Huawei P40 leaked hands-on shows off a familiar design

Huawei is expected to reveal the P40 and P40 near the end of this month, so it’s not surprising we’ve already seen the designs leak their way onto the interwebs. But today an entire hands-on with the device surfaced, giving a good idea of what the former device may look like.

Digital Trends got its hands on the prototype, which, in a peculiar turn of events, was apparently set down on a table by a Huawei staff member during the Mate Xs’ launch. Digital Trends then asked if they could take photos of it, and the staff member obliged. Given the usual embargo agreements and NDAs we journalists normally have to agree to before gaining access or information about pre-release devices, the seemingly casual nature with which Digital Trends was allowed to take photos of the device strikes me as… odd.

But who are we to judge? Maybe the company just doesn’t care about leaks anymore, especially after Trump’s ban forced it to divorce from Google Play services and limited where it could effectively sell the phone in the first place.

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Either way, we got a good look at the device. Well, the back of it anyway, as there are no photos of the front. It’s also worth noting the device appears to be a rather early prototype, as its camera module looks fairly different from the other leaks we’ve seen so far. It could also be a P40 ‘Lite’ model. The phone was labelled with codenames, so there was no way to confirm which model it was, but Digital Trendssuspects it was the P40.

The device is said to be “almost exactly the same size” as the P30 Pro, but with more rounded edges that apparently feel great in hand. There is also a USB-C port on the bottom, but no headphone jack. There’s still an IR blaster though, so yay for that.

This particular prototype featured three cameras and a time-of-flight sensor; one of these cameras appears to be a far-zooming periscope camera as in previous designs. Digital Trends notes the device feels a little thicker than the P30 Pro, which may point to a larger battery than the 4,200 mAh cell in the P30 Pro.

In all, there doesn’t seem to be much to the leak other than a look at Huawei’s slight shift in design direction, but it’s worth reading the original report in full. We’ll surely find out more come March 26, when Huawei is expected to make its announcement.