Camera technology and features of Huawei P40 Pro+ explained
With the camera-centric P40 Pro+, Huawei has once again raised the bar for rival smartphone makers by packing some really interesting hardware that focuses on "visionary photography." The LEICA-engineered Ultra Vision Penta camera surely offers greater versatility in shooting. But is it the best camera setup on a smartphone ever? Let's break down the technology to have a closer view.
First, here's a look at the five camera setup
The gigantic penta camera setup on the P40 Pro+ includes a 50MP (f/1.9, OIS) Ultra Vision main sensor, a 40MP (f/1.8) ultra-wide-angle lens, and an 8MP (f/4.4, OIS) SuperZoom camera with 10x optical zoom. Joining these sensors is another 8MP (f/2.4, OIS) telephoto lens with 3X optical zoom and a ToF sensor that helps in achieving a more accurate bokeh (background blur) effect.
So, what's special about the main 50MP camera?
The 50MP camera uses an industry-leading 1/1.28 inch sensor that lets in almost double the light a normal phone-camera sensor can capture. Hence, with a massive amount of light and larger 2.44μm pixels, you get plenty of details but with low-noise. In addition, the sensor deploys an in-house RYB (Red-Yellow-Blue) color filter array that allows for better low-light shooting than regular RGB (Red-Green-Blue) filters.
Pixel binning and dedicated ISP help cast some software magic
Huawei also uses 4-in-1 pixel binning to merge four adjacent pixels and combine their details into a larger pixel. The end result is that you get 12.5MP images with good sharpness, better light, and more details. At the heart, there is also a Huawei XD Fusion Engine that has a built-in ISP and NPU to quickly handle all the computational aspects of photography.
The setup also lets you go ultra-wide or super close
Unlike most smartphones, the P40 Pro+ has two dedicated zoom lenses to offer 10x lossless zoom which lets you go pretty close to your subject. The setup also uses a multi-reflection periscope to achieve a maximum zoom of up to 100x. However, that's barely useful. And for shooting landscapes, the 40MP (1/1.54 inch sensor) camera offers an 18mm-equivalent perspective with good sharpness and details.
P40 Pro+ primed to set new benchmark for smartphone cameras
Having a versatile five-lens arrangement gives you the freedom to express your view in multiple ways. And given how previous Huawei flagships have performed in the past, the P40 Pro+, with this complex-yet-convincing hardware, looks primed to set a new benchmark for the smartphone cameras.
