Everything you need to know about the Huawei P40 and P40 Pro

All of the latest info in one place.

Looking back on 2019, one of the best phones to be released was the Huawei P30 Pro. Most people in the U.S. likely overlooked it due to its lacking availability in the country, but if you did manage to get your hands on the phone, you were treated to drop-dead gorgeous hardware, insanely capable cameras, and some of the best battery life around.

The P30 Pro is still holding its own here in 2020, but its successor is right around the corner.

Huawei continues to be in its ongoing feud with the U.S. government, but in spite of that, we're expecting big and exciting things for the new P40 lineup. From the rumored specs, design, price, release date, and more, here's everything you need to know about the phones.

• We're likely getting three models
• Here's what the phones look like
• These are the specs we know
• Google Play Services will be missing
• Expect the phones to be expensive
• An announcement is coming March 26
• You still can't go wrong with the P30 Pro

Worth it

Huawei P30 Pro

From $669 at Amazon

Last year's flagship is still deserving of your dollars

It's no secret that the P40 lineup is in on its way, but if you're someone that's shopping for a new phone right now, there's no reason to ignore last year's P30 Pro. Even all these months after its release, the P30 Pro impresses with its gorgeous design, powerful rear cameras, and outstanding battery life. Plus, it gives you access to all of the Google services you could ask for (something we're not expecting on the P40).

We can expect three phones — P40, P40 Pro, and P40 Lite

To kick off this roundup, let's talk about how many models we're expecting in the P40 lineup. This is a series of phones after all, which means that more than one is coming under this umbrella.

Starting with the most powerful phone of the bunch, and likely the most popular, is the Huawei P40 Pro. This is the "proper" flagship Huawei is releasing for the first half of 2020, and it's expected to have the most impressive specs and highest price of the bunch.

Right behind that is the regular Huawei P40, which is the middle-child of the three phones we're expecting. If it's similar to last year's P30, the P40 will offer a very similar experience to the P40 Pro with a couple of small cuts and a more reasonable price.

Lastly, we should also get a Huawei P40 Lite. This should be the least powerful and least expensive P40 variant Huawei releases, and it's currently rumored that it'll actually just be a rebranded Huawei Nova 6 SE that already exists.

Renders for the phones have leaked

Huawei P40

In regards to the design Huawei's going with this year, let's first take a look at the regular P40. The front of the P40 appears to have very minimal displays bezels, along with a left-positioned cutout for two front-facing cameras. Around back, there's a rectangular camera bump with three camera sensors and an LED flash.

Huawei P40 Pro

Moving on to the P40 Pro, it looks very similar. We have the same dual front-facing camera cutout and camera bump, though there appears to be a total of five camera lenses. Also, as shown in the render above, Huawei will offer the P40 Pro is a gorgeous ceramic finish.

For both the P40 and P40 Pro, we're expecting USB-C for charging and no 3.5mm headphone jack. Welcome to 2020, folks.

Let's take a look at the specs

Just as important as what the P40 and P40 Pro look like is what's powering the two phones. Exact specs are still pretty up-in-the-air, but based on the latest rumors and reports, here's what we've been able to piece together.

Category	Huawei P40	Huawei P40 Pro
Operating System	Android 10 EMUI 10	Android 10 EMUI 10
Display	6.5-inch OLED 120Hz	6.5 or 6.7-inch OLED 120Hz
Rear Camera 1	Unknown	64MP primary camera
Rear Camera 2	Unknown	20MP ultra-wide camera
Rear Camera 3	Unknown	12MP telephoto camera
Rear Camera 4	❌	Time-of-flight sensor
Rear Camera 5	❌	Unknown

Camera quality is always a big selling point for Huawei's P lineup, and we're expecting more of that in 2020. The P40 Pro is shaping up to be quite impressive, boasting a 64MP primary camera along with ultra-wide, telephoto, a time-of-flight sensor, and an unknown fifth lens. There's some confusion as to whether or not the P40 Pro will have four or five rear cameras, but we're hoping that gets clarified soon.

We don't know much about the regular P40's camera setup, but we should learn more in the coming weeks.

Something that we think we'll see on both phones is a 120Hz refresh rate for the displays. This is a trend that a lot of Android phone makers are expected to adopt in 2020, and based on that and the latest reports, we think 120Hz panels are likely for the P40 and P40 Pro.

You won't find Google Play Services on the P40

When a new Android phone comes out, you expect it to do certain things — such as run all of the various Google apps, services, and have access to the Google Play Store. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case for the P40 or P40 Pro.

As a result of Huawei still being on the United States' Entity List, the company cannot use any Google tie-ins with its phones. The solution? Huawei Mobile Services.

This is what we saw with the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, and it was a big enough issue that we couldn't recommend buying the phone. Assuming this is true for the P40, that'll be a big hurdle for the phone to overcome.

Here's how much you'll need to spend

Let's now talk about everyone's favorite subject — pricing!

Looking back at the P30 and P30 Pro, those two phones had starting prices of 799 EUR and 999 EUR, respectively.

We'd imagine Huawei prices the P40 and P40 Pro slightly higher, possibly 899 EUR and 1099 EUR. At this point, though, it's all speculation.

Huawei will announce the P40 series on March 26

If you're eager to get your hands on the P40/P40 Pro, you don't have to wait too much longer.

During its event for the foldable Mate XS on February 24, Huawei confirmed that it'll hold another event on March 26 to unveil the P40 and P40 Pro.

The March 26 shindig is taking place in Paris, and we'll be there to cover all of the latest news as it's announced.

Need a phone right now? The P30 Pro is still great

Finally, if you're trying to find a phone to buy right now, don't feel like you absolutely need to wait for the P40 or P40 Pro. The phones should be really impressive, but the existing P30 Pro is still a champ.

Right off the bat, the P30 Pro impresses with its color-shifting back glass. It's gorgeous, feels great in the hand, and helps the phone stand out from the competition. The camera system is one of the most powerful from all of last year, battery life is out of this world, and the EMUI software experience is surprisingly good.

The P40 Pro will obviously be the better and more impressive phone, but if you don't feel like waiting for it (and want access to Google services), the P30 Pro is still a very strong purchase in 2020.

Worth it

Huawei P30 Pro

From $669 at Amazon

Last year's flagship is still deserving of your dollars

It's no secret that the P40 lineup is in on its way, but if you're someone that's shopping for a new phone right now, there's no reason to ignore last year's P30 Pro. Even all these months after its release, the P30 Pro impresses with its gorgeous design, powerful rear cameras, and outstanding battery life. Plus, it gives you access to all of the Google services you could ask for (something we're not expecting on the P40).