Today in this article, we’re going to talking about the differences between the brand new Huawei P40 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S20 ultra. Ideally, I’m making this comparison between the Galaxy S20 ultra vs P40 Pro, but that device is still some time away.
Let’s look at the best one from Huawei vs the best from Samsung.
Table of Contents
Design and the Build Quality
Let’s talk about the design and the build, both of this very premium. They’re both using a metal frame with curved last panels on the front and the back. And they both also have a rectangular camera module on the left-hand side of the end. The S20 ultra does have a larger camera module and it’s also a larger overall device. I would say that the P40 Pro is more comfortable overall. It’s also a little bit lighter.
Both devices are IP68 water and dust resistance. But I do like the look of the P40 Pro overall from the back. 
The camera module was smaller. Annuals have more colour options. Quite attractive looking options actually, where is the S20 ultra is pretty plain. You’ve just got the grey and black. Now you can customize the look of the S20 ultra. It lets you kind of have a preview of the inside of the phone without having to open it up yourself.
So a definite recommend you check them out. Now, if we turn the devices around, then things are a little bit different. I prefer the overall look of the S20 ultra because you do have a smaller punch out which is in the centre versus the pill-shaped punched out that we’ve got on the P40 Pro. This kind of reminds me of the S10 plus that we had last year. And don’t get me wrong, it’s there for a reason.
There are some sensors inside here which we’ll talk about in a little bit. But overall, aesthetically speaking, I do prefer the look of the front of the S20 ultra vs the P40 Pro.
Display
Let’s talk a little bit about the displays. So both screens are OLED displays. You do get a larger display on the S20 ultra. One of the reasons why it’s a more significant device, and you also have a high resolution on the S20 ultra with a higher 120Hz refresh rate. Now that sounds all good on paper, but one of the things is with the S20 ultra that if you do want that 120Hz refresh rate, then you can only use that at full HD resolution. 1080p is not going to work with quite HD plus resolution. The P40 Pro has a resolution that kind of sits in between HD and quite HD, and it also has a refresh rate that sits between 60Hz and 120Hz. So it’s a 90Hz display. And I think this is quite smart from Huawei because it gives you a right balance overall.
You’re not going to get a crazy high resolution or insane high refresh rate, but you have something that’s going to give you excellent resolution higher than full HD and a higher refresh rate than your standard 60Hz.
In my opinion, both of these are very, very good displays. I can’t complain about using either of these. It has a front-facing camera. It has a depth sensor, but it also has some sensors for face unlock on the front and lock is very, very fast, and it’s also secure. You do have a look a lock on the S20 ultra, but it’s only using the front-facing camera. So it’s not something that I’d personally recommend using on both devices. Also have an in-display fingerprint scanner, which is very, very fast. And both of these you’ve got optical in-display fingerprint scanner on the P40 Pro. It’s an ultrasonic display, a fingerprint scanner on the S20 ultra. Now, realistically speaking, I think both of these although there’s different technology in my experience, they both are very, very fast and work well.
Camera
Now let’s talk about the cameras. So we’ve got some exciting camera setups here on both of these devices, and both have a similar camera setup in that they have
- Primary camera
- Ultra-wide camera,
- zoom camera with Periscope technology
Which is going to give you roughly around 5 times optical zoom. And then there’s also a time of flight sensor for depth information. Now, let’s break these cameras down sort for the primary cameras.
The S20 ultra does have a high resolution, but remember pixels on everything. And realistically speaking, on both these devices you are going to be shooting app roughly around 12MP. That’s when you can be able to get the most out of these cameras and these sensors. And the P40 Pro does have a slightly larger sensor size. Now, both of these have massive sensors, which will be great for low lights. Now, the Huawei P40 Pro does take things a little bit differently and it does have a red-yellow on a blue sensor rather than the traditional red, green and blue. And Huawei says this allows it to capture more light, this is also the case with the periscope zoom camera, a red-yellow on a blue sensor versus the red, green and blue. 12MP vs. 48MP. But once again, you’re going to be pretty much shooting at 12MP. You’ve got roughly about five times optical zoom on both of these with a higher zoom lens for hybrid zoom on as it says on here on the S20 ultra, you do have up to 100 times digital zoom. But honestly speaking, I’ve said this before. It’s not practical to use at the level.
It’s there, but I wouldn’t recommend using it. I do think that you know, it’s a bit of a gimmick calling it a hundred times zoom camera when the results that you get are not usable. Now for the ultra-wide cameras, The P40 Pro does have a higher overall resolution, but the S20 ultra does have a full field of view. So you are going to be able to capture more into your shot with that. And then, of course, there is the time of flight sensor.
I want to get the latest software on both of these before I do that test. There have been some issues on the S20 ultra, especially in the way of things like dynamic range which are supposedly going to be improving soon. So I’ll wait till I get that updates and I get the latest retail software update on the P40 Pro and then hopefully we can make that camera comparison. Now one area where I have seen the P40 Pro perform better at this point is when it comes to autofocus.
Huawei has got what they’re calling OCTA phase detection autofocus, which is very, very fast. S20 ultra’s autofocus is just not as fast as are the devices because it doesn’t have that do pixel technology that we’ve seen traditionally from Samsung. This, again, is supposed to be improved with software updates. Some of these software updates I’m waiting for.
Now when it comes to video, the S20 ultra can film that up to 8K, so it does get that advantage here. Currently, key footage is very, very sharp. It does crop in. It’s not that usable. If you’re going to be using it hand-held, you do have to have it on a tripod. Nevertheless, it is impressive to have AK video recording on a smartphone.
This is something that you don’t have on the P40 Pro. You’ve got 4K up to 60 frames a second on both devices on for the front-facing cameras. The S20 ultra has a higher resolution, but as mentioned, the P40 Pro does have that additional depth sensor. Once again, we are going to have to see lots of results. What I’ll try to do in the time being is post some side-by-side comparisons on our website, make a proper camera comparison.
Internals
Now let’s talk about the internals. Both of these is powered by the latest and greatest. You can either have the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 chipset or the Exynos 990 series. Which one of these you will get depending on your region, having used both myself. I can tell you that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 chipsets are better overall in terms of performance and battery life especially.
But nevertheless, both are very, very fast to Kirin 995G chipset is what we’ve got on the P40 Pro, which is also very, very fast. I think in terms of speed performance, both of these are right up there. The S20 ultra does come with more ram. You’ve got 12GB as a base with an option for 16 GB, whereas the P40 Pro just comes with 8GB RAM for storage. The P40 Pro produces come with a broader base storage version of 256GB. The S20 ultra comes with a base of 128GB. And you can get a 512GB option for both devices to have expandable storage. However, the P40 Pro is a proprietary nano memory card which is from Huawei.
On the S20 ultra you do have a standard micro SD card, so that’s going to be much cheaper and much more easily accessible to expand the storage on the S20 ultra.
Audio
Let’s talk about the sound so neither of these, of course, has a 3.5mm Jack. This is something that we’ve had to say goodbye to a long time ago. But the S20 ultra does have serious speakers. There’s one bomb firing on this one in the earpiece. The P40 Pro only has a single bottom-firing speaker. So the S20 ultra when it does come to the overall audio experience, I do prefer it compared to the P40 Pro.
Battery
When it comes to the batteries. The S20 ultra also has a larger battery. You’ve got a 5000mAh battery vs the 4200mAh battery. Now in terms of battery life. S20 ultra in my use has been very, very good, especially the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon version, which has been around 20% better in my experience compared to the Exynos version. The P40 Pro and I have to spend some more time with it. What we devices in general. A very, very good when it comes to battery life, very, very optimized. So we’ll see how that goes. But there are some advantages that P40 Pro does have over the S20 ultra when it comes to charging. Firstly, you’ve got 40 watts charging out of the box. So that’s included. You’re not going to have to buy that separately. The S20 ultra comes with a 25 watts charger are at the box. Although you can get a 45-watt charger, you do have to buy that separately.
However, on the people, he also has passed the wireless charging 27-watt fast wireless charging. Now the P40 Pro does have up to 40-watt wireless charging, but this is unfortunately not the case here. I say, unfortunately, but 27-watts wireless charging is faster than most wide charging out. There are lots of other devices. Both devices also have a reverse wireless charging so you can charge other devices using these devices. I’m not sure about the exact speed. This hasn’t been specified. I’ll try to test this out and see which one is faster.
Software
Before we move on to pricing and availability, let’s talk about software. I’ve left this to the end because there’s a lot to talk about. So the S20 ultra Android 10 comes with one UI on top. Works really well. The software’s fine.
The P40 Pro, unfortunately, does not come with Google Play services. So it’s got Android 10 with EM UI 10.1, and there are easy ways to get most of your apps. So you can see here I’ve got Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, outlook. They all work fine. And sometimes you do have to take a few extra steps to get those apps. But generally speaking, it’s not that much of hard experience. However, you won’t be able to get Google Play services here on the P40 Pro, not for now. Anyway. And that, unfortunately, does mean things like YouTube, Google, Drive, all of the other Google Apps are only going to work within a browser, so they’ll still work.
You can still view YouTube on here, but it’s not going to have that in-app experience. And that is something that makes things complicated here on the P40 Pro. So it depends. Are you willing to take those extra steps and use your Google apps via a browser then you know the P40 Pro, because of all of the other features that it’s got and might be something that you’re willing to go.
Prices
It also comes in at a lower price. So the recommended retail price of the P40 Pro is around 900 pounds if you in the UK which is approximately 25% cheaper compared to the S20 ultra, which retails for about 1200 pounds if you in the UK and for that price, Huawei getting double the storage on the P40 Pro. 
So a few of these things might lead towards the P40 Pro. Which overall is a very, very good device. Now the S20 ultra, I’ve also really enjoyed using it. Overall, it’s a very, very good smartphone. There are some things that I think need tweaking with software updates, but those are the two devices, the best from Samsung VS. The best from Huawei.
Conclusion
So, what do you think? Which one would you pick between these 2 devices? Definitely. Let me know in the comments below. I hope you enjoyed this article and thought it useful.
