Hot! REVIEW: The HUAWEI P40 And GT 2e, An Affordable Pairing That Gives You All The Most Important Features

P40

Content: Michelle Ng

As with every flagship series by mobile providers, there are always a few models at different price points. The HUAWEI P40 has 3 variants: the P40 Pro, P40, and a P40 Lite, while the HUAWEI Watch GT launched a lite version. We had the chance to try out the P40 and the GT 2e, and were more than impressed with the phone and smart watch pairing.

At first glance, the P40 is sleek, coming with a matte finish backing and a curved screen that doesn’t leave much fingerprints. There aren’t any home buttons, and the fingerprint scanner is built directly into the screen for easy identification. The OLED screen pushes brightness to ensure good readability even in bright sun – something that’s really important when living in a sunny country.

The highlight of the phone is the triple Leica camera that promises high quality and clear shots. Compared to the P40 Pro, You still have the 50MP and wide camera which gives you those gorgeous landscape and outdoor shots. But the P40 only boasts a zoom of up to 30x and doesn’t have an in-built image stabilizer. This means that you have to hold your phone really still when taking a zoom shot or risk having it turn out blurry. But the phone more than makes up for it for its good AI which comes in handy for low light photrgaphy.

Huawei P40

The P40 camera modes allow you to push your smartphone photography to its limits, with a Pro mode that lets you customise the settings like you would a DSLR. HUAWEI has also upgraded their editing mode, with options to remove people in the background and beauty modes without having to download an external app. The only thing that is noticeably different is that the indoor shots on the P40, especially in low light, have a slightly unusual color shading that borders on the warm tones – something that the P40 Pro doesn’t exhibit.

The glaring deal breaker? The lack of Google applications thanks to the current US trade ban. While HUAWEI has tried to make things work by creating a new HUAWEI app store and the Phone Clone app which lets you port all your apps over, the app store is sorely lacking in the latest games and apps that you’ll find on the Apple App store or the Play store. Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram all download and work fine, but coming from a system as seamless as Google where all your mail and work documents are synced, it might be hard to port over to a Google-less phone.

GT2e

At $218, the GT 2e is an androgynous watch with a sleek, round touchscreen face. As opposed to the GT 2 that looked a bit more like an old-school mechanical watch, the GT 2e is more a more casual, fitness watch. Aside from the looks, the functions are all pretty similar, with the focus on health and fitness.

Through the HUAWEI Health app, you can choose from over 100 designs that highlights different trackers. On a full charge, the watch can last for over 2 weeks, and tracks your steps, workout times, sleep times, and even stress levels. The data is so detailed that it even tells you how much deep sleep and REM sleep you’re averaging each night and whether it’s in a healthy range.

Huawei GT 2e

For its fitness capabilities, the GT2e more or less covers everything you need. You can customise your workouts, set breathing timers and even program it down to the type of workout to ensure that you’re on the right track. Aside from exercise, the watch can also be used as a remote shutter for your linked HUAWEI phone, a flashlight, and even ring your phone to find it when you’ve lost it.

If you can live without Google apps and the latest games, the HUAWEI P40 is an affordable flagship phone with excellent photography capabilities. And if a casual, fitness smartwatch is something you’re missing, the GT 2e is the right balance between functionality and affordability – you get all the necessary premium add-ons for an affordable price.

The HUAWEI P40 ($1,044) and the HUAWEI Watch GT 2e is now available at authorised retailers and online.

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