The new Huawei Mate 40 series impresses

The brand-new flagship smartphone series, Huawei Mate 40, has been unveiled and is now available on the market. It comprises 4 different smartphones: the Mate 40, Mate 40 Pro, Mate 40 Pro Plus and Mate 40 Porsche Edition!

The new devices feature many improvements. Once again, Huawei has teamed up with Leica, taking camera capabilities to new heights. The Huawei Mate 40 Pro / Pro+ feature the largest sensor on the market, the new 1/1.28″ sensor. The resolution increases further to 50MP, while omnidirectional autofocus and the f/1.9 lens with optical image stabilisation (OIS) remain. What about the pixels? They measure 1.22μ, with their size doubling through binning.

Main camera:

-Records video in 4K at 60 fps, as well as slow motion at 1080p and 480 fps

-Features a mode that records at 3.840 fps in 720p resolution

Front camera

- The 13MP front camera has a depth sensor, which can also detect gestures to help control the device through the new EMUI 11.

-Features face id as well as an under-display fingerprint sensor

Selfie camera

- Records video in 4K60, as well as slow motion at 1080p and 240 fps

Cine camera

- Features a 20MP sensor and an ultra-wide-angle lens with an f/1.8 aperture, and is the world's first smartphone camera with a free-form lens that reduces ultra-wide-angle distortion.

- Features a 125mm periscope lens in front of the 12MP sensor. It offers 5x zoom

-Features an f/3.4 aperture and optical image stabilisation

Let's now look at the display. The 6.76″ OLED display is larger than that of its predecessor, the Mate 30 Pro, with a resolution of 1.344×2.772. The edges of the display follow the waterfall design with an 88-degree curve, just like the Mate 30 Pro, while the virtual buttons for controlling functions also remain.

The refresh rate is 90Hz, with a significantly improved touch sampling rate of 240Hz for even better responsiveness. The multimedia viewing experience is also improved, as it can combine 3D audio with vibration. Speaking of improvements, particular highlights are the 66W charging and 50W wireless charging.

In addition, there is a brand-new Kirin 9000 processor, the first 5nm chip so far for both Android and Huawei. It features 4 Cortex A-77 cores, one of which is clocked at… 3.13GHz. It also has 4 A55 cores. The GPU has 24 cores, while there is an integrated 5G modem and Wi-Fi 6+ support.

The difference with the Mate 40 Pro+ is that its periscope camera lens offers 10x optical zoom instead of 5x, and has an 8MP sensor with f/4.4. It also features a 12MP camera for mid-range zoom at 3x, as well as laser autofocus. The premium Porsche Design Huawei Mate 40 RS edition steals the show with its octagonal rear camera design and a vertical stripe down the middle of the device. This model, priced at €2.299, comes with 12GB RAM and 512GB of storage.

The standard Huawei Mate 40 version has the following features:

-Processor Kirin 9000E: the same CPU, but the GPU has 22 cores instead of 24 and the NPU runs on a single core rather than two. 8GB RAM / 128GB storage.

-Display 6.5″ OLED with a resolution of 2376×1080 and edges curved at 68 degrees (instead of 88 degrees on the Pro models).

-Triple rear camera, without the periscope lens, featuring a 50MP main sensor f/1.9, a 16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle camera and an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto camera (3x zoom).

-No wireless charging support, while the 4.200 mAh battery supports 40W wired charging, instead of 66W. It is not yet known whether the Huawei Mate 40 series will be released in Greece.