A beautiful device you can admire but shouldn't buy
At the intersection of geopolitics and consumer technology, Huawei's Mate 40 Pro arrives in late 2020 as a masterwork of hardware engineering rendered functionally incomplete by forces far beyond its design team's control. US government restrictions have severed the device from Google's ecosystem, leaving a €1,199 flagship without the app infrastructure that modern smartphone life depends upon. It is a rare kind of tragedy in the technology world — not a failure of craft, but a casualty of the larger contest between nations playing out on the surfaces of our most personal devices.
- A phone built to rival Apple and Samsung is undermined not by its components, but by a geopolitical trade dispute that stripped it of Google's services before it ever reached a consumer's hands.
- Without the Google Play Store, users face a fractured app landscape where obtaining software means navigating deceptive third-party sites riddled with fake download buttons and potential malware.
- Huawei's own app marketplace is growing — TikTok, Snapchat, and Amazon are present — but the shelves remain sparse compared to what flagship buyers expect, and the gap is felt immediately in daily use.
- The camera and processor are genuinely capable, yet benchmark scores trail competitors and HDR processing flattens video in ways that software updates alone could fix but haven't yet.
- The phone lands in an uncomfortable limbo: easy to admire, difficult to recommend, and actively risky for anyone who stores sensitive banking or professional data on their device.
The Huawei Mate 40 Pro is a genuinely beautiful piece of engineering. Its pearlescent back shifts color in the light, its 6.76-inch display reads clearly outdoors, and its quad-camera system reaches 5x optical zoom backed by the Kirin 9000 processor and 5G connectivity. At €1,199, it is priced like a flagship. It performs like one too — until you try to live inside it.
The obstacle is structural, not technical. US government restrictions have cut Huawei off from Google entirely, meaning no Gmail, no Maps, no Chrome, and crucially, no Google Play Store. For most users, the Play Store is not merely one option among many — it is the foundation of how apps are found, installed, and trusted. Without it, the phone's utility collapses in ways no processor speed can compensate for.
Huawei's alternative marketplace has made real progress. Major apps are present, and Facebook and WhatsApp can be sideloaded directly from their official sites. But obtaining apps outside the Play Store often means navigating third-party sites engineered to confuse — where the real download link hides beneath a grid of advertisement buttons designed to look identical to it. Beyond the frustration lies genuine risk: unofficial APK files may be outdated, compromised, or carrying malware that a casual user would never detect. For anyone with banking credentials or work data on their phone, that risk is not theoretical.
The camera system is capable but uneven. The main sensor handles color and exposure well, and the zoom holds detail impressively far out. The ultra-wide lens struggles with contrast and white balance, and video recording — while well-stabilized — suffers from HDR processing so aggressive it drains scenes of natural depth. These feel like solvable software problems, which makes them more frustrating than fundamental flaws.
Performance in daily use is smooth, and battery life comfortably clears a full day. Benchmark scores, however, trail both the OnePlus 8T and the iPhone 12 by a meaningful margin. Huawei is actively expanding its ecosystem, including a maps service on the way, but incremental additions cannot close a gap this wide in the near term.
The Mate 40 Pro is a phone that rewards admiration and resists recommendation. For a narrow user who lives primarily in web-based services and rarely needs new apps, it might suffice. For everyone else, it remains a device caught between what it is capable of and what the world around it will allow.
The Huawei Mate 40 Pro arrives as a stunning piece of engineering wrapped in a problem that no amount of industrial design can solve. On paper, it reads like a flagship phone built to compete with Apple's iPhone 12 Pro and Samsung's latest Galaxy devices. The hardware is genuinely impressive: a pearlescent back that shifts between orange, blue, and purple depending on the light; a 6.76-inch display that's bright and sharp enough to read outdoors; a quad-camera system with optical zoom that reaches 5x and beyond; and Huawei's Kirin 9000 processor paired with 5G connectivity. At €1,199 (roughly $1,418), it's priced to match its ambitions. But the moment you try to use it as a daily phone, you hit a wall that no processor speed or camera quality can overcome.
The culprit is straightforward: US government restrictions have cut Huawei off from Google's services entirely. That means no Gmail, no Maps, no Chrome, and most critically, no Google Play Store. For most smartphone users, the Play Store isn't just an app store—it's the app store, the place where you download everything from banking apps to social media to games. Without it, the phone becomes a beautiful device with limited utility.
Huawei has tried to fill the gap with its own app marketplace, and the company has made real progress. Major names like Amazon, Snapchat, TikTok, and Tinder are available. Facebook and WhatsApp can be downloaded as APK files directly from their official websites. But the experience of obtaining apps outside the Play Store is fundamentally different, and not in a good way. To get many applications, you have to navigate third-party websites designed to confuse you—sites where the prominent "Download Now" button is actually an advertisement, and the real installation link is buried somewhere smaller below. It's a gauntlet of deception, and that's before you consider the security risk. APK files from unofficial sources may be outdated, may contain malware, or may be compromised in ways you'll never know. A reviewer testing a device might shrug and proceed. Someone storing banking details, work emails, and contact lists on their personal phone would be foolish to take that risk.
The camera system deserves its own assessment. The main sensor handles exposure well and produces vibrant, accurate colors. The 5x optical zoom captures impressive detail, and even at 10x magnification, clarity remains. The ultra-wide lens is less impressive, often producing images with muted contrast and white balance shifts that suggest an overly aggressive HDR algorithm. Video recording shows similar strengths and weaknesses: stabilization is excellent, and the optical zoom is useful for composition, but the focus drifts when shooting at 5x zoom, and the HDR processing is so heavy-handed that it crushes highlights and lifts shadows into an unnatural flatness. A few software adjustments could transform this into a genuinely great camera. As it stands, it's competent but not exceptional.
Performance-wise, the Kirin 9000 processor keeps the interface snappy. There's no lag navigating the system, and demanding games like Asphalt 9: Legends run at consistently high frame rates. In benchmark tests, though, it scores 7,827 on the 3D Mark Slingshot test—below the OnePlus 8T's 9,802 and well below the iPhone 12's 10,988. Battery life appears solid based on real-world use, easily lasting a full day with charge to spare, and fast charging is available for quick top-ups.
Huawei is working to expand its app ecosystem. The company has created a system where users can register interest in unavailable apps, and if enough people do the same, Huawei will prioritize bringing that app to its store. A maps service is coming in the coming weeks. But these are incremental improvements to a fundamentally limited situation. The shelves remain relatively bare compared to what users expect from a flagship phone.
The Mate 40 Pro exists in a strange limbo. It's a beautiful, capable device that would be easy to recommend on hardware alone. But the software restrictions create a gap between what the phone can do and what users need it to do. For someone who primarily uses web-based services and isn't concerned about the latest apps or games, it might work. For everyone else—which is most people—it remains a phone you can admire but shouldn't buy.
Citas Notables
The fact remains that its shelves are relatively bare right now and if you're into getting the latest games and services then this isn't the phone for you.— CNET review
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does the Google Play Store matter so much? Couldn't Huawei's app store eventually catch up?
The Play Store isn't just a distribution channel—it's the standard. Developers build for it first, and users expect it. Huawei's store might eventually have most major apps, but the experience of getting them is fundamentally broken right now. You're downloading APK files from sketchy websites instead of a trusted marketplace.
So it's a trust problem, not just a selection problem?
Exactly. Even if every app existed in Huawei's store, I'd still recommend it. But right now, you're either missing apps or taking security risks to get them. That's not acceptable for a phone that costs $1,400.
The camera sounds like it has potential. Why not just wait for software updates?
It could be better, sure. But the core issue isn't the camera—it's that you can't reliably use the phone as a daily device. The camera is almost beside the point.
What about people who don't care about apps? Couldn't they use this phone?
Maybe. But that's a shrinking group. Even basic things like banking apps or work email are often app-only now. You'd have to be very deliberately minimalist to make this work.
Is this a temporary problem or permanent?
As long as the US restrictions hold, it's permanent. Huawei can't access Google's services, period. That's not something software updates fix.