The P40 is a great affordable flagship phone in most respects. It has the best camera available at its price, outperforming the pricier iPhone 11 when it comes to versatility in particular, and its hardware and software come together better than we expected them to.

Excellent camera; Really nice size if you don't want a huge phone; Impressive battery life; At £699; it's 5G without breaking the bank

Lack of Google means it not for everyone; AppGallery needs a lot of work; Missing some big flagship features

Huawei P40: Huawei's pared-down P40 could be just the ticket for Google-free life

Same performance as P40 Pro; Cracking camera; Lovely design

No Google apps; Huawei App Gallery is limited; 60Hz screen

A great phone that’s hampered by Huawei’s Google restrictions; irrespective, the Huawei P40 is without a doubt, the best camera you can get for the price.

Best in class camera; Solid design; Great performance

No Google support; No wireless charging; 60Hz screen

The P40 is a great bit of the kit that, although missing out on some of the high-end features of the Pro and Pro+ variants, can still take on most 2020 flagships in terms of photography and raw performance.

Our initial question "Can they make this work?" of course alluded to the fact that the Huawei P40 does not have access to the Google services. The answer is a definitive "Maybe".

fast performance; camera pictures with a high degree of sharpness; flexible zoom cameras; good microphone quality; color-accurate display; long battery life; good speakers; fast Wi-Fi; 5G and eSIM; infrared facial recognition

only digital zoom during video recording; no Google services; limited to nano-memory cards; display refresh rate limited to 60 Hz; no wireless charging

Too big to fail? Huawei certainly is but its Huawei P40 is not yet good enough without Google in my opinion. Yet it has almost everything else to please. The fairly compact and above all very neat design really appealed to me.

A very nice OLED screen; A "compact" format and matte glass back; The camera; especially the zoom; Good in-game performance; Solid battery life; EMUI 10.1

Lack of Google services; The AppGallery catalog is poor; No 90Hz; No wireless charging; No IP68

The P40 Huawei’s new flagship range of smartphones under the P-series. The device comes as the direct successor of Huawei P30 of 2019 , and as you would expect, lot of things has changed.

The Huawei P40 is a lovely, fun little thing, and a charming addition to the line. As with all Huawei phones, it’ll be hampered from an app stability point of view until the brand can completely respond to the catastrophic hand it’s been dealt by the US China trade woes. In turn, the P40 could be a perfect, lower cost alternative to the Galaxy S20 for all; if it ran full-fat Google Android. As it stands, it’s a mighty, best-in-class camera phone with a compromised software experience that will be usable for some, and unusable for others. That said, Huawei is laying the right foundation, making hardware that still makes us coo with delight. So if the price is right and the lack of Google doesn’t put you off, the vanilla P40 could be just the ticket.

Best in class camera; Solid design; Great performance;

No Google support; No wireless charging; 60Hz screen;

The P40 is a great affordable flagship phone in most respects. It has the best camera available at its price, outperforming the pricier iPhone 11 when it comes to versatility in particular, and its hardware and software come together better than we expected them to.

Excellent camera; Really nice size if you don't want a huge phone; Impressive battery life; At £699, it's 5G without breaking the bank;

Lack of Google means it not for everyone; AppGallery needs a lot of work; Missing some big flagship features;

The P40 is a great bit of the kit that, although missing out on some of the high-end features of the Pro and Pro+ variants, can still take on most 2020 flagships in terms of photography and raw performance. Whether that makes up for the lack of Google Play is another story altogether, but that'll depend on just how tech-savvy you are.