**** The Official Huawei P40 pro Thread ****

As good as that camera score is, dropping a bag for a phone that wont support my banking apps or will need workarounds for things simply isnt going to happen.

Shame really.
 
So I have had the P40 Pro for a few days, I was enticed into buying it by the offer of a free Huawei PU Case (Really nice case as it goes) and a free Huawei GT2 Watch 46mm all for £899 inc delivery.

Here's my thoughts for anyone interested.

The Hardware:

The hardware is superb, the Camera is excellent, the handset itself is very very nice and as said before by Electroshadow, iPhone like in quality. When you pick it up, if feels solid, like a real quality piece of hardware which it most certainly is. The buttons are solid, there is no wobble, it is very well manufactured. I have the Silver Frost colour which is beautiful.

The face unlock is superb, works fine at all times just like my iPhone 11 pro Max from my limited testing so far, no issues there. I did notice when using Paypal it did not offer to use the Face Unlock option, only fingerprint so i'm unsure if it is secure enough for banking apps etc.
Charging speed is rapid, as everyone has already commented, it charges very fast which is great.

The only slight negatives I can really think of at this point regarding the hardware is the lack of stereo speakers is slightly disappointing and I am a little disappointed in the screen. Yes it's very nice but next to my Oneplus 7t the colours seem very muted. I played with the various settings for the display but was left slightly disappointed by the colour saturation. This is probably just me but I like the colours to pop more.

One thing I also noticed was the P40pro general performance seemed slower than my Oneplus 7T, but I would imagine that is down to Oxygen OS on the OP7T rather than the chipsets each handset uses.

Software:

EMUI is just like using an iPhone, you can enable an app drawer, but it is essentially a copy of iOS in a lot of ways. I quite like this, although it does feel dated. But it works and it works very well.

The one major drawback regarding software is that this phone does not come with GMS therefore all google applications including the Playstore are unusable. The Huawei app gallery is installed by default and it does have most applications ready for install but it is not as well stocked as yet. Huawei are reportedly spending millions to get this up and running which would signify that the US ban on companies such as Google working with Huawei are here for the long term.

I did use the included Huawei Phoneclone software to clone apps from my Oneplus 7T and this worked really well when I setup the Hotspot manually as automatic failed every time. I also installed the APKPure AppStore so I could install applications such as Netflix, Whatsapp etc that weren't available on the Huawei App Gallery. These all worked perfectly well and the phone is pretty much setup as I want it.

I installed the new Chromium Edge browser on my desktop, imported all Google information into it, then installed the Edge browser on the P40 pro, logged in and it synced all my information. I was pleasantly surprised at how good this worked. It works as well if not better than Chrome.

So, the negatives.

I found a number of applications such as Sky News, Sky Sports to name a couple do not send notifications. So if there is breaking news, my Oneplus 7T notified me but the P40 never did. This also happened with Twitter, notifications were never received. I checked and rechecked all applications and they were all set to send notifications. My thoughts are that a number of applications must use the Google API's, Framework etc for notifications and as the P40pro does not have those, they won't work correctly.

Listening to music on my Apple Airpod Pro's the sound is very very low, even at max volume the sound output is borderline useless. It sounds like its only about 30-50% volume even though it is at maximum. I have paired and repaired, tried all the fixes I could find online but just could not get it working properly. Once paired back to either my iPhone or Oneplus the volume was back to normal.

After a few days of using the phone as Huawei intended, I set about and installed the Google services. This is pretty easy to do to be honest, but it did get me thinking, when Google updates their software, will I need to reset the device and go through this whole ordeal again?

Anyway, I proceeded to install GMS and it worked perfectly. All google services back up and running, Google Photos, Gboard (How I missed Gboard), the Playstore. Restoring my WhatsAPP chat history (Saved in Google Drive) and a number of other bits and bobs.

Whilst I could use this phone without Google, I feel I would be missing out on a number of features I have come to love. 'Hey google', Google Photos (Sure I could use Onedrive). Google Maps to name a few.

Whilst overall this is a superb phone, I just can't see me keeping it due to the lack of Google services. If this did have Google services and I could sort out the bluetooth volume issues then I would not hesitate to keep the phone and recommend it to others.
 
djay said:
So I have had the P40 Pro for a few days, I was enticed into buying it by the offer of a free Huawei PU Case (Really nice case as it goes) and a free Huawei GT2 Watch 46mm all for £899 inc delivery.

Here's my thoughts for anyone interested.

The Hardware:

The hardware is superb, the Camera is excellent, the handset itself is very very nice and as said before by Electroshadow, iPhone like in quality. When you pick it up, if feels solid, like a real quality piece of hardware which it most certainly is. The buttons are solid, there is no wobble, it is very well manufactured. I have the Silver Frost colour which is beautiful.

The face unlock is superb, works fine at all times just like my iPhone 11 pro Max from my limited testing so far, no issues there. I did notice when using Paypal it did not offer to use the Face Unlock option, only fingerprint so i'm unsure if it is secure enough for banking apps etc.
Charging speed is rapid, as everyone has already commented, it charges very fast which is great.

The only slight negatives I can really think of at this point regarding the hardware is the lack of stereo speakers is slightly disappointing and I am a little disappointed in the screen. Yes it's very nice but next to my Oneplus 7t the colours seem very muted. I played with the various settings for the display but was left slightly disappointed by the colour saturation. This is probably just me but I like the colours to pop more.

One thing I also noticed was the P40pro general performance seemed slower than my Oneplus 7T, but I would imagine that is down to Oxygen OS on the OP7T rather than the chipsets each handset uses.

Software:

EMUI is just like using an iPhone, you can enable an app drawer, but it is essentially a copy of iOS in a lot of ways. I quite like this, although it does feel dated. But it works and it works very well.

The one major drawback regarding software is that this phone does not come with GMS therefore all google applications including the Playstore are unusable. The Huawei app gallery is installed by default and it does have most applications ready for install but it is not as well stocked as yet. Huawei are reportedly spending millions to get this up and running which would signify that the US ban on companies such as Google working with Huawei are here for the long term.

I did use the included Huawei Phoneclone software to clone apps from my Oneplus 7T and this worked really well when I setup the Hotspot manually as automatic failed every time. I also installed the APKPure AppStore so I could install applications such as Netflix, Whatsapp etc that weren't available on the Huawei App Gallery. These all worked perfectly well and the phone is pretty much setup as I want it.

I installed the new Chromium Edge browser on my desktop, imported all Google information into it, then installed the Edge browser on the P40 pro, logged in and it synced all my information. I was pleasantly surprised at how good this worked. It works as well if not better than Chrome.

So, the negatives.

I found a number of applications such as Sky News, Sky Sports to name a couple do not send notifications. So if there is breaking news, my Oneplus 7T notified me but the P40 never did. This also happened with Twitter, notifications were never received. I checked and rechecked all applications and they were all set to send notifications. My thoughts are that a number of applications must use the Google API's, Framework etc for notifications and as the P40pro does not have those, they won't work correctly.

Listening to music on my Apple Airpod Pro's the sound is very very low, even at max volume the sound output is borderline useless. It sounds like its only about 30-50% volume even though it is at maximum. I have paired and repaired, tried all the fixes I could find online but just could not get it working properly. Once paired back to either my iPhone or Oneplus the volume was back to normal.

After a few days of using the phone as Huawei intended, I set about and installed the Google services. This is pretty easy to do to be honest, but it did get me thinking, when Google updates their software, will I need to reset the device and go through this whole ordeal again?

Anyway, I proceeded to install GMS and it worked perfectly. All google services back up and running, Google Photos, Gboard (How I missed Gboard), the Playstore. Restoring my WhatsAPP chat history (Saved in Google Drive) and a number of other bits and bobs.

Whilst I could use this phone without Google, I feel I would be missing out on a number of features I have come to love. 'Hey google', Google Photos (Sure I could use Onedrive). Google Maps to name a few.

Whilst overall this is a superb phone, I just can't see me keeping it due to the lack of Google services. If this did have Google services and I could sort out the bluetooth volume issues then I would not hesitate to keep the phone and recommend it to others.
Click to expand...

Good post, can I ask which GMS install guide did you use?
 
djay said:
Hi, just wanted to ask how your finding the phone?
Did you install GMS successfully?
Click to expand...
I have ordered a usb c flash drive and case for the phone, hopefully they will arrive thias weekend. I have watched the video a couple of times, so I will crack on it with this weekend hopefully.
 
Super Tigers said:
I have ordered a usb c flash drive and case for the phone, hopefully they will arrive thias weekend. I have watched the video a couple of times, so I will crack on it with this weekend hopefully.
Click to expand...

Fair play. Interested to know how you get on. I reset the P40 pro and had another go as I wanted to try and get the Bluetooth audio issue fixed. No matter what I tried I could not get GMS installed again. Gave up in the end and not tried again since.
 
I tried a couple of guides, the Portugese one, another German one and an English one.

Not of them worked, and I am not that happy with the Chinse LZ installer either. I am just reseting my phone for about the 6th time today
 
Super Tigers said:
I tried a couple of guides, the Portugese one, another German one and an English one.

Not of them worked, and I am not that happy with the Chinse LZ installer either. I am just reseting my phone for about the 6th time today
Click to expand...

I had another go yesterday using the guide I posted and this time it worked fine, It is hit and miss I must admit. Once you do have it working though it's fine but notifications for certain apps don't work. This has been discussed over at XDA so i'm hoping it might get resolved.

It really is a shame there are no Google Services as default as I love the size of the device and the actual hardware is great. I have also just got the Oneplus 8 Pro and whilst the screen is fantastic, the handling is not great and I don't have the smallest hands to be fair. I'm still unsure what to do :) I'm terrible when it comes to phones.

I did manage to get the bluetooth streaming volume fixed as well after some help over at XDA, In developer options, need to enable "Bluetooth Absolute Volume" so that now works perfectly.

What are your thoughts on the actual handset itself?
 
Djay, the handset itself is excellent, it is a truly premium handset, the materials and finishing are as good as Apple. AOSP android 10 combined with 8GB of ram means there is no slowdown and the system runs buttery smooth. I managed 3days of usage on the 1st full charge, I recharged when it hit 24% after 3days 1hr of usage.

What do you think of the new mapping app Here We Go? I have got Blokada installed to block adverts and trackers, and I also installed McAfee security as well.
 
I did see something regarding Here we Go Maps but hadn't tried it. I have now downloaded it and it looks superb, you can download maps for offline use as well which is great so I have just started downloading the 'England' map now.

I think the P40 pro is going to be fine to use without GMS as there are alternative apps for everything. I thought I would really miss the Google News, but the New Microsoft News app seems really good. I may reset and just use it as Huawei intended and see if I can do without GMS totally :)
 
My PAC migration went through this lunchtime and all is working OK, got Whatsapp up and running and Smart Transferred the backup file across to the P40. Whatsapp is up and running, notifications are coming through, so all is looking good so far.
 
Considering upgradeing my oneplus 7 to a p40 pro on ee.
I can see that play store is possible. But it's the phone worth the upgrade in your opinion?
 
Hello all, new to this forum so be gentle so couple days back I took the plunge ad got my a P40 Pro knowing full well it had no gms, that being said I had been looking at side loading it on. This has been done with some hiccups along the way, but I do have gms and playstore on the p40 with very few issues.

The issues I am running into and I wondered if anyone as solved or having the same issue is with Gmail, yahoo and ring push notifications. I've tried everything to get these to work, have managed to sort email via an email client but as for the Ring app that's still a no go. App works, records footage etc but if someone approaches/rings my door it won't send me a notification. Any thoughts or help would be much appreciated.
 
DarkTitan said:
Hello all, new to this forum so be gentle so couple days back I took the plunge ad got my a P40 Pro knowing full well it had no gms, that being said I had been looking at side loading it on. This has been done with some hiccups along the way, but I do have gms and playstore on the p40 with very few issues.

The issues I am running into and I wondered if anyone as solved or having the same issue is with Gmail, yahoo and ring push notifications. I've tried everything to get these to work, have managed to sort email via an email client but as for the Ring app that's still a no go. App works, records footage etc but if someone approaches/rings my door it won't send me a notification. Any thoughts or help would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Hi, there are a few threads over at XDA Forums discussing the notifications issues. My thoughts are that these apps rely on Google API's or something for them to work correctly.

When I had my P40 Pro I found that I never received notifications for the likes of twitter, sky news, sky sports etc.
 
digitalwolf said:
Any of you P40 Pro owners had issues with banking apps?
Click to expand...

Banking apps often don't work as they rely on Google Play service frameworks and security. You can side load the apps onto your P40 pro but I wouldn't be happy sideloading banking apps that haven't come direct from the Google Play store.
If you look in the Huawei app store you will find that the apps are shown but aren't available yet but will be added in the future e.g Barclays and Halifax
 
Can't you just wipe the phone and install stock android so you dont have to deal with Huawei's software and therefore not have issues with banking apps etc?
 
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