Huawei perseveres with local P40 launch despite Google woes

It's no secret that Huawei's been in a bit of a bind lately. Cut off from Google thanks to a dispute with the US, the manufacturer's phones have become a much harder sell outside of its home country of China. Despite this, it appears to be business as normal for Huawei in Australia, with the company set to bring its newly unveiled flagship smartphones - the P40 and P40 Pro - to market next month.

While new Huawei smartphones, including the P40 and P40 Pro, run an open source version of Android, they're missing Google apps and services. This means the neither phone will run the Play Store, Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail, and more.

It's possible to "sideload" Google apps and services onto Huawei Android devices, but Google actively discourages this, as it poses a security risk to the user. Google has however, applied for a license that would allow it to resume business with Huawei. If granted, Huawei smartphones would be able to run Google apps and services again. It is however unclear when a decision regarding the application will be made.

In the meantime, 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. When testing the Huawei Mate 30 Pro last year, almost every big name app was absent. Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, Spotify, Uber, Tinder, and more were all missing. TikTok was the only familiar face.

There are however alternative options. Huawei has a Phone Clone tool that will let you transfer all of your apps from your previous phone to your P40. Apps copied from a past device won't receive automatic updates, however, and apps relying on Google services, flat out won't work. This includes apps like Uber, which utilises Google Maps.

Huawei also suggests installing apps from official sources, like the Facebook and WhatsApp website, or creating desktop shortcuts to the web version of apps like Gmail.

Anyone who purchases a P40 or P40 Pro will receive a "complimentary VIP service" to help setup their new device, and presumably navigate them through this brave new world. This service will be offered online and over the phone. 

Despite app store complications, more retailers are ranging the latest Huawei devices than expected. You'll find the P40 at the Huawei store, Harvey Norman, and Mobileciti for $1,099, and the P40 Pro at the Huawei store, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Mobileciti, and Officeworks for $1,599. That's a marked improvement from the Mate 30 Pro launch, where only 200 devices were made available initially via an online lottery system. Pre-orders start from today, ahead of an April 16 release date. Anyone who pre-orders the P40 Pro will get a free pair of wire-free FreeBuds 3 valued at $299.

Huawei is also working with Australian developers responsible for banking, government, and media apps in order to bring software to the App Gallery, but there's currently no timeframe on when these might be available. In some cases, the process of porting an app to the Huawei App Gallery can take as a little as half an hour. However, this can blow out to months if an app is heavily dependent on Google.

Huawei seems down, but doesn't look to be going out without a fight.

The phones themselves are a pair of camera-centric flagships, building on what Huawei achieved with the P30 Pro. Both the P40 and P40 Pro feature a new 50MP sensor - promising - higher light intake, higher dynamic range, and lower noise - but there's a few differences between the duo. These mostly related to the camera array and screen.

On the P40 Pro, the 50MP lens is backed up by a 40MP ultra-wide angle lens, a 12MP 5x telephoto lens capable of up to 50x digital zoom, and a depth sensing lens. The telephoto lens is backed up both optical and software stabilisation, which Huawei says will make it easier to capture photos at higher magnifications.

On the P40, the 50MP lens is paired with a 16MP ultra-wide angle lens, and an 8MP 3x telephoto lens capable of up to 30x digital zoom.

Both camera configurations also have a couple of software tricks, such as the ability to remove people from the background of your photos, and minimise reflections when shooting through glass.

In terms of display, the P40 has a convention 6.1-inch flat display. The P40 Pro, on the other hand, has a rather unique 6.58-inch curved screen. Rather than just tapering off on the left and right, it also does so on the top and bottom (pictured above).

And of course, both phones are 5G ready. Here's a complete run down of how the two phones compare:

In addition, Huawei also announced somewhat awkwardly named P40 Pro+. The P40 Pro+ is almost identical to the P40 Pro, but has a camera setup featuring two telephoto lenses: a 3x zoom and a 10x zoom. This marks the first time we've seen two periscopic lenses on a smartphone. As with the Galaxy S20 Ultra, the P40 Pro+'s 10x zoom lens can be used to achieve 100x digital zoom. At this stage, the P40 Pro+ won't be in available in Australia.

Alex Choros

Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor | X | Instagram | Threads | LinkedIn

Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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