New renders of the Huawei P40
Pro show that it will only have four cameras – a three camera setup, similar to
what we saw yesterday on the Huawei P40, plus a smaller module that could be a
3D ToF sensor or a macro camera.
It’s hard to make out, but if
we zoom in close, it appears that the bottom camera has a square lens – the
sign of a periscope zoom camera. Huawei went back to a classic lens setup for
the Mate 30 Pro, but the new P40 Pro promises to push the envelope on zooming
tech once again – 10x optical zoom, claim rumors.
Unfortunately, there’s no
clear close-up that would allow us to peek at the markings under the camera.
The Huawei P40 render from yesterday was higher resolution and it showed a 17mm
ultra camera plus an 80mm telephoto lens. The focal length of the main camera
is not listed, but it will be somewhere in the twenties.
The main camera on the Huawei
P40 Pro will reportedly be built on a 52MP image sensor (1/1.33”). New info
suggests that this sensor will be a custom design by Sony and will feature
“16-in-1” technology.
It’s also called “Quad Quad
Bayer” as it does two 4-in-1 conversions to reach the 16-in-1 stage. This will
only be used for videos and photos shot under very dark conditions. By our
calculations, 52MP will drop to 3.25MP. which is good enough for 1080p videos
(photos will probably use some form of digital upscaling).
For daytime shots, only one
4-in-1 conversion will be performed, resulting in 13MP shots. This is likely
the traditional Quad Bayer binning process (or Quad RYYB, perhaps). The P40 Pro
is expected to come with a 10x optical zoom camera. To pull this off, Huawei
will is said to be using a dual prism design (current periscope cams have only
one prism). This is likely needed to fit the module in the phone despite the
very long focal length.
Huawei has trademarked various
terms such as Quad Curve Overflow (probably the quad-curved screen), Ultra
Vision Camera and Ultra Vision Sensor, plus 5G AR. We expect to hear what these
terms and what they mean at the unveiling event scheduled for March.
The Huawei P40 will come in
the same colors as the Pro model, here’s how they look (note the absence of the
fourth module that’s on the same level as the LED flash).
The P40 phones will be
unveiled in March, but we expect more renders between now and then. Hopefully,
they will clear up the camera situation.
