The Huawei P40 series' launch is set for later in March 2020

Huawei has confirmed that the P40 series will debut on March 26, 2020. The official Weibo post on this subject (unsurprisingly) suggests that it will not be a live event with an audience, however. Nevertheless, this broadcast should introduce the long-awaited Huawei P30 and P30 Pro successors to the world. 

Furthermore, some leaks and rumors have pointed to an additional Huawei P40 Pro Premium version, as well as what is being called a Huawei P40 Hongqi Limited Edition (Hongqi being a Chinese luxury car brand; one wonders what this means for the more usual Porsche Design variant).

In any case, these indications may be clarified at the P40 launch event. However, prior to this, GizmoChina has published what it characterizes as a briefing on what the new smartphone line-up should offer sanctioned by Huawei itself.

This report includes overt hints at various important details, such as that the series will offer "new materials" (which probably pertains to its rear panel options), have “never before seen” AI features and "guarantees new records".

On this note, the leaker RODENT950 claims to have gotten hold of the Pro variant's camera specs. Apparently, it will have a new, heretofore-unseen Sony IMX700 sensor. It is rated for a "Hexadeca Bayer" system, has an f-stop of 1/1.28", and, furthermore, will be of a highly unique 52MP resolution.

More compellingly, this rumor dovetails nicely with what GizmoChina reports: the IMX700 is allegedly an RYYB sensor, and Huawei has apparently retained this image-sensor attribute due to its success since its introduction in the P30 series.

However, the alleged P40 Pro camera prowess does not stop there. Its secondary sensor may be an IMX650, which is a 40MP ultra-wide "Cine RGGB" 1/1.5" lens. The upcoming flagship could also have a "dual prism periscope zoom with 2P1G lenses" capable of 10x optical (not hybrid) zoom. This appears to match Huawei's apparently official avowal of a "2nd-gen" periscope lens in this series.

Finally, the P40 Pro is now also rumored to have a time of flight (TOF) sensor (which could be expected), as well as a "color temperature sensor" (which would be slightly less so, but also potentially fortuitous in the phone's set-up).

Therefore, this upcoming device's camera seems primed to at least match its 2019 counterpart in terms of groundbreaking imagings specs. Then again, according to GizmoChina, this may come at the expense of a profound camera hump to house them all.