The Huawei P40 Pro Plus Is All About the Zoom Lens Technology

Not too long ago, Huawei unveiled its P40 series with the P40, P40 Pro and P40 Pro Plus being the first flagship devices from Huawei in 2020.

Although the announcement took place at the end of March, Huawei’s ultimate flagship: the P40 Pro Plus, hasn’t landed in the UK yet with the release date now confirmed to be the 25th of June.

So what makes the Huawei P40 Pro Plus stand out from its 2020 P-series flagship siblings, and how does Huawei justify the premium price tag? Let’s dive in.

The Look

When comparing the look and the luxury feel of the P40 Pro Plus to the P40 Pro, Huawei kept more design similarities between the models than with any other of their previous generation flagships.

These similarities are carried over to the display technology, curves and main camera lens, so the only visually distinctive feature of the P40 Pro Plus is the rear camera and its five lenses.

What's So Special About Huawei's P40 Pro Plus Rear Camera?

Huawei P40 Pro Plus rear camera setup. Image: Huawei

Year after year, we see more manufacturers aiming for breakthroughs in smartphone photography, going above and beyond smartphone camera capabilities and packing smartphones with three, four and even five rear lenses.

Over the past couple of years, mobile phone makers were working hard on low light photography and now that we can take a picture of a night sky on our phone without the result looking like it has been taken on a potato, it was time to address the concerns surrounding the zoom feature.

Unlike Nokia 9 Pureview’s penta camera (which we had high hopes about), Huawei’s P40 Pro Plus delivers on all of its five rear sensors and becomes a strong competitor to the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

While the majority of the rear sensors of the P40 Pro Plus and the P40 Pro are similar, there is one that only the Pro Plus model got equipped with: an 8MP periscope lens with 10x optical zoom.

Huawei P40 Pro Plus 10x Optical Zoom Module. Image: Huawei

We know what you might be thinking here: the Galaxy S20 Ultra has 100x zoom, so surely it is better? There is actually a catch here. Many zoom capabilities advertised on modern smartphones are not being achieved with true optical zoom, but work by either adding artificial details to the zoomed image or sacrificing the quality. Huawei’s P30 Pro was the first device on the market with a true 5x optical zoom, and now the P40 Pro Plus takes this achievement to a new level by using the science of light reflections within the lens to increase the optical focal length and deliver brilliant zoomed shots without losing much of the image quality.

Our Verdict

Besides bringing true innovation to the smartphone photography and being the best camera in a phone in 2020, the Huawei P40 Pro Plus comes with an array of top tech features including the Kirin 990 powerhouse, 8G of RAM, 5G, a 6.5 inch display and beautiful design with razor-thin bezels.There is one major issue however, and this is that the Huawei P40 Pro Plus lacks Google services. For many European smartphone users who rely on Google applications, no other alternatives will be able to replace YouTube, Gmail and Chrome, so you are in fact better off spending the £1,299 elsewhere.