We already know that the Huawei P40 Pro, TechRadar's first camera, is ready to take iconic photos. With its camera system co-designed by Leica, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise: the Leica look is, after all, iconic. Life is more than just a picture, and while photography can capture a moment and tell a wonderful story, it can't bring sound and moving images together. A child's first words, an off-key happy birthday, sung through the generations, or a grandparent recounting a nearly forgotten family story, precious memories you won't want to forget. Huawei knows how important video is to all of us. That's why it combines best-in-class hardware and software to make your P40 Pro the best camera phone for iconic photos and sharp, stable, and scalable videos.
Super stable mode not required
The P40 Pro's imaging system is incredibly smart. Unlike most smartphones, it uses a different main camera for photos and videos, sporting not one, but two flagship sensors. That's why the P40 Pro doesn't need a dedicated ultra-stable mode, which seems to be all the rage with other smartphones in 2020. With the P40 Pro, you get super-stable video as standard. Huawei is developing the stabilization algorithms used by action camera manufacturers for AI-optimized image stabilization. Unlike action cameras, and most phones, the P40 Pro's ultra-wide camera incorporates fast phase detection autofocus for sharp video of subjects near and far. Plus, thanks to its large sensor size and large aperture, low-light atmospheric videos are also rich, deep, detailed, and with low grain and image noise.
![Huawei P40 Pro]()
(Image credit: LaComparacion)
4K without cropping
Huawei's smart call to turn on its 40MP ultra-wide camera and make it the primary video camera also means it captures sharp, super-steady, crop-free 4K video. The result is video that captures everything and fits in the frame, groups of people in stadiums and vast, impressive landscapes, even at full resolution. Recording in crystal-clear 4K, your videos will stay in all their glory whether you're viewing them on your smartphone, downloading from YouTube, or streaming to a TV. It also gives you plenty of possibilities to edit your videos, trim scenes, and even extract high-resolution photos from your footage. In the past, 4K video was a luxury that most mobile users avoided capturing; after all, it was taking up so much storage space on smartphones that the sacrifice wasn't worth it. With a P40 Pro, there's no need to compromise. The phone's 256GB internal memory and optional 256GB additional memory with a Nano memory card lets you record around 2,000 minutes of 4K video while saving space for all your files, apps and games.
![Huawei P40 Pro]()
(Image credit: LaComparacion)
Then there is the rest of the video story
We've covered the P40 Pro's ultra-wide camera in detail, but there's so much more to this quad-camera smartphone. Optical image stabilization is combined with artificial intelligence on the standard 50-megapixel large-format camera, as well as on the 5x zoom telephoto lens to ensure your images look great and sharp, even when you're directly shooting your subject. Add a Time-of-Flight (ToF) depth-sensing camera to the mix and your videos will bring depth and detail to the right places. When it comes to getting the most out of a scene, Huawei combines ultra-smart hardware and software with dual view mode. It showcases the power of the P40 Pro's camera system, simultaneously capturing wide and close-up video in two images – one video, two views – ideal for portraits against a beautiful backdrop, for example. Want to look your best, even if you're short on time? The P40 Pro supports it. Powered by the Kirin 990 chipset that powers the flagship smartphone experience, computer videography reaches new heights with live AI beauty effects on photos and videos.
![Huawei P40 Pro]()
(Image credit: TechRadar) A sliding scale of 1 to 10 sets the beauty setting from all-natural to tastefully retouched, and you'll see a live preview on screen as you record. The P40 Pro can also pause time with super slow motion video, which reduces time to 256 times. That translates to 7,680 frames per second, so you can see the moment a lit match catches fire or the flutter of insects or birds' wings in exquisite detail, turning milliseconds into minutes. With a multitude of Leica looks tuned to perfectly define the scene of your masterpiece, ranging from Vivid to Smooth to Sentimental, with a P40 Pro you can give your video a nuanced look without the need for editing or Instagram filters. . Go back to the selfie camera and things will get better. The P40 Pro's front-facing camera is a true continuation of the best-in-class quad camera on the rear. Its 32MP resolution sensor captures selfie videos up to 4K resolution, and like the main camera, it supports live beauty tools so you always look your best. Add autofocus to the mix – something is missing from most selfie cameras and you can be sure of sharp video whether you're taking a group selfie or filming a close-up vlog entry. We already know that when it comes to photography, the Huawei P40 Pro, co-designed with Leica, ticks all the boxes. Start using your video camera though, and it becomes crystal clear Huawei is anything but a pony at once, it nails smartphone videography too. Ultimately, that's why the P40 Pro is the perfect camera phone for storing your best memories as stills or videos, so you can relive them at their best, over and over again.