Huawei P40 Pro specs vs. iPhone 11 Pro vs. Galaxy S20 Ultra vs. Pixel 4 XL

Huawei is playing to win with the release of its new P40 Pro superphone. The hardware includes the phone-maker's wining camera capable of 10x optical zoom, a generously sized 6.58-inch screen and a 4,200-mAh battery, which is all impressively crammed within a comparatively compact handset. But it's hardly the only high-end phone around. In fact, the premium smartphone playing field is only becoming more crowded.

Samsung released its boundary-pushing Galaxy S20 Ultra in February, which takes 108-megapixel photos and introduced 100x zoom to the world. Apple meanwhile released the iPhone 11 Pro Max in September, and it boasts impressive photo and video chops along with facial scanning. But the Google Pixel 4 XL has a pretty big price advantage ($899 when it launched) along with comparable specs, but a smaller screen and battery. Meanwhile, Huawei's new P40 Pro has a pretty high price tag, starting at converted price of $1,100, £910 or AU$1,820. It ships in June and won't be available officially in the US.

Of course, it's difficult to talk about a new Huawei phone without addressing the elephant in the room: the conspicuous absence of Google Mobile Services, and its suite of widely-used apps like Gmail and Google Maps, which has been replaced by Huawei's own fledgling ecosystem. For its part, the Chinese phone-maker has been racing to close the gaping void. The company says it's making sizable investments into developing its own Huawei Mobile Services, and has also courted developers to produce apps and services for its own app store. Meanwhile, the iPhones iOS 13 and Google's pure-Android Pie Pixel offer the gold standard for phone software.