DxOMark has put the Huawei P40 Pro through its test labs and the phone has received an overall score of 128, the highest for a smartphone camera yet. This has been a trend for quite some time with Huawei smartphones, and while we did expect the P40 Pro to have an excellent camera stack, the impressive score does paint a very optimistic picture.
The final score of 128 is a combination of Photo and Video scores. The P40 Pro scores 140 and for video, it scores 128. Both the scores are the highest for a smartphone in their respective places. The Huawei P30 Pro, for context, scored 125 in Photos and 97 for Videos. The Huawei P40 Pro features the largest imaging sensor made by Huawei, on top of the fact that it's an RYYB sensor instead of RGGB. Huawei has used large-format sensors across the board, allowing it to achieve impressive photographic results. As noted by DxOMark, the P40 Pro exhibits its very wide dynamic range, along with good detail retention in medium to long zoom shots. However, despite the new multi-spectrum sensor for accurate colour sensing and white balance, DxOMark noted occasional instances of inaccurate colour reproduction and white balance. DxOMark also notes that the P40 Pro has excellent video recording capabilities, but the score does not account for the quality of the audio. One area where the phone excels in both photo and video modes is autofocus performance. DxOMark states that the camera has “excellent” AF tracking while shooting video.
DxOMark has had a questionable past, seeing how they also sell their tests to OEMs for tuning their cameras. A camera developed using DxOMark’s test setup is bound to score well, its sort of like taking an exam, when you’ve already had the question paper. However, in DxOMark’s defence, their tests are designed to be very stringent, so if a company can manage to meet even the bare minimum, it's still going to be an impressive camera stack. Of course, there have been multiple instances where we’ve disagreed with DxOMark’s findings, so while its good to know that the P40 Pro continues Huawei’s tradition of making great cameras in a smartphone. We are still going to test it for ourselves to see just how well the camera can do in the Indian test scenario, seeing how sometimes, algorithms are tuned using region-specific data.