Huawei P40 Lite: The experience of a reader who owns the P40 Pro

After removing the phone from the box, I will focus on its body. The back of the phone has an interesting two-tone design called Sakura Pink. The upper part is pink-purple with a gradual transition to pale blue in its lower part. There is no color change effect when looking at it from different angles as we know it from other Huawei models. On the back, however, in addition to the color of the cover of interest, four lenses with an arrangement in a square. Below the lens module is an LED light.

Higher weight suits me

As for the back part, it is plastic and it is recognizable, when pressed it bends slightly in the middle. The phone still looks firm and holds well in the hand. Although the finish is glossy, the phone did not tend to slip out of my hand and stuck comfortably in my hand. However, the back side attracts the fingerprints like a magnet 😊

The phone suited me in terms of weight, its weight is a little under 190 g and since I privately use its more inflated sibling P40 Pro, which weighs 210 g, the difference is almost imperceptible. Personally, I prefer the phone in my hand, which is to smell, not some fifipierko.

Display

At the front, a large display catches the eye, the size of which I take for granted as far as current conditions are concerned. At the top left has a shot in which you found a place in the front lens. Compared to my P40 Pro, I hardly noticed it at first. The display is stretched at the front to almost the entire area at the bottom, it has only a slight chin, which is great.

The panel is an IPS technology, it can handle well in poor lighting conditions or in the dark. Personally, I came across the option of setting the brightness as maximum enough. As for the picture, I compared it to my P40 Pro, which has an OLED display, de facto screens even though they have different panels offering the same modes and color temperatures.

I admit, in the dark I looked better on the P40 Lite than on my P40 Pro. On my P40 Pro, I could not get as cold white from the display as in the case of the P40 Lite, which was already lit in normal mode. My P40 Pro was yellowish white when looking at the screen. Of course, eye protection from blue light was turned off on both phones. That surprised me a lot. The only thing I couldn’t try was the readability in direct sunlight due to the weather of the last days and for more than a week after I had the opportunity to try the phone.

The operation of the physical buttons is identical for both models. The only difference is that the power button on the P40 Lite also offers unlocking with a fingerprint sensor. I really liked its operation. The P40 Pro has a sensor in the display. However, I know from use that the sensor in the P40 Pro display is not faultless. That’s why I personally like unlocking with face recognition more, this is also offered by the P40 Lite. Unlocking is fast.

Connectivity and charging

In terms of connectivity, the P40 Lite offers a 3.5 mm headphone jack compared to the Pro, but it doesn’t have a “retro” infrared port, thanks to which you can turn the higher model into a remote control for almost any electronics. Both models are equipped with USB-C and support fast 40 W charging. For today’s conditions, however, it is more or less the standard, as the competition also offers more efficient charging.

However, 40 W is enough for me, as I have a phone charged to 100% in almost an hour from zero and I believe that this power does not degrade the battery. I measured the charge on the P40 Lite and this is how it turned out with the 40 W SuperCharge adapter: the phone had a 14% battery, it charged to 81% in 30 minutes, and 100% in another 35 minutes.

Photography

Where I was probably the most able to try and test the phone was the photo shoot. I took some comparison photos with my P40 Pro. There is definitely an image difference, so only Leica lenses and a higher price have to prove something. In daylight, the difference in the initial view of photos is minimal. The main difference during the day in the photo shoot was perhaps the focus, where the P40 Pro always focused faster. This Lite version sometimes lasted and when I left it to automatic, the result was more often a blurred scene.

The camera renders the details nicely in a macro, doesn’t bother and thinks so much when shooting a close subject. I never used AI or any filters when taking pictures, nor did I take pictures in Pro mode. Even so, I would highlight the lenses of the Lite version here. Too bad I didn’t have the opportunity to take pictures of flowers with macro, or some animals. Next I chose the “street” or the city center – the square. During the day, the main lens beautifully unwrapped the photo lacks detail.

He can also say his own wide-angle lens, but with the feeling of “only” 8MPx, the photo is no longer blurred when zooming. There is a noticeable difference compared to the 40 MPx in the case of the P40 Pro.

Later I returned to the square and tried taking photos in the evening. At the same time, I tried to take pictures at automatic and subsequently also at night mode, which was able to cope with Christmas lights in the square.

Sufficient power for everything

In addition to photography, I also tested the performance of the phone. However, I must admit that I am not a maniac for mobile games, I do not even know which one is more challenging, but I tried out Asphalt 9 cars and some Marvel battles in the Strike Force.

As for the sound, it’s such a performance classic, there is one speaker that can play loudly, definitely for ringing, occasional playing or watching videos is enough. Who would like a better sound has the option through headphones.

Software

I will immediately follow the software, as it is known, the P40 series from Huawei is equipped with HMS and therefore does not contain GMS, but in order not to get lost, simply put – these phones do not contain Google services. So they don’t have Google Play, Pay, Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Photos, Drive, and other Google applications. For that, however, they include compensation, resp. partial reimbursement of these applications.

The home application here is the AppGallery, and while it is in operation, applications are being added to it, including the Slovak ones, which is certainly gratifying. Most importantly – social networks are fully accessible, as well as various shopping apps, bank apps, leisure or leisure apps, passenger apps, insurance apps, office apps, a bunch of additional apps and services – such as PS4 and Xbox One game controls, and of course games.

Certainly not yet in terms of the breadth of the Google Play offer, but the most important thing the user can find there and the hill of applications is already increasing there at the same time as Google Play.

What I personally miss so far is Magio Go, the application crashes, it cannot be used. You just have to wait for the operator to adjust it for P40 and other series with HMS, as he sells these phones (P40 series) himself, he could fix it… But as far as the application is concerned, if someone is missing something in AppGallery, it can be found and installed outside him. There are several application search engines such as Petal Search, or even “stores”. One of them is, for example, the Aurora Store, which downloads applications directly from Google Play and downloads and then installs them directly from there.

Emails outside of Gmail also work, I liked the app from Huawei, Email. It’s simple and offers Gmail-like email management. I had downloaded YouTube as a link from a desktop browser for a while, but I’m currently trying Google PWA (Progressive Web Apps) through which I’ve tried most services like YouTube, Maps including reviews, Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Photos, Translator and work . Of course, since they run as the name itself suggests natively in the browser.

Final evaluation

In addition to applications and services, I would highlight the P40 series’s control and movement in an environment that needs practice, not habit. As it is very intuitive and easy to use. When I got my wife Mate 10 Pro in my hand, those movements typical of the P40 series didn’t work 😊

In addition to the control itself, I will also mention the speed of the environment, while I had the phone and used it not a single hesitation, the only thing I noticed was the photo application, it froze a few times outside when I tried zooming and then rotated the phone from vertical to horizontal.

To sum it up, the P40 Lite is a nice looking phone with decent performance and great features. For me, this is not a phone about compromises, but about interesting solutions.

Thanks to the reader Marek Kollár for the article.