Huawei P40 Lite smartphone review: advantages and disadvantages

Accessibility and functionality is the unspoken credo of Huawei, which almost always produces smartphones in three variations at once: ordinary assembly, Pro and Lite. If everything is very clear with the first two, then behind the innocuous prefix "Lite" there can be hiding both a high-quality gadget that has almost not lost its standard characteristics, and a pig in a bag with a rollback to Android 4.4 and LTE. Find out if it's worth buying the upcoming new product? And how much has the brand simplified the Huawei P40 Lite model?

About the brand

2019 was a real test of endurance for the Chinese "achievement". How many nerves have exhausted America alone with investigations, courts and tough bans. Subsequently, Huawei for an indefinite period said goodbye to the world's best chipsets and architecture from Qualcomm. Of course, the brand has managed to get through tough times and even go back to Kirin's own development to bring the project to perfection. And judging by the latest news, the proud Celestial Empire has already completely switched to equipment of its own production and Western iPhones are of little interest to it.

Meanwhile, many users and experts, having seen a gadget made not based on Snapdragon of at least 6th generation, immediately rank the new product as a low-standard budget. Is this the right approach? Let's be smarter and give Chinese manufacturers at least a chance. Moreover, the Kirin 980 has already caught up with the performance of the 7th generation American competitor, and the announced Kirin 1020 is superior to existing technologies.

Appearance

As you know, Huawei is an impressive tech giant that always does qualitatively, not quantitatively. This is how we get to the first secret of the brand. The lightweight version completely follows the design of the Nova 6E. The characteristics, however, too. This version must be created just for the European market.

Everything here is like the northern part of the mainland. A typical smartphone with a large screen, so much so that it does not fit in the hand. In shape, and even more so from afar, it completely repeats the IPhone 11 (pride, and sales coverage needs to be increased). The display was 6.5 inches of high-quality pictures.

Despite belonging to the middle price segment, in the range of $ 300 or 18,000 rubles, this lucky man got his hands on high-quality, expensive materials. The body is made of tempered glass, which, we hasten to say, can withstand scratches and falls (of course, if not head over heels on the asphalt from 3 floors). The bezels are thoughtfully made of metal, although that's not the only protection the Huawei P40 Lite has. Thanks to a competent approach to ergonomics, the device lies comfortably in the hand (although it will have to be intercepted in women's and children's hands), and the edges are moderately rounded. Medium-grade case.

The main thing to remember is that the darker the colors, the more noticeable the prints!

The main camera consists of a monolithic block of 4 lenses. Huawei has unexpectedly moved the camera to the upper left corner, which is not particularly characteristic of its approach to design. And the fingerprint, as if missing, moved to the side edge, reminding us of the distant times of 2015, when it was a furor. On the front, everything is the same, the front camera is round, also in the left corner and a really frameless screen!

Recently, a frameless screen has been attributed to all smartphones released between 2018 and 2024. The trick of marketers works great, but thousands of smartphones have such "chins" and "bangs" that the thin edges of the Huawei P40 Lite never dreamed of.

Equipment

By tradition, the brand produces smartphones in 3 colors to choose from. P40 Lite is featured in:

• Glossy black;
• Emerald green;
• Rainbow white combinations.

The rest of the equipment is standard: a silicone case, a charger, a USB-cable, a clip-key from the sim card slot, a coupon and certificates.

Specifications

Screen

The display in the P40 Lite occupies more than half of the total area (83%), with a diagonal of 6.5 inches. At the heart of the budget IPS matrix. Despite the low price and the brand's desire to save money, it gives out decent quality. Pictures come out bright, and in 10 OS it even becomes possible to adjust shades (cold, warm) and adjust the color gamut. When tilted, the screen gives off quite a bit to the negative, at maximum brightness it works properly both in sunny and cloudy weather. 1080 x 2310 Full HD resolution with 398 ppi pixel ratio (like luxury flagships). An unambiguous advantage of the matrix is ​​the absence of the PWM effect, which leads to rapid eye fatigue and tearing.

The large size subtly hints that the gadget fully fits the criteria for gaming phones.

Filling

To understand how budget smartphones will look like in the next 2 years, it is worth picking up at least once the Huawei P40 Lite, which has collected the best of the latest trends in the world of technology.

The first sign is the advanced operating system Android 10.1 (sorry, without a tasty name). There is so much talk about her, but she deserves it. For the sake of mere gestures and a prediction system, it is worth looking for flagships based on it. Also, even the most application-packed phone will crash less due to proper process allocation and factory acceleration applications. For fans of custom, the "dozen" has in store for real wonders in the form of a change of theme, different widgets and pastel combinations. It will be supplemented by the author's EMUI 10 shell, which was released recently.

The second sign is high productivity. There is a P40 Lite based on the Kirin 810 chipset, which is equal and in fact superior to the 7th generation Snapdragon engines. At the moment, the 7-nanometer process technology is the best, which gives us the right to classify the novelty as a gaming phone. Eight nimble cores are divided into a cluster.

In the first group, the Cortex-A76 accelerates to 2.27 GHz. Their main task is heavy applications, such as Pubg 9 games, with high frame rates, or World of Tanks, famous for its detailed 3D graphics. The remaining 6 cores of 1.8 GHz were allocated for system optimization (just imagine how quickly the smartphone loads due to their tandem with 10 OS). Plus, the device's RAM reaches 8 GB.

Speaking in the language of mathematics, the download speed was increased by 10%, and the power of the flagship by all 30%, which is clearly demonstrated by the tests of phones on the Kirin processor:

• Honor 9X - 270,000 points;
• Nova 5 - 278,000 points;
• P40 Lite - 264,000 points.

Despite the fact that the first two phones are far from cheap and are absolute leaders in many respects. And here's what Snapdragon "7" is capable of:

• Redmi K20 - 253,500 points;

American development has more advantages in processing speed of solutions, while Chinese technology does not allow anyone to relax with exemplary graphics.

Autonomy

The developers have not forgotten about a good battery, without which no processor is able to show all its power. The capacity of the non-removable battery is 4200 mAh, which is quite a lot for Huawei. Often, even premium products, such as the P20, did not even receive 3500 mAh, and here even a quick charge function of 40 Volts is present (it charges up to 100% in a maximum of 1.5 hours). With a large screen and a focus on heavy gaming, this gives the P40 Lite a better edge over other smartphones.

If we proceed from the identical data of other models, then in standby mode it will last a record 100 hours. With active use of the Internet or applications, it will last 24 hours, and video in HD quality at maximum brightness will be able to play up to 12 hours. For an unpretentious user and even a restless child, this will be enough (even 10 percent will remain in stock).

Camera

Back to the IPhone 11 camera ... Oh, stop! Is this review about the Huawei P40? So that's it. How many angry tirades poured out on the brainchild of Steve Jobs. "Three cameras is ugly, worst design of 2019, complete failure" and so on. Unlike users, competing manufacturers appreciated the company's innovation and the Chinese “achievement” among them. The monolithic block of 4 cameras that adorns the body of the flagship is not that similar, it repeats Apple's design. I wonder how accurately they copied and the quality of the photo?

The main camera shoots at 48 megapixels, which is already powerful enough for a phone with a Lite prefix. All thanks to the reliable Japanese design - the Sony IMX586 sensor. The photos are rich, besides, users can choose any effect they like, and there are many of them, be sure. Judging by the presentation, the manufacturers were able to achieve supernatural color reproduction. And that's with an f / 1.8 aperture designed for twilight photography.

Guess which one follows her? Of course, an 8MP ultra-wide angle lens. The order of cameras from 2019 seems to remain with us for a long time. This lens is suitable for shooting landscapes, panoramas and videos in 16: 9 format, yes, full of Hollywood!

Video shooting is possible in 2160p @ 30fps and 1080p @ 30fps quality.

Rounding out the list are auxiliary displays of 2 megapixels for transmitting frame depth and macro with a 27 mm lens, respectively.

The front camera took 16 megapixels with an f / 2.0 aperture. A great option for selfies, you don't need more. Give us sunny weather and a smile from the person who visited this article and we will take the best selfie.

Advantages and disadvantages

• Large screen;
• Beautiful colors;
• Expensive metal coating;
• Unusual lateral fingerprint;
• Silicone case as a gift;
• Bright matrix;
• Smart processor for games;
• Latest version of Android OS;
• Fast charging function;
• Large battery capacity;
• High quality camera;
• Additional memory card slot.

• No screen protection;
• Marked case;
• The fingerprint is not always responsive.

Where and for how much to buy

At the moment, even the exact release date is unknown, let alone the price. Most likely, the brand will delight us with a release in the second half of January. A brand new smartphone will cost around $ 300 (18,000 rubles).