TechnoBit (3) Sideloading Huawei’s P40 Pro Plus turns it into a world-beating phone

If a smartphone’s worth is dictated by its camera, then the Huawei P40 Pro Plus is the best phone you can buy right now – except you probably won’t. What gives?

Since partnering with Leica in 2016, Huawei’s smartphone cameras have been amongst the best available. Scour the web for P40 Pro Plus reviews though, and the scores are generally around 3.5/5 or 7/10. The P40 Pro Plus is an exemplary smartphone, though its scores were likely docked by half a point or so for its bold price tag of £1,299. That said, it introduces world-first camera tech to the market: a true 10x zoom equivalent telephoto camera. Putting into context just how good that camera is, I recently reviewed the Sony ZV-1, a £699 premium compact stills camera, and when taking handheld pictures the P40 Pro Plus outperformed it in both dark scenes and in max-zoom detail. That’s a huge deal.

Why then are Huawei phones like the P40 Pro Plus being panned by tech writers? It comes down to one key issue: the trade war.