If you remember, you know, way back before all these apocalypses hit...or is it a-pop-tic-lie?...apoca-lip-tie??
Anyway, before the world was ending, Huawei got banned from selling their hardware and
cell phones here in the United States. And companies in the United States were banned
from working with Huawei. It's complicated. Long story short though, Huawei is still out
there making flagships for the rest of the world and I managed to get my hands on a new
one. This Deep Sea Blue Huawei P40 Pro. Today we're going to see if it's durable.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
Inside the box we get the SIM card removal tool, along with a protective clear case.
Gotta love free protection. And there are some USB-C headphones that'll never get used.
And a 40 watt fast charging brick. The Deep Sea Blue coloring isn't super sharp or flashy.
It's kind of got a muted glow to it. More subtle looking and more professional I guess.
The first thing you'll really notice about the P40 Pro is the large camera bump, but
we'll get to that in a second. The second thing you'll notice is the oversized black
tic tac up in the top left corner of the screen, where the 32 megapixel front camera and front
face scanner are hanging out. They are underneath the pre-installed screen protector. I do like
that Huawei includes phone protection for all sides of their device for free in the
box.
Another difference this time around is instead of curving the screen around the sides of
the phone, Huawei has also curved the screen around the top and the bottom – still leaving
the corners as metal of course, which is probably smart. Better for drop protection. Metal doesn't
shatter like glass does. It's interesting that when Samsung starts to move away from
curved glass screens, Huawei starts curving things that nobody even thought of. To each
their own though. It'll be interesting to see how it holds up during the bend test.
It's time for the scratch test. We haven't seen a sapphire screen in a really long time.
The DuraForce Pro2 and the Sapphire U Ultra were fun little explorations into scratch-proof
screens that I guess never really caught on in other devices...which is kind of a bummer.
We can see that the quad curved display on the P40 Pro scratches at a level 6, with deeper
grooves at a level 7. The whole thing is made from glass and is scratch-resistant against
keys, coins, and razor blades. But pocket dust and harder minerals can still do some
damage.
One thing that can't stand up to razors though is the sides. Made from aluminum, we can see
the silver metal glinting out from underneath the paint. The red accented power button is
also made from metal, along with the volume rocker. Everything is metal, which is definitely
what we expect on a premium smartphone like this one.
The top of the phone does have an infrared sensor, you know, that IR blaster remote controlling
stuff. It's kind of convenient. No headphone jack though. Down at the bottom of the P40
Pro we have the USB-C port that can charge at 40 watts. The loudspeaker, and the SIM
card tray, which doubles as a nano memory card slot. Nano memory is that expensive proprietary
randomly shaped memory card that Huawei is trying to make happen. It's definitely not
going to happen. The phone is IP68 water resistant though.
The back of the P40 Pro is made from glass. The Deep Sea Blue has a bit of purple hue
to it, and covers a 27 watt wireless charging pad that can also reverse wireless charge.
The cameras though are where the power's at. With all the smartphones lately kind of all
doing variations of the same thing, cameras have become more of a focal point. We have
a 40 megapixel ultra-wide camera up top, and a 50 megapixel camera here in the center.
Along with a 12 megapixel 5x optical zoom camera down here at the bottom. And a 3D depth
camera over here on the side. All housed in a relatively thick camera bump that's made
from aluminum. Lately I'd say we're seeing a lot more creativity on the insides of cellphones
than we are on the outside. But we still got to make sure that no corners are being cut
during these durability tests.
The underscreen fingerprint scanner is a bit higher set than normal. I'll register my fingerprint
and then add some level 7 deeper grooves to see if it'll still function. And lucky for
Huawei, the optical scanner still works every single time. There isn't really anything super
crazy about the screen this time around. Yeah, it's got the curved glass on all 4 sides,
but that's mostly aesthetic. It's a normal 8 bit 90 Hertz refresh rate screen with almost
2K resolution, and lasts about 30 seconds under my lighter before leaving a permanent
white mark on the OLED display. Nothing super new, but still a pretty good looking phone.
Huawei's been making solid phones for a while now...well, ever since that Nexus 6P back
in the day. If you want to see some real phone carnage, go check out those videos, cuz this
P40 Pro holds its shape no matter how hard the pressure comes. Thumbs up to Huawei. From
both the front and the back there is no permanent damage or kinks to the frame. Even with this
antenna line that's placed directly in the middle of the phone it's still solid. Nice
work, Huawei.
I hope at some point that Huawei's able to clear up their beef with the United States
government...I mean they will have to get in line though, cuz even the United States
currently has beef with the United States government. It's complicated. One thing we
know for sure though, is that technology is fun. Seeing the inside of technology is funner.
And getting a protective skin from dbrand is funnest. So I'll leave a link for dbrand
down in the description and you can customize your own phone.
Let me know what device you want to see tested next down in the comments. I think we should
get some more budget phones unboxed here on my desk.
Come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you
around.