With the P40 Pro, Huawei consolidates its position as a camera specialist. All three installed cameras – wide angle, super wide angle and tele lens – are among the best in our assessment or even reach the top rank. Surprisingly, the digital 2x zoom also wins in its category against optical solutions. The same as Google, Huawei often uses a series of images in order to calculate to final photo. For this purpose, Huawei even combines the data from various cameras.
Wide angle (main camera) – 1.9/6.71 mm lens
(35mm equivalent: 23 mm), 50 MP sensor, JPEG with 12 or 50 MP
The main camera uses a 50 MP sensor and downscales its images by default to 12 MP. When taken in bright light, the 50 MP JPEGs are convincing. They are not able to handle all structures with the same strong result, but offer a resolution advantage up to a 1000 line pairs in hard structures under favorable illumination conditions. When the light fades, the 12 MP JPEGs benefit from pixel binning and in this case deliver the higher amount of details. When using pixel binning, Huawei combines every four pixels, which accordingly reduces the resolution, but at the same time increases the sensitivity. For night shots, photographers should definitely reduce the pixel resolution. The 50 MP JPEGs receive less re-sharpening from the signal processing, which makes the images look more natural. But our assessment is based on the overall higher score of the 12 MP solution.
Normal focal length – 1.9/6.71 mm lens
35mm equivalent: 46 mm), 50 MP sensor, JPEG with 12 MP
As in all smart phones which do not have a real 2x zoom, also in the P40 Pro the wide angle camera takes over the role of the normal lens – and does this job better than the competition. The P40 Pro upscales the center of the wide angle shot to a convincing 2x zoom image. In bright light, the resolution values reach about the same level as the wide angle images in the 12 MP setting. The Dead Leaves values are only moderately lower.
Tele lens – 3.4/14.46 mm
(35mm equivalent: 125 mm), 12 MP sensor, JPEG with 12 MP
In the Pro mode, along with RAW, the P40 Pro takes photos with a focal length of 125 mm (35mm equivalent). In photo mode, at 135 mm. Thus in the Photo mode, the P40 Pro does not fully use the sensor up to its boundaries, but performs a small crop and thus gains rooms for an electronic image stabilization. Together with the optical stabilizer, this effectively steadies the images. At bright light, the tele unit is excellent. But the slower lens and the smaller sensor are not good prerequisites for taking photos in the dark.
Super wide angle – 1.8/4.4 mm lens
(35mm equivalent: 18 mm), 40 MP sensor, JPEG with 10 MP
Even it the sensor offers a resolution of 40 MP, the P40 Pro’s super wide angle camera only delivers 10 MP images. This module is probably the best super wide angle camera by far at the moment. In bright light, it reproduces many details with high Dead Leaves values and is able to keep this performance level quite long. Still one must not expect wonders when taking night shots – here, missing structures are often recreated by the signal processing. Unfortunately, its tuning in JPEG mode is a little too aggressive.
|
Device |
Huawei P40 pro |
|
Average market price |
700 Euro |
|
Functionality |
|
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Image formats |
JPEG, RAW |
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Focusing |
Phase AF |
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ISO sensitivity |
ISO auto, man: 50-409600 |
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Exposure control |
Auto, ISO/Time Shift, M |
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Shutter speed, Exposure correction |
auto, man: 1/4000-30 s, ±4 f-stops |
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White balance |
auto, Presets, Kelvin |
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Features |
|
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Display |
OLED, 6,5", 2640 x 1200 Pixels |
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Internal memory, Memory card, USB |
512 GB, Nano-Card, USB 3.1, Type C |
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Video |
3840 x 2160 Pixels, 60 F/s |
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Size, Weight, Battery capacity |
158 x 73 x 9 mm, 209 g, 4200 mAh |
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Test results |
|
|
measured at |
5000 | 200 | 5 Lux |
|
Wide angle (main lens) |
|
|
5000 Lux - Lens, Res., ISO, Exposure |
1,9/6,7 mm, 4096 x 3072 Px, ISO 50, 2 ms |
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200 Lux - Lens, Res., ISO, Exposure |
1,9/6,7 mm, 4096 x 3072 Px, ISO 250, 20 ms |
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5 Lux - Lens, Res., ISO, Exposure |
1,9/6,7 mm, 4096 x 3072 Px, ISO 100, 13000 ms |
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Image stabilization |
IS |
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Resolution Center High/Low (LP/IH) |
1696 / 1522 | 1621 / 1435 | 1003 / 951 |
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Resolution Edge High/Low (LP/IH) |
1568 / 1321 | 1516 / 1326 | 984 / 945 |
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Resolution Corners High (LP/IH) |
1502 | 1417 | 981 |
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Dead leaves High/Low (LP/IH) |
943 / 1078 | 911 / 1022 | 570 / 446 |
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Artefacts High/Low |
39 / 30 | 41 / 33 | 28 / 23 |
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Noise (VN)/Color accuracy (deltaE) |
0,9 / 16,7 | 0,9 / 10,5 | 1,2 / 11,3 |
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Distortion (%)/Vignetting (%) |
0,1 / 11 | 0,1 / 14 | 0,1 / 17 |
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Points |
77,8 | 76,9 | 57,4 |
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Score Wide angle lens |
95 |
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Normal lens (2x zoom) |
|
|
5000 Lux - Lens, Res., ISO, Exposure |
1,9/6,70 mm, 4096 x 3072 Px, ISO 50, 3 ms |
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200 Lux - Lens, Res., ISO, Exposure |
1,9/6,70 mm, 4096 x 3072 Px, ISO 200, 20 ms |
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5 Lux - Lens, Res., ISO, Exposure |
1,9/6,70 mm, 4096 x 3072 Px, ISO 100, 11000 ms |
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Image stabilization |
IS |
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Resolution Center High/Low (LP/IH) |
1655 / 1523 | 1530 / 1303 | 615 / 578 |
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Resolution Edge High/Low (LP/IH) |
1592 / 1398 | 1430 / 1228 | 605 / 582 |
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Resolution Corners High (LP/IH) |
1526 | 1300 | 591 |
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Dead leaves High/Low (LP/IH) |
920 / 889 | 772 / 655 | 351 / 270 |
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Artefacts High/Low |
40 / 38 | 34 / 40 | 31 / 19 |
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Noise (VN)/Color accuracy (deltaE) |
1,2 / 17,6 | 1 / 11,9 | 1,2 / 11,9 |
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Distortion (%)/Vignetting (%) |
0,1 / 11 | 0,1 / 10 | 0,1 / 15 |
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Points |
75 | 71,1 | 39,3 |
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Score Normal lens (2x zoom) |
86 |
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Tele lens |
|
|
5000 Lux - Lens, Res., ISO, Exposure |
3,4/14,50 mm, 4096 x 3072 Px, ISO 64, 10 ms |
|
200 Lux - Lens, Res., ISO, Exposure |
3,4/14,50 mm, 4096 x 3072 Px, ISO 400, 40 ms |
|
5 Lux - Lens, Res., ISO, Exposure |
1,9/6,70 mm, 4096 x 3072 Px, ISO 100, 13000 ms |
|
Image stabilization |
IS |
|
Resolution Center High/Low (LP/IH) |
1238 / 1161 | 1150 / 1083 | 0 / 0 |
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Resolution Edge High/Low (LP/IH) |
1153 / 1115 | 1098 / 1037 | |
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Resolution Corners High (LP/IH) |
1114 | 1071 | |
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Dead leaves High/Low (LP/IH) |
926 / 864 | 726 / 582 | |
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Artefacts High/Low |
40 / 44 | 41 / 45 | |
|
Noise (VN)/Color accuracy (deltaE) |
1,3 / 16,3 | 1 / 10,3 | 0 |
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Distortion (%)/Vignetting (%) |
0,2 / 12 | 0,2 / 15 | |
|
Points |
66,9 | 62,9 | 0 |
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Score Tele lens |
76 |
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Super wide angle lens |
|
|
5000 Lux - Lens, Res., ISO, Exposure |
1,8/4,40 mm, 3840 x 2592 Px, ISO 50, 6 ms |
|
200 Lux - Lens, Res., ISO, Exposure |
1,8/4,40 mm, 3840 x 2592 Px, ISO 320, 30 ms |
|
5 Lux - Lens, Res., ISO, Exposure |
1,8/4,40 mm, 4096 x 3072 Px, ISO 100, 15000 ms |
|
Image stabilization |
– |
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Resolution Center High/Low (LP/IH) |
1296 / 1296 | 1296 / 1296 | 951 / 954 |
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Resolution Edge High/Low (LP/IH) |
1296 / 1504 | 1296 / 1533 | 944 / 882 |
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Resolution Corners High (LP/IH) |
1296 | 1296 | 936 |
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Dead leaves High/Low (LP/IH) |
1057 / 994 | 963 / 811 | 628 / 465 |
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Artefacts High/Low |
18 / 23 | 26 / 37 | 28 / 19 |
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Noise (VN)/Color accuracy (deltaE) |
0,9 / 14,4 | 0,8 / 13,0 | 1 / 11,7 |
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Distortion (%)/Vignetting (%) |
0,6 / 16 | 0,6 / 19 | 0,6 / 12 |
|
Points |
73,5 | 72,2 | 55,5 |
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Score Super Wide angle lens |
90 |
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Score 5000 | 200 | 5 Lux |
95 | 92 | 45 |
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Overall score camera qb |
86 |
Huawei P40 pro
86
very good
SAMPLE PHOTOS
Wide angle (main camera) – 1.9/6.71 mm lens (12 MP JPEGs)
Full Light (5000 Lux)
Low Light (200 Lux)
Night Shot (5 Lux)
Normal focal length – 1.9/6.71 mm lens (12 MP JPEGS)
Full Light (5000 Lux)
Low Light (200 Lux)
Night Shot (5 Lux)
Tele lens – 3.4/14.46 mm (12 MP JPEGS)
Full Light (5000 Lux)
Low Light (200 Lux)
Night Shot (5 Lux)
Super wide angle – 1.8/4.4 mm lens (10 MP JPEGS)
Full Light (5000 Lux)
Low Light (200 Lux)
Night Shot (5 Lux)