Huawei P40 Pro rumoured to drop in price – but there’s a reason for that
The latest rumour has it that the upcoming Huawei P40 series is due for a massive price cut compared to its predecessors – but would you take the trade-off?
According to Twitter tipster RODENT950, Huawei is scheduling a significant price-drop for its next flagship series, set to be released in March 2020. The new pricing could be as follows, GSMArena reports:
- Huawei P40 – €600 (~£508)
- Huawei P40 Pro – €800 (~£677)
- Huawei P40 Pro Premium – €1000 (~£846)
The starting price for this smartphone series will therefore be relatively low – at least in comparison to competitors such as the iPhone 11 or the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 – might tempt consumer to opt for Huawei over other upcoming Android flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S20.
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You might suspect that there must be a “catch” for a Huawei P40 device to retail at the lower price, and you’d be right; these handsets will be sold with Android software but without access to Google Mobile Services (GMS), including apps such as the Play Store, YouTube, and Google Maps. That’s partly why Huawei could afford to cut the price, as the licence for this software apparently costs $40 (~£31) per handset. But it remains to be seen whether customers will still opt to buy the devices even after this big compromise; the precedent isn’t very encouraging since the Huawei Mate 30 Pro was never put on general sale in the UK due to this issue.
The prices of the P40 series will be lower.#HuaweiP40Series pic.twitter.com/EhMcVMJR7p
— Teme (特米) (@RODENT950) January 27, 2020
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The situation came about after the United States instituted an executive order banning cooperation between Google and Huawei. Huawei has sought to remedy this situation by investing £20 million to encourage developers to create apps for its own App Gallery, and although the service offers some popular apps such as Snapchat and TikTok, it still lacks the likes of WhatsApp and Facebook on top of those missing Google apps.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.