dual SIM Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS A2DP Bluetooth 5.2 OTG Support USB 3.1 Type-C NFC |
| Camera (s) | REAR: 50 MP Ultra Vision Camera (Wide Angle, f/1.9 aperture, OIS) 20 MP Cine Camera (Ultra-Wide Angle, f/2.4 aperture) 12 MP Telephoto Camera (5x Optical Zoom, f/3.4 aperture, OIS) HDR LED Flash 4K Video recording 720p@3,840fps FRONT: 13 MP Ultra Vision Selfie Camera (Wide Angle, f/2.4) 3D Depth Sensing Camera 4K video recording 1080p@240fps |
| Sensors | Gesture Sensor 3D Face Recognition Gravity Sensor Infrared Sensor Fingerprint Sensor Barometric Pressure Sensor Gyroscope Compass Ambient Light Sensor Proximity Sensor Laser Sensor Colour Temperature Sensor |
| Miscellaneous | Stereo Speakers IP68 |
HUAWEI Mate40
Then there is the most regular and basic of the bunch. The HUAWEI Mate40 is the entry level to the series of high-end devices. It is also a smaller device with a 6.5-inch display. It is still an OLED panel with 90Hz refresh rate and 240hz response rate. But it is not as high-resolution as its other siblings at 2,376 by 1,080 pixels (Full HD+).
It is still virtually as powerful with the HiSilicon Kirin 9000E (one less NPU core, 22-core Mali G78) SoC though. Like the Mate40 Pro it packs an 8GB of RAM, though storage is a step smaller at 128GB. Unlike both the Mate40 Pro and Mate40 Pro+, it only has a single 13-Megapixel front-facing camera for selfies but still support the same 4K video recording and 1080p@240fps videos.
The back of the device shares more similarities with the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro though. It only has three cameras mounted at the back, like the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro. The 50-Megapixel camera stays but the Cine Camera is a 16-Megapixel unit rather than a 20-Megapixel shooter. The telephoto lens an 8-Megapixel shooter is capable of 3x optical zoom.
It even has a slightly smaller battery compared to the other devices in the series. It has a 4,200mAh battery compared to the 4,400mAh on the two bigger devices. We suspect that the battery size difference is also due to the size constraints of both devices. The battery charges at 40W with HUAWEI’s SuperCharge technology via USB Type-C, and the device features no wireless charger.
Specifications
| Processor | HiSilicon Kirin 9000E 5G w/ Dual NPU Octa-core 1 x Cortex-A77@3.13 GHz 3 x Cortex-A77@2.54 GHz 4 x Cortex-A55@2.05 GHz |
| Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) | 22-core Mali-G78 |
| RAM | 8GB |
| Memory (as tested) | 256GB |
| Display | OLED 6.5-inch 2,376 x 1,080 pixels ~513ppi HDR 90Hz refresh rate 240Hz response rate |
| Operating System | EMUI 11 based on Android 11 |
| Battery | Non-Removable Li-Po 4,200 mAh Fast Charging 40W (HUAWEI SuperCharge) |
| Connectivity | Dual SIM Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS A2DP Bluetooth 5.2 OTG Support USB 3.1 Type-C NFC |
| Camera (s) | REAR: 50 MP Ultra Vision Camera (Wide Angle, f/1.9 aperture, OIS) 26 MP Cine Camera (Ultra-Wide Angle, f/2.4 aperture) 8 MP Telephoto Camera (3x Optical Zoom, f/2.4 aperture, OIS) LED Flash 4K Video recording 720p@3,840fps FRONT: 13 MP Ultra Vision Selfie Camera (Wide Angle, f/2.4) 4K video recording 1080p@240fps |
| Sensors | Gesture Sensor 3D Face Recognition Gravity Sensor Infrared Sensor Fingerprint Sensor Barometric Pressure Sensor Gyroscope Compass Ambient Light Sensor Proximity Sensor Laser Sensor Colour Temperature Sensor |
| Miscellaneous | Stereo Speakers IP68 |
Porsche Design HUAWEI Mate40 RS
Then there is the one that HUAWEI has been saving for last. This is the most premium Mate series going to be in production. The Porsche Design HUAWEI Mate40 RS is here.
When I say more premium though, I am referring to its price point. Everything that is built into the device points to the fact that it is a HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+ under the skin. It is a Porsche Design product, so it looks different with the Ceramic back and colour options too. Instead of a clean round shape of the Space Ring, the Porsche Design HUAWEI Mate40 RS has an octagonal shape to it, more angular. The plain smooth back of the Mate40 Pro+ is now littered with powerlines that is inspired from the modern Porsche sports cars.
The only big differentiator in performance is the extra temperature sensor that is encircled by the five-camera set up. Even the camera set-up is similar to the Mate40 Pro+, save for the extra temperature sensor. The differences, in this case, is only skin deep. Oh, of course the other difference is on the price tag.
Specifications
| Processor | HiSilicon Kirin 9000 5G w/ Dual NPU Octa-core 1 x Cortex-A77@3.13 GHz 3 x Cortex-A77@2.54 GHz 4 x Cortex-A55@2.05 GHz |
| Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) | 24-core Mali-G78 |
| RAM | 12GB |
| Memory (as tested) | 256GB |
| Display | OLED 6.76-inch 2,772 x 1,344 pixels ~513ppi HDR 90Hz refresh rate 240Hz response rate 100% DCI-P3 |
| Operating System | EMUI 11 based on Android 11 |
| Battery | Non-Removable Li-Po 4,400 mAh Fast Charging 60W (HUAWEI SuperCharge) Fast Wireless Charging 50W (Wireless HUAWEI SuperCharge) |
| Connectivity | Dual SIM Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS A2DP Bluetooth 5.2 OTG Support USB 3.1 Type-C NFC |
| Camera (s) | REAR: 50 MP Ultra Vision Camera (Wide Angle, f/1.9 aperture, OIS) 20 MP Cine Camera (Ultra-Wide Angle, f/2.4 aperture) 12 MP Telephoto Camera (3x Optical Zoom, f/2.4 aperture, OIS) 8 MP SuperZoom Camera (10x Optical Zoom, f/4.4 aperture, OIS) 3D Depth Sensing Camera, support AF Colour Temperature Sensor HDR LED Flash 4K Video recording 720p@3,840fps FRONT: 13 MP Ultra Vision Selfie Camera (Wide Angle, f/2.4) 3D Depth Sensing Camera 4K video recording 1080p@240fps |
| Sensors | Gesture Sensor 3D Face Recognition Gravity Sensor Infrared Sensor Fingerprint Sensor Barometric Pressure Sensor Gyroscope Compass Ambient Light Sensor Proximity Sensor Laser Sensor Colour Temperature Sensor |
| Miscellaneous | Stereo Speakers IP68 |
Pricing and Availability
They did not mention when the devices will start shipping out to customers. The HUAWEI Mate40 and the HUAWEI Mate40 Pro will be available in Mystic Silver, White, Black, Green (Vegan leather), and Yellow (Vegan Leather) colour options. The HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+ and Porsche Design HUAWEI Mate40 RS will be available exclusively in Ceramic White or Ceramic Black.
The HUAWEI Mate40 (8GB + 128GB) will be available for EUR€ 899 (MYR*). The HUAWEI Mate40 Pro (8GB + 256GB) will set you back EUR€ 1,199 (MYR*). The HUAWEI Mate40 Pro+ will be priced at EUR€ 1,399 (MYR*), while the Porsche Design HUAWEI Mate40 RS will be available for EUR€2,295 (MYR*). We will be keeping a close ear to the ground for local pricing and availability.
*Based on approximate exchange rate of EUR€ 1 = MYR 4.91 as of 23/10/2020