In terms of important smartphone releases, October has been a very busy month. Google unveiled the Pixel 5 and Apple launched the iPhone 12 series touting the MagSafe tech and 5G connectivity.
Rounding off the busy month, the Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has launched the Mate 40 Series, its flagship series of the year, via an online event today.
The series consists of three smartphones, namely the Huawei Mate 40, Huawei Mate 40 Pro, and Huawei Mate 40 Pro+. Like most smartphone OEMs nowadays, Huawei also started using multiple suffixes with their smartphones’ names. We wouldn’t be surprised if there were a Mate 40 Pro Plus Ultra.
We’ll be looking at the vanilla Mate 40 which is a toned-down variant of its siblings and is more of a budget-friendly option for people who are ready to compromise on some specifications.
Design and Display
The smartphone comes with what Huawei calls the ‘Space Ring Design.’ It is just a fancy phrase for a tweaked circular camera bump we saw in the Mate 30 series.
According to Richard Lu, CEO of Huawei, the company has put in extra effort to make the camera bump and lens placement iconic and symmetrical.
On the front, the smartphone comes with a 6.5-inch Flex OLED panel with a punch hole, FHD+ (1080p) resolution, support for DCI-P3 HDR, a 68 degrees curvature, 90 Hz refresh rate, and a 240 Hz touch sampling rate. The fingerprint sensor is under the display.
According to Lu, the company has limited the refresh rate to 90 Hz to conserve battery and improve the overall battery life.
The smartphone will be available in a new ‘unique’ color called Mystic Silver, it rings a bell doesn’t it? Only recently, Samsung announced a new ‘unique’ color called Mystic Bronze for its Note 20 Lineup. Other than this, the series is available in Classic Black and Classic White colors as well as two colors in Vegan Leather finish.
Internals and Storage
Huawei Mate 40 comes with the latest Kirin 9000E chipset at the helm. It has the same octa-core CPU as the Kirin 9000E used in Mate 40 Pro and Mate 40 Pro+. However, it comes with a 22-core GPU and a single-core NPU instead of the 24-core GPU and dual-core NPU. The SoC is topped with 8 GB of RAM and up to 256 GB onboard storage.
On the software front, all smartphones in the series still lack support for Google services. They are equipped with Android 10 with EMUI 11. However, the company has majorly improved gesture control functions. EMUI 11 now supports air gestures as well. Users will now also be able to share their phone screen on the laptop while multitasking, much like what Samsung offers with Dex.
Apart from this, the smartphone is equipped with dual stereo speakers that feature 150% higher bass. The smartphone also comes with an IP53 rating for water and dust resistance.
Cameras
In terms of cameras, the main imaging sensor used in Mate 40 is at par with the Pros. However, other sensors are toned down. It comes with a triple-sensor rear camera setup featuring a 50MP f/1.9 primary shooter, a 16 MP f/2.2 ultrawide unit, and an 8 MP f/2.4 3x telephoto camera. The selfie camera is a 13 MP shooter.
According to Huawei, the cameras on the smartphone will provide the best results even in extreme conditions.
Battery and Pricing
The Huawei Mate 40 packs a relatively modest 4200 mAh battery. However, according to the company, it will provide a better battery life than other flagships due to premium processor optimizations. As far as charging is concerned, the Mate 40 gets slower 40W wired charging and no wireless charging.
The company has not specified when the smartphones will be available for sale, but it did reveal that the starting price for Mate 40 is €899.
Specifications
- CPU: Octa-core (1×3.13 GHz Cortex-A77 & 3×2.54 GHz Cortex-A77 & 4×2.05 GHz Cortex-A55)
- GPU: Mali-G78 MP22
- Chipset: Kirin 9000E 5G (5 nm)
- OS: Android 10, EMUI 11
- Networks: 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, 5G
- Display:
- Flex OLED capacitive touchscreen, 6.5 inches, 1080 x 2376 pixels resolution, 90 Hz refresh rate, 240 Hz touch sampling rate
- Memory
- RAM: 8 GB
- Internal: 128 GB, 256 GB
- Camera:
- Primary: 50 MP + 8 MP + 16 MP
- Secondary: 13 MP
- Connectivity: LTE, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C, headphone jack
- Fingerprint scanner: Yes (in-display)
- Battery: 4200 mAh
- Price: €899
Best Wishes Huawei Mobile Company #ShViha.
Reminds me of iPod.