Huawei P40 and P40 Pro: What we want to see

Huawei has been in the press a lot in 2019. The company delivered some excellent smartphones in the P30 Pro and standard P30 at the beginning of the year, followed by the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro in the latter part of the year.

Sadly though, as great as the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro are, they were the first devices to be affected by the US trade war on China, launching without access to Google's apps.

What does that mean for the Huawei P40 and P40 Pro? Will they still launch and what can we expect from them if they do? Here's everything we want from the P40 and P40 Pro, as well as any rumours surrounding the devices.

Huawei P40 release date and price

• Likely March 2020
• Price upwards of £650

The Huawei P series typically launches around March. Given the Mate 30 series launch went ahead despite the trade war between the US and China, we're still expecting to see the P40 and P40 Pro launch in 2020.

The Huawei P30 series was unveiled on 26 March in Paris, with pre-orders starting immediately after the event. The P20 series launched in March 2018. With that in mind, we'd predict the P40 series revealing to be around the end of March 2020.

In terms of pricing, the P30 starts at £699, while the P30 Pro starts at £899. We wouldn't be surprised to see the P40 and P40 Pro around the same prices as their predecessors, if not a little more. 

Design

• Waterdrop notch displays
• Metal and glass designs
• Higher IP rating

The Huawei P30 and P30 Pro both feature glass and metal sandwich designs, with vertical rear camera systems and waterdrop notches at the top of their displays.

We don't expect the P40 and P40 Pro to differ too much from the P30 and P30 Pro, though we'd like to see a better IP rating on the standard model. We'd also like to see Huawei continue to offer exciting finishes.

Display

• OLED
• In-display fingerprint sensors
• Higher resolutions

The Huawei P30 and P30 Pro both have a Full HD+ resolution across their OLED displays. We'd really like to see this increase to Quad HD+ for at least the P40 Pro model. 

The Mate 30 Pro introduced what Huawei calls a 'Horizon Display' which offers an edge-to-edge finish with curved waterfall sides. It wouldn't be too surprising to see this type of display appear on the P40 Pro too. We also expect both to offer an optical under-display fingerprint sensor.

Cameras

• Leica branding

The Huawei P30 and P30 Pro are some of the best smartphone cameras on the market, with the Mate 30 Pro following suit. It is therefore highly likely that the P40 and P40 Pro will also place a big focus on their camera capabilities. 

You can read all about the Mate 30 Pro's camera in our separate feature, but we expect the P40 and P40 Pro to take some of the updates and improvements from the Mate series and add to them. It is likely the P40 Pro will be the more capable device out of the two.

Hardware specifications

• Kirin 990 expected
• Reverse wireless charging
• Fast charging

Huawei manufactures its own chips so the P40 and P40 Pro will no doubt run on the latest Kirin processor - the Kirin 990 - which is the same platform Huawei uses in its Mate 30 Series. We also expect at least one 5G model.

We expect to see super fast wired charging on the P40 Pro - likely 40W like the Mate 30 Pro - and we also expect to see reverse wireless charging and wireless charging.

Software: Google apps?

It's the million dollar question: will the P40 and P40 Pro offer Google apps and services? At the moment, we expect not, unless they launch on the older version of Huawei's Android-based smartphone software; EMUI 9.1 and not the new EMUI 10.

It's possible the Google ban resulting from the US-China trade war might have sorted itself out by 2020. So while we won't rule out the possibility of the P40 and P40 Pro offering Google apps just yet, we suspect it is more likely they will offer the same software experience as the Mate 30 series.

It's also possible they could launch on Huawei's new HarmonyOS (Hong Meng in China) but again that would have the problem of no Google apps and services, seen as a must-have for a launch in Europe. 

P40 and P40 Pro rumours: What's happened so far?

You'll find any rumours surrounding the P40 and P40 Pro here as and when they appear.

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