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Huawei Mate 40 Pro: The "last of the flagships" leaked

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Before its official unveiling on Thursday, October 22nd, the Huawei Mate 40 Pro has been leaked in near totality by German website WinFuture.

In an article that offers far more than what a standard leak post would carry, we learned almost everything there is to know about the next, and perhaps the last Huawei flagship of its kind. As expected, we find an ultra-premium specifications sheet and a design that is original, or at least different from what is traditionally offered at this price range.

Unprecedented power with the Kirin 9000 chipset

In a keynote announcement that is a build-up to the October 22nd unveiling, Huawei promised "unprecedented power" that will be powered by the latest Kirin 9000 octa-core SoC. According to WinFuture, the high-end Kirin chipset in the Huawei Mate 40 Pro is also outstanding because of its design.

The chip has four Arm Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 2.54 GHz, three Cortex-A77 cores also clocked at 2.54 GHz. Finally, there is a solitary Cortex-A77 core that is clocked at 3.13 GHz.

An 8 GB RAM variant should be expected in Europe, while variants with up to 12 GB RAM could be offered in its home country that is China. Logically, we can count on a UFS 3.1 storage that maxes out at 256 GB, but if that is not enough for you, it will most probably be expandable via Huawei's proprietary NM cards.

This high-end smartphone would most probably be powered by a 4,400 mAh battery that carries the new SuperCharge technology for a fast 65W charge. Wireless charging would also be supported - including the option of reverse charging to charge wireless accessories such as Huawei's FreeBuds.

A "waterfall" screen with physical buttons

Compact smartphones do seem to be getting a second wind, but the Huawei Mate 40 Pro won't be a lightweight with its body tipping the scales at 212 grams and dimensions of 75.5 x 163 x 9.1 mm.

According to WinFuture, the Huawei Mate 40 Pro has a 6.76-inch OLED display with a resolution of 2772 x 1344 pixels and a pixel density of 456 dpi. There was no available information about the high refresh rate that will come with the smartphone. As with the Mate 30 Pro, the display will have a curved "waterfall" design, but it should still leave room for physical buttons on the edges of the smartphone.

Haters of the curved screens are going to grumble. Personally, I would have been very happy if it wasn't for the ugly double punch-hole setup in the shape of a pill that houses the 13 MP selfie camera and its 3D sensor.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro 1602925256 0 11 1
Huawei Mate 40 Pro's waterfall screen. / © WinFuture

A camera module that resembles an iPod

Either it's Julia and her Apple fanaticism rubbing off on me, or the camera module of the Huawei Mate 40 Pro really harks back to the wheel-like design of the iPods of yore.

According to WinFuture, the triple-lens system would feature a 50 MP main sensor with f/1.9 aperture and OIS, an ultra-wide-angle 20 MP with f/1.8 aperture, and a 12 MP telephoto lens with f/3.4 aperture and 5x optical zoom. Laser autofocus, a color temperature sensor, and a LED flash would also be part of the setup.

On the front, the Huawei Mate 40 Pro would feature a 13 MP selfie camera with an f/2.4 aperture and a 3D sensor. This not only makes facial recognition easier, but also makes it possible to make use of scanning gestures in front of your smartphone, as is already the case with several manufacturers. Soli, who?

Huawei Mate 40 Pro 1602925590 0 12 1
A strange 50 MP camera module with 3 sensors, OIS, and a focus on color fidelity. / © WinFuture

Without Google services, the Huawei Mate 40 Pro would still be running on Android 10 and the current EMUI 11 interface. WinFuture failed to mention any pricing details, but those within my circle do agree on a price range that starts from €1,100 upwards for the Huawei Mate 40 Pro.

One might have expected a price cut to make this to be a bargain that will appeal to European consumers. But nay, it will be the same price as the Mate 30 Pro that was released last year, and there does not seem to be any budging from that viewpoint.

Launching on October 22nd

Huawei's online keynote will be hosted on October 22nd at 13:00 UK time. We will see the new Huawei Mate 40 flagship device unveiled. It would be interesting to see whether the Huawei Mate 40 is able to usurp the iPhone 12 that was announced not too long ago.

In a tweet accompanying the announcement, Huawei promises "Unprecedented Power" with the slogan "Leap Further Ahead" also points to "take a leap forward". Decidedly, this catchphrase and Realme's "Dare to Leap" motto does seem to have a whole lot in common, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer does seem to be in a state of turmoil at this moment.

It does seem that there are certain quarters who are in a hurry to bury Huawei, a behemoth that is crumbling under the obstacles that the US embargo have imposed, which are clearly effective in limiting its ambitions in the smartphone market, despite offering a surprising degree of resistance and a more than positive mid-2020 sales record - which can be mainly attributed to the strength of its domestic market.

"Unprecedented Power." It's fair to say that Huawei's home-grown Kirin processors are very powerful. They easily rival Qualcomm's high-end or Apple's Bionic chips. And the Mate range has always been a very high-end product series of devices, serving both as an amalgamation of features delivering the camera module performance from the previous P series smartphones, and as a technological showcase with on-screen innovations and a more powerful processor.

It was just last year when the Huawei Mate 30 Pro arrived at the European market after having to go through a complicated launch, not to mention the usual lack of communication from Huawei. Let's hope that the Chinese giant is able to deliver an outstanding device yet again before riding off into the sunset.

What do you think of these leaks on the Huawei Mate 40 Pro? In terms of hardware specifications, what do you think of the €1,100 price tag?

Other interesting reads on NextPit:


The image at the top of this article shows the Huawei Mate 30 Pro.

Source: WinFuture

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Antoine Engels

Antoine Engels
Senior Editor

Black belt in specs sheet analysis. OnePlus fanboy in (slow) remission. Average estimated reading time of my articles: 48 minutes. Tech deals fact-checker in my spare time. Hates talking about himself in the 3rd person. Dreams he was a gaming journalist in another life. Doesn't get the concept of irony. Head of editorial for NextPit France.

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  • 49
    storm Oct 20, 2020 Link to comment

    The loser design choices are strong with this one.