S’pore first in Asia to launch Huawei P40 series on April 4; local ride-hailing apps get onboard

Huawei has just unveiled its next leap in camera photography that will be championed by their new P40 series. No less than three models were unveiled, but only the Huawei P40 and P40 Pro are hitting retail soon.

Local launch timeline

In fact, Huawei expects Singapore stores to have retail stock by April 4! That's just next weekend. The phones will be available at all Huawei Concept Stores, major telco outlets, selected consumer electronic stores; Huawei official online stores in Lazada and Shopee.

Pre-order Promotions

Meanwhile, from now till 3rd April, Huawei's has begun their pre-order promotions to enjoy a free premium bundle worth up to $562, while stocks last.

P40 and P40 Pro pricing and configuration

Both the P40 and P40 Pro will be available in Silver Frost, Blush Gold and Deep Sea Blue – priced at $1,448 and $1,048 respectively.

Both phone models coming to Singapore will have 8GB of RAM. Built-in storage for the P40 is 128GB, while the P40 Pro gets 256GB.

Given the configuration of the P40 series and the above-listed pre-order gifts, it sounds like the P40 Pro model offers more value if you're trying to choose which model to drop your money on.

All customers who purchase the Huawei P40 series will also enjoy Huawei's Prestige Care services which include:

• One year door-to-door repair pick-up and delivery service
• Two-year warranty coverage
• Three months of screen insurance, terms and conditions apply

Where to pre-order your P40 phone?

Here's where you can pre-order the phones:-

• M1
• Singtel
• StarHub
• Best Denki
• Challenger
• Courts
• Harvey Norman
• Sprintcass
• Lazada
• Shopee

Ride-hailing apps, now onboard

Unfortunately, still no word if Google apps and services are ever returning to Huawei devices. Which makes it a little exasperating when it comes to trying to hail rides on the new batch of Huawei phones — apps like Grab utilise Google's location services.

Now, however, Huawei mobile users can move around much easier with the full integration of the ComfortDelgro, Tada and Ryde apps into the Huawei official app marketplace known as the AppGallery. Huawei and Grab, however, are still in discussions. 

Huawei claimed that it is one of the world’s top three app stores, with the AppGallery currently serving 600 million Huawei device users in over 170 countries and regions.

According to Huawei, 60 per cent of locally-developed apps have made their way on to AppGallery. These include banking and financial apps from OCBC and UOB, popular shopping apps from NTUC Fairprice, Shoppee, Lazada and Carousell, navigation apps EZlink and OneMap, and now these transport apps.

To give an idea of how lucrative apps can be, Apple users spent $193 million in apps on Christmas Day last year. 

First published on Hardware Zone. Additional reporting by AsiaOne.