Huawei flagships have stood out from the
crowd over the past couple of years thanks to their cameras. And if leaked Mate
40 and Mate 40 Pro renders courtesy of Steve Hemmerstoffer are anything to go
by, the next set of Huawei flagships could double down on that strategy. The
Huawei Mate 40 and Mate 40 Pro, which are expected to arrive in the coming
months, seem to be an almost perfect blend of the popular Huawei Mate 30 Pro
and P40 Pro design languages.
Huawei has taken the circular camera
module that graced the Mate 30 series last year and increased its size quite
dramatically. The bump houses three larger sensors and a mysterious fourth
sensor, which could be a laser autofocus setup or a 3D Time-of-Flight sensor,
on the standard Huawei Mate 40 flagship.
The premium Mate 40 Pro, on the other
hand, replaces the mysterious sensor with an impressive periscope shooter. But
whether that is the 5x optical zoom used on the P40 Pro or the 10x optical zoom
lens used on the P40 Pro+ remains to be seen.
In both cases, the cameras are coupled
with an advanced dual-tone LED flash system that sits along the left edge of
the rear panel. Speaking of the rear, the device has been rendered with a glass
panel, but last year Huawei also introduced a vegan leather option that could
make a return in 2020.
There is no word on the related specs just
yet, but Huawei usually throws everything it can at the camera department. So
it certainly wouldn't be surprising to see the same thing happen with the
high-end Mate 40. Huawei first adopted curved-edge displays on the flagship
Mate 20 Pro two years ago. Since then, they've become a trademark design
feature of the Mate series and have also been used frequently on the popular
Huawei P lineup.
That's why it's certainly no surprise to
see that curved-edge screens coupled with in-display fingerprint scanners have
been selected for both the Huawei Mate 40 and Mate 40 Pro. There are some very
important differences, however. Whereas
the standard model settles for a 6.4-inch display complete with relatively
subtle curves, the Pro-branded device goes all-out with a waterfall display
that measures in at 6.7-inches.
In both cases, those are coupled with slim
bezels and an extra-wide punch hole for the two selfie cameras. The resulting
devices measure in at 158.6 x 72.5 x 8.9mm (Mate 40) and 162.8 x 75.5 x 9mm
(Mate 40 Pro) excluding the camera bumps. Both Huawei Mate 40 flagships look
set to be announced in October or November with the next-generation Kirin 1020
chipset based on the 5-nanometer process. But due to the US government
restrictions on Huawei at the moment, rumors are floating around about possible
variants with different processors.
The devices are expected to hit shelves in
China shortly after their debut ahead of an international launch that includes
Europe. There, Huawei has been struggling to compete recently, but the company
won't be pulling out of the market anytime soon. Unfortunately, there is no
word on pricing just yet and discounts due to the lack of Google apps and
services are highly unlikely.
