Huawei may be cut off from Google thanks to its dispute with the US, but it's still persevering locally and will be launching the newly announced Mate 40 Pro in November. The company's new flagship will set you back $1,999 outright, but will only be available through Huawei's two Sydney stores.
Because of Huawei's geopolitical misfortunes, the Mate 40 Pro runs an open source of version of Android missing Google apps and services. This means you won't find the Play Store, Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail, and more.
Instead, P40 owners will rely on Huawei's App Gallery, which hosts over 45,000 apps. For comparison, the Google Play Store has almost 2.5 million apps, and the Apple App Store has almost 2 million. Of course, it's more about what apps are available rather than numbers. Apps not available on the App Gallery can be sideloaded through APK mirrors - Huawei phones now have a search engine that can help find these - but not every app will run. For example, the lack of Google services means Uber won't work outside of a web browser. You can read more about Huawei phone app compatibility here.
App issues aside, the Mate 40 Pro once again appears to be a winner when it comes to photo quality. Camera sensor benchmarker DxOMark gave it a score of 136, putting at the top of its smartphone scoreboard. The phone's camera setup is made of a 50MP primary camera, a 20MP primary camera, and a 12MP telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom.
Other key specifications include a 6.76-inch Quad HD+ display with a 90Hz refresh rate, a Huawei-made Kirin 9000 processor with 5G connectivity, 256GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, IP68 water-resistance, and a 4,400mAh battery.
Locally, you'll only be able to get a Mate 40 Pro in silver.
In addition, Huawei announced its first pair of over-ear noise-cancelling hradphones, the FreeBuds Studio. They'll be available for pre-order from November 2 ahead of a November 9 release date and will set you back $499. Anyone who pre-orders will get a bonus Huawei Band 4.
Alex Choros
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