Leaked Huawei P40 pics reveal clues about its cameras

New leaked images published by 91mobiles purport to show Huawei’s forthcoming P40. The Chinese tech giant company is expected to unveil it alongside a "Pro" version and — if the history is anything to by — a "Lite" version. Assuming the leaked images are legitimate, we can glean a few things about the P40’s camera setup, but not much more.

Three rear cameras — The images show three rear cameras with the Leica branding that’s adorned the last few generations of Huawei phones and an LED flash. We’d expect those three cameras to be a combination of an ultra-wide, wide-angle and telephoto shooter. There’s no sign of a time-of-flight (ToF) depth sensor, but that’s not surprising given Huawei’s tended to reserve those for its Pro devices.

Two selfie cameras — In the top left of the display, there appear to be two front-facing cameras, but there’s no telling what the specs are. It’s all but certain that one will have a wider field of view than the other, though. That said, dual selfie cameras (like the one on the Pixel 3 XL) never really became popular despite their very practical real-world use.

But still no Google — The P40 is expected to run Huawei’s own Kirin 990 chip and include a 5G antenna (or come in a 5G-capable variant). Most worrying for Huawei, like the Mate 30 series the P40 range will likely ship without Google’s apps and services.

Unless there’s a major shift in policy by the U.S. government regarding the ongoing trade war with China, the lack of Google’s key apps (Maps, Gmail, YouTube, and the like) means the Huawei P40 will struggle to gain traction outside of Huawei’s home market. Though, it’ll likely do very well in China indeed, and keep Huawei’s impressive revenue performance of late ticking along.