Introduction
The world doesn't end with this one escalating trade dispute, Huawei insists, so here's the Mate 40 series for you. We have the Mate 40 Pro for review, the high-end almost-flagship that sits just below the ultimate Mate 40 Pro+.
We say almost-flagship just because there's one better, but the Mate 40 Pro is nothing short of a top-tier handset. Immediately striking is the display - a 6.76-inch OLED that envelops the device's sides - similar to the Mate 30 from last year, but even more extreme.
Flip over to the back, and you'll be greeted by a camera arrangement that you haven't seen before - so it turns out distinctive design is still possible. A proper tri-set of cameras sits inside that circle with a 50MP main unit and 5x periscope tele, both coming straight from the P40 Pro, and a new 20MP ultra-wide.
That's what you can see. What you won't be able to see is the new Kirin 9000 chipset, the first 5nm SoC for Android (Apple's A14 Bionic inside the iPhone 12 has one). Powering things is a 4,400mAh battery, fairly unimpressive, but that gets charged by a 66W adapter over a cable and up to 50W wirelessly - those aren't rookie numbers.
Huawei Mate 40 Pro specs
- Body: 162.9x75.5x9.1mm, 212g; Glass front, aluminum frame; IP68 dust/water resistant; Colors: Black, White, Mystic Silver with glass backs, Yellow and Green with vegan leather backs.
- Display: 6.76" OLED, 90Hz, HDR10, 1344x2772px resolution, 18.6:9 aspect ratio, 460ppi.
- Chipset: Kirin 9000 (5nm): Octa-core CPU (1x3.13GHz Cortex-A77 & 3x2.54GHz Cortex-A77 & 4x2.05 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G78 GPU.
- Memory:256GB 8GB RAM; NM (Nano Memory), up to 256GB.
- OS/Software: Android 10, EMUI 11, no Google Play Services.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 50MP, f/1.9, 23mm, 1/1.28", 1.22µm, omnidirectional PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 20MP, f/1.8, 18mm, PDAF; Telephoto: 12MP, f/3.4, 125mm periscope lens, PDAF, OIS, 5x optical zoom. Leica optics, LED flash.
- Front camera: Ultra wide angle: 13 MP, f/2.4, 18mm; Depth: IR TOF 3D; HDR.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, 720@7680fps, 1080p@960fps, HDR; gyro-EIS; Front camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps.
- Battery: 4400mAh; Fast charging 66W, Fast wireless charging 50W, Fast reverse wireless charging.
- Misc: Stereo speakers, Infrared face recognition, fingerprint (under display, optical), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass; NFC.
Huawei hasn't skimped on the smaller niceties either, and the Mate 40 Pro comes with stereo speakers – two evenly matched units. The front-facing ToF cam provides secure face recognition, and there's another IR-based feature – a blaster up top to operate your old-school TV or AC unit. An IP68 rating is also par for the course in this segment. Sure, there's no 3.5mm jack, but does that really bother anyone at this point? Plus, there's headset in this box, unlike other, half-sized boxes.
Huawei Mate 40 Pro unboxing
The Mate 40 Pro's retail box is the same as what we've gotten with previous Mates - black cardboard, golden lettering, red Leica dot on the front. Inside, there's a full set of accessories.
A powerful 66-watt adapter, which is still reasonably compact, is included as is a cable to go with it - since both pieces use the in-house SuperCharge technology you better hold on to them to get the maximum charging speeds.
There is a pair of earbuds, too, ending in a USB-C connector - that's the only wired interface on the Mate 40 Pro. There's no USB-C-to-headphone jack adapter included.
A new addition this time is a protective case. It's a basic clear silicone one, but it's thick and provides protection straight out of the box. It also doesn't interfere with the touch operation on the curved display edges but does rob you of feedback when operating the physical buttons.
Design
The Mate 40 Pro isn't quite your ordinary slab of a smartphone - it does have some standout design elements. The waterfall display, the rear camera assembly, the pill-shaped selfie camera cutout if you will.
Huawei says the OLED panel takes an 88-degree turn to cover the sides of the phone and we're seeing no reason to doubt that claim. They've gone a notch further compared to the already pretty curvy sides of last year's model though perhaps you wouldn't be able to tells it's 88 or 80 or whatever degrees - it's one curved display, for sure, of the type that Samsung's been moving away from for a few generations.
There's a sizeable cutout in that display, one that houses the selfie cam and the ToF bits for 3D face recognition. On last year's model those were in an iPhone-style notch, but Huawei switched to a pill-shaped implementation on the P40 Pro and that design makes it to the Mate 40 Pro. Apple has the notch, Huawei has this cutout and neither is exactly pretty, but the Mate does allow you to hide it in software. Having said that, as recent years have thought us, you learn to ignore notches or punch-holes in no time.
Unlike the P30 Pro, P40 bunch and the Mate 30 Pro that vibrate their displays for voice calls, the Mate 40 Pro has a conventional earpiece - sound comes out through a thin slit where the display glass meets the aluminum frame.
That comes hand in hand with another most welcome development - this Mate here has stereo speakers. It's two identical ones, one firing out the top of the device, the other - from the bottom.
One more notable step in the right direction is the return of the physical volume buttons. Entirely software-based on the Mate 30 Pro, volume control operation was fiddly, needed learning, and even then worked some of the time. The Mate 40 Pro has a proper mechanical rocker for this task.
Of course, with the extreme curve of the display, the buttons are... below the equator. While not strictly the greatest example for excellent ergonomics, they do at least work every time.
Immediately noticeable when you pick up the Mate 40 Pro after holding last year's model is that the new one feels bigger. While the numbers do objectively say so, it's also a tangible difference that the 2.4mm of added width and 0.3mm of extra thickness may not directly communicate. It's a big phone though, and as big phones go, the Mate is... ordinary, if that makes sense.
Mate 40 Pro (left) next to Mate 30 Pro
There's nothing ordinary about its back, however. The unique circular camera configuration is entirely a by-product of engineering considerations, we've been told, and not a form-over-function decision - the arrangement of the modules called for that particular design.
The four cameras are placed inside a black circle, the mandatory Leica logo in the middle. Without the circle as an accent, Huawei could have made one large rectangle with the four modules in the corners. That wouldn't have been 1/3.14 as cool, though, would it?
There's also the matter of color and finish. Our review unit is in the Mystic Silver colorway and comes with a matte glass back that does the usual pearl-like play with light - only even more of it. Black and White options will be available with similarly finished glass backs. Black and Mystic Silver be the ones you can get in Europe.
Two more variants will exist and those will have vegan leather on their backs. One will be in 'Sunflower Yellow', the other - 'Olive Green'.
As any self-respecting high-end phone, the Mate 40 Pro has an IP68 rating for dust and water protection. The one place you can tell care has been taken to waterproof the handset is the card slot - there's a red gasket on the card tray for environmental protection. The tray takes a nano SIM and an NM card (Nano Memory) back to back - it's one better than no memory expansion capability, but still no microSD.
The card slot is on the bottom where you'll also find the USB-C port, the bottom loudspeaker and the primary mic. Meanwhile, up top, a second mic keeps company to the other loudspeaker and the IR emitter - we're glad Huawei keeps fitting those in phones, even as the number of people looking for one is progressively shrinking.
6.76-inch OLED can go as high as 90Hz
The Mate 40 Pro is equipped with a 6.76-inch OLED display that spills over to its sides. Resolution is a somewhat odd 1344x2772px - it's even weirder than the P40 Pro's 1200x2640px. The aspect ratio going by the Mate's numbers is 2.0625:1 (or 18.6:9, if 9 is a more familiar denominator) while pixel density works out to 456ppi.
The panel also supports a 90Hz refresh rate, same as the P40 Pro and P40 Pro+. That can be set to Standard (60Hz), Ultra (90Hz), or Dynamic, which should adjust it based on content. There's also a Screen resolution setting, which allows you to set a lower 896x1848px, which equals 2/3 of the native pixels in each direction. And then there's a 'Smart' option for auto adjustment.
The max brightness out of the Mate 40 Pro's display is plenty. We measured 807nits with adaptive brightness enabled in bright ambient light conditions, which is up there with the other high-end offerings (though the Galaxy Note20 Ultra is capable of pushing more than 1000nits in our test). The result is also slightly higher than the P40 Pro+ (760nits) and notably better than the P40 Pro's 531nits. Operating the slider manually, we got 485nits, and that, too, is higher than previous Huawei's and in line with top-class competitors.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black,cd/m2 | White,cd/m2 | Contrast ratio | |
| Huawei Mate 40 Pro | 0 | 485 | ∞ |
| Huawei Mate 40 Pro (Max Auto) | 0 | 807 | ∞ |
| Huawei Mate 30 Pro | 0 | 464 | ∞ |
| Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Max Auto) | 0.028 | 683 | 24393:1 |
| Huawei P40 Pro | 0 | 425 | ∞ |
| Huawei P40 Pro (Max Auto) | 0 | 531 | ∞ |
| Huawei P40 Pro+ | 0 | 455 | ∞ |
| Huawei P40 Pro+ (Max Auto) | 0 | 760 | ∞ |
| Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G | 0 | 504 | ∞ |
| Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Max Auto) | 0 | 1024 | ∞ |
| Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G | 0 | 398 | ∞ |
| Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (Max Auto) | 0 | 894 | ∞ |
| Oppo Find X2 Pro | 0 | 536 | ∞ |
| Oppo Find X2 Pro (Max Auto) | 0 | 871 | ∞ |
| OnePlus 8 Pro | 0 | 538 | ∞ |
| OnePlus 8 Pro (Max Auto) | 0 | 888 | ∞ |
| Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro | 0 | 510 | ∞ |
| Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro (Max Auto) | 0 | 858 | ∞ |
| Motorola Edge+ | 0 | 422 | ∞ |
| Motorola Edge+ (Max Auto) | 0 | 607 | ∞ |
| Sony Xperia 1 II | 0 | 333 | ∞ |
| Sony Xperia 1 II (Max Auto) | 0 | 538 | ∞ |
| Asus Zenfone 7 Pro | 0 | 529 | ∞ |
| Asus Zenfone 7 Pro (Max Auto) | 0 | 741 | ∞ |
| vivo X50 Pro+ | 0 | 499 | ∞ |
| vivo X50 Pro+ (Max Auto) | 0 | 733 | ∞ |
| Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra | 0 | 498 | ∞ |
| Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra (Max Auto) | 0 | 811 | ∞ |
When it comes to color reproduction, things are fairly straightforward on the Mate 40 Pro. There are two modes - Natural and Vivid, each with a Default/Warm/Cool selector and a color wheel for custom settings.
We got our Mate set to Natural-Default out of the box, and that yielded a very good average dE2000 of 2.0 for the standard set of sRGB swatches, though the white point was a bit cooler than ideal. Switching to Natural-Warm made things worse with a pronounced yellow cast and an average dE2000 of 2.4. However, further tweaking with the color wheel got us an excellent average dE2000 of 1.0 with a nearly perfect white point.
In the Vivid-Default mode, the one tailored for DCI-P3 content, we measured an average dE2000 of 4.0 with the whites strongly shifted towards blue. Moving to the warm setting, the average deviation dropped to 2.4, but white got a green shift. Again, we achieved the best results with a custom setting on the color wheel - average dE2000 of 2.0, white at around 2.5.
Display settings • Refresh rate • Resolution • Color settings • Custom settings
Huawei Mate 40 Pro battery life
The Mate 40 Pro has a 4,400mAh battery inside, a low-to-average capacity for the class. The Galaxy Note20 Ultra, for instance, has a 4,500mAh power pack, as do the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro and the OnePlus 8 Pro, while the Oppo Find X2 Pro makes do with 4,260mAh. Meanwhile, the Motorola Edge+, Zenfone 7 Pro, and Galaxy S20 Ultra pack 5,000mAh cells.
We carried out our usual tests on the Mate 40 Pro, and it was good for a little under 24 hours of 3G voice calls while remaining fairly frugal in standby as well. As for the screen-on tests, we clocked 12:33h of Wi-Fi web browsing at 90Hz, which improved to 14:24 if you run it in 60Hz mode. For video playback, the phone always switches to 60Hz, and in our test, it could loop videos for a little under 17 hours.
Taking everything into consideration, the Mate 40 Pro scored an Endurance rating of 97h with the screen set to 90Hz for web browsing, and 101h if you're scrolling the web at the regular 60Hz refresh rate.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSer App. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Huawei Mate 40 Pro for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Comparing to other 90Hz phones from this year, the Mate 40 Pro comes up over an hour short of the Mi 10 Pro's browser result (13:44h), while the Motorola Edge+ (14:27h) is good for two more hours than the Huawei in this test. The Mate does inch ahead of the Zenfone 7 Pro (11:57h), though. Browsing at 120Hz takes a bigger toll on the battery, and competitors like the OnePlus 8 Pro (10:58h) and Note20 Ultra (11:31h) can't match the Mate's longevity, much less the Find X2 Pro (9:08h).
When it comes to binge-watching sitcoms offline, the Mate is bested by most competitors, but not by all that much. Plus, modern phones with OLED displays have gotten so efficient that the Mate's 16:45h result is easily good enough. Having said that, you'll be able to get 3+ extra hours on the Motorola Edge+ (20:14h) while the OnePlus 8 Pro (18:03h), Mi 10 Pro (17:44h), and Find X2 Pro (17:38h) will outlast the Mate by about an hour. The Galaxy Note20 Ultra (17:21h) has a minor advantage, too, if you make sure it's running at 60Hz for the task.
Battery charging
The Mate 40 Pro comes bundled with a 66W adapter that's branded Huawei SuperCharge. It uses proprietary technology to get all the 66 watts you need to use Huawei peripherals. We clocked a full charge from flat in 45 minutes with that charger, with 87% showing in the battery indicator at the half-hour mark. While the Oppo Find X2 Pro and the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra are quicker, the Mate's numbers are among the best around.
If you happen to be missing your SuperCharger and have a USB PowerDelivery adapter, you can expect something along the lines of 33% in half an hour when starting from empty and a full charge in 1:42h. We got these using a 65W-rated third-party adapter, but the Mate clearly didn't max that out, so a lesser unit will perform similarly.
30min charging test (from 0%)
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra100%
- Oppo Find X2 Pro95%
- Huawei Mate 40 Pro87%
- Huawei P40 Pro80%
- Huawei P40 Pro+77%
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G77%
- Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra64%
- OnePlus 8 Pro63%
- Asus Zenfone 7 Pro56%
- Sony Xperia 1 II46%
- Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G43%
- Huawei Mate 30 Pro41%
- Motorola Edge+30%
Time to full charge (from 0%)
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra0:27h
- Oppo Find X2 Pro0:36h
- Huawei Mate 40 Pro0:45h
- Huawei P40 Pro0:50h
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G0:50h
- Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra0:58h
- Huawei P40 Pro+1:10h
- Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G1:23h
- Asus Zenfone 7 Pro1:32h
- Huawei Mate 30 Pro1:34h
- Sony Xperia 1 II1:51h
- Motorola Edge+2:37h
The Mate 40 Pro also supports wireless charging up to 50W - again, with in-house hardware. Reverse wireless charging is also possible.
Huawei doesn't make a big deal out of it, but the Mate does provide a couple of options to prolong the battery's health over time. One of these is Smart Charge that will delay topping up to 100% depending on your charging habits. Unlike Sony or Asus, there are no settings for this one where you can dial in full charge target times or tie it to your morning alarm - it's just a simple on/off toggle (on by default, by the way).
While Smart Charge was available on the P40 Pro, there's a new one on the Mate. It's called Smart Battery Capacity, and it limits full charges to just short of the battery's top capacity - lithium batteries don't like the 100% state and staying below it helps in the long run.
Speaker test
The Mate 40 Pro has a stereo speaker setup, and it's one of the better ones, conceptually. You get two dedicated speakers, one on the bottom, one on the top, so there's no discrepancy between a 'main' speaker and an earpiece-based sidekick.
| X | Huawei Mate 40 Pro | Huawei P40 Pro | Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G | Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27.258 | -25.865 | -25.2 | -37.097 | -25.926 |
| 44.348 | -15.468 | -25.539 | -32.01 | -24.667 |
| 65.574 | -13.597 | -23.545 | -17.771 | -23.739 |
| 91.616 | -18.874 | -12.911 | -11.929 | -22.573 |
| 123.122 | -13.777 | -5.872 | -8.488 | -14.571 |
| 160.746 | -6.78 | -3.207 | -9.402 | -8.75 |
| 205.164 | -1.888 | 2.327 | -6.255 | -6.99 |
| 257.068 | -5.569 | 1.765 | -9.74 | -8.589 |
| 317.168 | -0.73 | -6.705 | -3.962 | -9.706 |
| 386.189 | -11.879 | -11.973 | -0.144 | -5.919 |
| 464.863 | -16.836 | -17.51 | -10.176 | -11.144 |
| 553.931 | -13.788 | -19.601 | -9.581 | -8.391 |
| 654.134 | -10.55 | -16.058 | -7.632 | -4.379 |
| 766.209 | -4.403 | -7.185 | -8.777 | -4.215 |
| 890.88 | 0.995 | -3.887 | -10.846 | -5.522 |
| 1,028.86 | 1.1 | -1.932 | -8.132 | -2.526 |
| 1,180.84 | 4.484 | -1.589 | -5.235 | -2.176 |
| 1,347.49 | 8.469 | -0.715 | -0.359 | 3.313 |
| 1,529.42 | 10.328 | 0.71 | 4.221 | 7.9 |
| 1,727.23 | 11.632 | 1.428 | 7.486 | 11.589 |
| 1,941.47 | 12.142 | 5.716 | 11.01 | 14.229 |
| 2,172.62 | 7.305 | 9.501 | 13.593 | 16.456 |
| 2,421.12 | 6.962 | 10.44 | 12.924 | 12.916 |
| 2,687.33 | 12.185 | 8.286 | 11.632 | 9.867 |
| 2,971.55 | 11.067 | 11.318 | 15.651 | 14.316 |
| 3,274.01 | 6.563 | 15.855 | 16.432 | 14.318 |
| 3,594.84 | 6.354 | 13.214 | 14.698 | 10.94 |
| 3,934.11 | 10.181 | 9.77 | 12.829 | 5.798 |
| 4,291.77 | 13.645 | 11.754 | 9.259 | 2.37 |
| 4,667.69 | 13.292 | 13.499 | 10.43 | 6.169 |
| 5,061.66 | 9.953 | 13.578 | 13.443 | 12.165 |
| 5,473.35 | 7.781 | 13.221 | 12.87 | 13.114 |
| 5,902.32 | 7.686 | 10.994 | 10.582 | 10.602 |
| 6,348.04 | 8.395 | 7.394 | 6.175 | 10.387 |
| 6,809.87 | 7.617 | 6.56 | 4.759 | 9.955 |
| 7,287.07 | 7.642 | 7.671 | 6.003 | 7.644 |
| 7,778.78 | 7.708 | 8.187 | 6.231 | 6.66 |
| 8,284.06 | 6.893 | 7.805 | 6.029 | 10.639 |
| 8,801.83 | 6.103 | 8.62 | 7.212 | 14.745 |
| 9,330.94 | 6.373 | 10.444 | 7.983 | 16.373 |
| 9,870.15 | 7.026 | 10.212 | 8.971 | 15.7 |
| 10,418.1 | 6.99 | 8.805 | 10.977 | 16.096 |
| 10,973.3 | 6.012 | 7.243 | 13.456 | 16.525 |
| 11,534.4 | 4.511 | 6.772 | 15.261 | 16.984 |
| 12,099.6 | 2.791 | 5.953 | 14.383 | 15.886 |
| 12,667.3 | 0.603 | 4.025 | 11.398 | 14.145 |
| 13,235.9 | -0.864 | 0.949 | 7.939 | 12.854 |
| 13,803.4 | -2.739 | -2.55 | 3.513 | 10.994 |
| 14,368.2 | -5.305 | -6.217 | -1.71 | 8.153 |
| 14,928.3 | -7.888 | -9.526 | -6.884 | 5.022 |
| 15,481.8 | -9.96 | -11.871 | -11.993 | 1.684 |
| 16,026.8 | -10.698 | -13.751 | -16.317 | -1.354 |
| 16,561.4 | -10.988 | -15.02 | -18.798 | -3.539 |
| 17,083.7 | -11.366 | -15.599 | -19.856 | -5.26 |
| 17,591.8 | -12.245 | -15.544 | -20.072 | -6.863 |
| 18,083.7 | -13.872 | -15.355 | -19.452 | -7.967 |
| 18,557.8 | -15.549 | -15.144 | -18.505 | -8.574 |
| 19,012 | -16.906 | -14.967 | -17.825 | -9.088 |
| 19,444.8 | -18.217 | -14.831 | -17.446 | -9.689 |
| 19,854.4 | -19.624 | -14.686 | -17.202 | -10.253 |
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test.
Audio output quality
We've recently discontinued our audio output quality test.
The reason for that is that most phones that arrived for testing were already excellent in this regard. Whatever difference there was, it was marginal and probably indistinguishable to anything but our lab equipment.
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