Huawei released its flagship premium smartphone the Mate 40 series finally on Thursday 22nd and as one would expect, the device sports some pretty decent features nd interesting specifications that makes it cool but there is usually the big elephant in the room and that is the software issue with the device.

For the records, Huawei was banned by the US government from working with any US-based company and also banned from selling any of its hardware or device in the country which is pretty bad news for a company with such a big potential as Huawei.

The Mate 40 series as one would expect yet gain sports l the high-end premium features which includes great camera system, faster processor, hardware design and some improvements over the previous generation Mate 30 series.

A good example is despite the fact that the company seems to have stuck with its “Horizon Display”, it brought back the volume buttons which went missing in the previous Huawei Mate 30 Pro and there is this doughnut shaped camera module at the back which the company calls the “Space Ring Design” offering a triple rear setup.

According to the company’s CEO, the Mate series offers interesting and stunning piece of technology all baked together within the slightly chunky frame of the device which might be a little bit disappointing this time around especially to me.

Each year the HUAWEI Mate Series brings the most exciting technology together into one stunning package. This is what defines the Mate Series DNA and is all made possible by our dedication to innovation. In these unprecedented times, we remain committed to creating a better future, with innovative technology that delivers a positive and meaningful impact on the lives of consumers. In the future, we will continue working closely with our partners to bring the Seamless AI Life experience to consumers all around the world.

Richard Yu

NEW MATE 40 DESIGN

One of the iconic feature of the device remains its design. The Mate 40 Pro has a great design finish at the back with this rainbow-like aesthetics that makes it even more fascinating in a much more subtle way. While being a big device with a 6.76-inch OLED display, there are some design changes which I do not find totally impressive.

For example, the the boxy shape of the Mate 30 pro is one of the interesting design that makes the device look a amazing from the front but the new Mate 40 Pro has this curvy corners which makes it look like the earlier released P40 Pro series.

And speaking of the P40 Pro series look and feel, Huawei ditched the simple notch on the Mate 30 pro for a pill-shaped cut-out to house the dual front-facing sensors of the Mate 40 pro which I don’t find appealing at all.

My thoughts about that is that Huawei could have offered a much more unique form of maintaining that design aesthetics of the previous-gen Mate series while making things better. I mean Apple sticks with the Notch which is one of the unique features of their device and if the previous notch on the Mate 30 Pro can be ported to the Mate 40 Pro, it still won’t look horrible in 2020.

Then there is the retention of the massive horizon display which I don’t have any problem with just that this time around, it was curved out from the top corners of the display unlike the one on the Mate 30 Pro which blends with the top corners making it flow naturally.

While curved edges might make you feel uncomfortable because of the fact that you might accidentally tamper with the display while holding the device, Hauwei tries to make the software smart enough to know whether its being held from the side and so accidental touches are ignored.

Other cool things about the Mate 40 series includes being IP68 certified and user can either use the physical volume rocker or virtual one since the display falls to the edges so much that it sent both the power button and the physical volume keys way to the back.

One of the reasons for the inclusion of the massive pill-shaped camera cut-out on the display is due to the 3D Face unlock technology. The device now have some pretty decent Smart Gesture control and always-on technology which turns on when you look at the device.

At the back of the device is a great looking camera ring which looks pretty cool. It looks like the Apple mothership HQ in Cupertino and it comes in Black and White colors while there is also the aforementioned Mystic Silver which has numerous colors baked into it which shifts depending on what angle you’re looking at the device from.

There are also two vegan leather variants, Yellow and Green. Meanwhile, HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro+ features an exquisite nano-tech ceramic back panel available in two iconic colours: Ceramic White and Ceramic Black.

PERFORMANCE OF THE 5NM KIRIN 9000

Even though Hauwei’s 5G technology had been banned in a number of countries around the world, the company continues to push for 5G devices since its home country is one o the leading places where the technology is being deployed.

That is what leads to the new Kirin 9000 processor which is also a 5nm chipset with 5G capability. The device is able to handle some pretty decent and high-intense tasks easily due to its capacity. The chipset is also power efficient which is able to manage its 4,400 mAh batter much more conveniently.

The 5G chipset has more than 15.3 billion transistors which makes it more complex and interesting at the same time. Being a powerful chipset, it features a three-level power efficiency architecture with cores running at clock frequencies of about 3.13GHz

Also integrated into the SoC is a 24-core Mali-G78 GPU, as well as an innovative NPU featuring two big cores and one tiny core, taking on-device AI to a new level.

The 24-core Mali-G78 GPU is the most powerful in any Huawei of Hauwei devices till date but it’s pretty surprising that despite the intense capability of the Kirin 9000, the device only has a 90Hz refresh ratebut with 240Hz touch sampling which is pretty cool.

Another aspect the chipset wins big is the gaming experience which is complemented by a very powerful audio system as the device offer a dual speaker that fires both at the bottom and the top of the device.

The HUAWEI Mate 40 Series is also equipped with the battery technology that is needed to keep up with the demands of 5G, supporting the fastest iteration of HUAWEI SuperCharge.

The big bad news about the Kirin chipset is that the company had been banned from working with TSMC which helps in making the HiSilicon Kirin chipset for Huawei basically because TSMC uses some technology that’s based on US technology and as earlier mentioned, anything US-based, Huawei is banned from using it.

There had been reports that the company had stock-piled a number of chipsets which are now being used for the premium device but if Huawei is unable to have a powerful chipset at its disposal, making high-premium devices in the future can be questionable but reports says the company is filing to work with the likes of MediaTek or Qualcomm but let’s hope for something positive.

MATE 40’S POWERFUL CAMERA SYSTEM

As we all know, the Mate series are usually good with cameras and the Mate 40 series offer some pretty decent camera system is what makes it interesting. Co-manufactured by Huawei and Leica, the camera module is a triple rear setup which consists of a 50 MP (wide) primary sensor with f/1.9 aperture and 23mm, 1/1.28″, 1.22µm, omnidirectional PDAF and also Laser AF capability. The next is a 12 MP sensor (periscope telephoto) with f/3.4 aperture, 125mm, PDAF, OIS as well as 5x optical zoom and lastly another 20 MP (ultrawide) with f/1.8 aperture, 18mm and PDAF.

The rear camera setup has numerous shooting modes such as: Story Creator, Tracking Shot, Steady Shot, Audio Zoom, High-Res, Time-Lapse, Ultra Wide Angle Lens, Aperture, Dual-View Video, Night, Macro, Portrait, Pro, Slow-Mo, Panorama, Monochrome, Light Painting, HDR, Filter, Stickers, Documents, Master AI, Moving Picture, 4D Predictive Focus, Ultra Snapshot, Capture Smiles, Audio Control, Timer, Burst Shooting

Other evolutions include Tracking Shot, while Story Creator allows for true cinematic effects. Background music, filters and effects can also be added with ease. Not neglecting audio, HUAWEI Mate 40 Series features Audio Focus, Audio Zoom, and dual stereo speakers.

The Ultra Wide Cine Camera now offers an even wider field of view, as well as richer detail, improved low light performance and distortion correction algorithms, allowing users to capture beautiful expansive landscapes, while the Super Sensing Wide Camera provides true high definition shots. Image quality has been further enhanced with Full Pixel Octa PD AutoFocus. Improved distortion correction targets the face, body and limbs, making the ultra-wide angle lens useful in more scenarios than ever.

HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro features a Periscope Telephoto Camera to support 10x hybrid zoom and 50x digital zoom, and HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro+ takes it further with a dual-telephoto camera system that enables 20x hybrid zoom and 100x digital zoom.

The Ultra Vision Selfie Camera on the HUAWEI Mate 40 Series take selfies and videos to new heights with support for 4K capture and the option to shoot in one of three available fields of view, ranging from up close and personal to ultra-wide. Slow-Motion Selfie adds even more versatility to the front camera by letting users add dramatic flair when documenting their fast-paced actions.

HUAWEIS ANDROID AND SOFTWARE ECOSYSTEM

Ever since the ban, Huawei had relentlessly tried to come up with newer solutions to this problem which was building its own app gallery which is a pretty decent move for the Chinese tech giant and since its launch, the App Gallery had been growing but it might not be essentially useful outside of China.

I said so because majority of the services you’ll find on the App Gallery are basically China-focused applications and you’ll rarely come across applications like GMail, Facebook or other Westerner services.

Huawei on the other hand had tried to replicate everything Google by creating its sown version of the application. Take for example, the Huawei Map replacing Google Map, Huawei Mail replacing Google Mail, Huawei Mobile Service replacing the Google Mobile Service and so on. But that’s not a bad thing for real because this gives the company to not only position itself as a gadget maker but also a software company at the same time and there are reports about the Harmony OS probably coming later on this year or next year. so we’ll see how capable this software will be compared to the likes of Android.

Cool features built on the Huawei EMUI 11 which is what powers the Mate 40 series out of the box includes Smart Gesture Control which allows for totally hands-free control of your device.

There is also the dynamic Eyes on Display technology built on the Mat 40 Pro and Mate 40 Pro+ which is the highest version of the device. It can be activated at a glance and can be customizable for interactive displays.

Improved MeeTime functionality is a gateway to a better connected, more intelligent life. When combined with the power of Huawei’s 1+8+N ecosystem, Multi-screen Collaboration offers an intuitive way for users to operate multiple devices at once, running several apps simultaneously, combining smartphone and PC to deliver unique experiences.

The EMUI 11 is built on top of the Android 10 OS (AOSP) which has the latest security patches for HMS users and it has a CC AL5+ certification which is the highest certification level for any commercialized security microkernel. There are also high privacy features.

When we lay our hands on one of the device, we’ll offer a much more comprehensive review of the device for you guys. Do not forget to subscribe to Brumpost’s newsletter for the best out of tech and other Huawei news. Share and let’s know your thoughts in the comment section below.