Huawei Mate 40 series announced - The last Kirin-powered flagship - Android

Huawei usually releases its Mate flagships in the second half of the year and this year is no different, with the Mate 40 series now official. We’ve got three phones this time, in the form of the Mate 40, Mate 40 Pro, and Mate 40 Pro Plus.

Go deeper: Read our Huawei Mate 40 Pro hands-on

Huawei considers the Mate 40 Pro to be the main phone in the series, and it’s powered by Huawei’s 5nm Kirin 9000 processor. The US trade ban means the Mate 40 series will be the last flagship to be powered by Kirin chips, at least for a while.

Nevertheless, you’re getting an octa-core CPU featuring four Cortex-A77 cores and four Cortex-A55 cores. Meanwhile, graphics are handled by the latest generation Mali-G78 GPU, with 24 cores in tow. The Cortex-A77 isn’t the latest and most powerful Arm CPU though, with the newer and beefier Cortex-A78 and Cortex-X1 expected to arrive on Qualcomm’s silicon. But it should still provide a good level of performance, with Huawei claiming the CPU and GPU are 10% and 52% faster than the Snapdragon 865 Plus respectively. We’ll definitely be putting these claims to the test first.

Huawei is pairing the Kirin 9000 chipset with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. And yes, Huawei is still using proprietary Nano Memory cards for storage expansion as opposed to microSD cards.

Huawei stands out for its cameras and the Mate 40 Pro camera housing is certainly an interesting one, resembling an iPod click-wheel. You’re getting a 50MP RYYB (1/1.28 inch) main camera much like the P40 Pro series, a 12MP 5x periscope camera, and a 20MP ultra-wide camera (120 degree field of view). The firm is also serving up a 13MP selfie camera in a pill-shaped cutout, along with a 3D ToF sensor for face unlock and gestures.

Huawei is also offering the polarizing waterfall display again this year, after debuting it on the Mate 30 series. This time, you’ve got a 6.76-inch 2,772 x 1,344 OLED screen with the display curving at an 88 degree angle on either side. Fortunately, Huawei still managed to find space for power and volume buttons on the side, as opposed to the software solution seen on its predecessor. You can also expect a 90Hz refresh rate and an in-display fingerprint sensor here.

All this tech doesn’t mean much if the phone conks out in no time flat, but a 4,400mAh battery should keep you going for a decent amount of time. Huawei is also delivering 66W wired and 50W wireless charging to get you topped up in no time once you hit zero percent. More specifically, you can expect wired charging to top you up in 47 minutes.

What about the Mate 40 and Mate 40 Pro Plus?

The Mate 40 Pro Plus has plenty in common with the Pro model, such as the same screen technology, wired/wireless charging speeds, and battery capacity. But the Plus variant differs by offering two zoom-focused cameras instead of one. Much like the P40 Pro Plus, you’re getting a 3x 12MP optical zoom shooter and a 10x 8MP periscope camera to cover short-range and long-range zoom, as well as a 3D ToF camera. Finally, the Pro Plus delivers 12GB of RAM versus 8GB on the Pro and vanilla phones.

Meanwhile, the standard Mate 40 differs from the Mate 40 Pro series by offering a 4,200mAh battery and 40W wired charging, for starters. The standard Mate 40 also delivers the Kirin 9000E processor, which sports two fewer GPU cores (Mali-G78 MP22) and a downgraded NPU (one big plus one small versus two big plus one small on the standard Kirin 9000). Huawei’s base Mate 40 also lacks wireless charging, but it’s also the only model in the family to sport a 3.5mm port.

Otherwise, the Mate 40 maintains the 50MP RYYB main camera, but ditches the Pro phones’ 20MP ultra-wide angle camera and 12MP 5x periscope camera in favor of a 16MP ultra-wide shooter and 8MP 3x telephoto lens.

Huawei Mate 40 RS Porsche Design

These aren’t the only phones announced by Huawei either, as it announced the Porsche Design Mate 40 RS as well. This is the sixth generation of Huawei Porsche Design phone launched by the duo, and sports a curious octagonal camera housing, for one.

The phone is mostly identical to the Mate 40 Pro Plus, but differs by offering an IR thermometer as well as 512GB of storage compared to 256GB on the other Pro models.

The Chinese manufacturer confirmed that the Mate 40 and Mate 40 Pro will be offered in Mystic Silver, White, Black, Green, and Yellow. The latter two colors are vegan leather options too. The Pro Plus and Porsche Design models will only be offered in Ceramic Black and Ceramic White colorways.

Expect to pay €899 (~$1,063) for the 8GB/128GB Huawei Mate 40, €1,199 (~$1,418) for the 8GB/256GB Mate 40 Pro, €1,399 (~$1,654) for the 12GB/256GB Pro Plus, and €2,295 (~$2,714) for the 12GB/512GB Porsche Design Mate 40 RS.

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