Huawei Mobile has confirmed that its next Mate series, the Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro devices, will be arriving on 19th September in Munich, Germany.
This is just over a week after Apple will release its new iPhones to the world, and after Samsung also releases it’s first foldable device the Samsung Galaxy Fold.
In a short teaser video posted to Twitter, the company’s tagline for the event is “Rethink Possibilities.” The teaser states that it’s “going full circle” with the Mate 30, it’s no doubt that the reference here is the Mate 30’s cameras. The image leaks we’ve seen so far feature a circular quad-camera array on the back of the device.
As much as this news is exciting, there is a cloud of uncertainty around Huawei’s Mate 30 range. According to a report by Reuters last week, a Google spokesperson said that the new Mate 30 and 30 Pro smartphones will not include key Android apps and services following a trade ban on the Chinese firm implemented by US President Donald Trump back in May.
Huawei has been rather clear on the fact that it would prefer to ship its phones with Android and that it has no plans to sell a HarmonyOS phone this year. As much as rumors pointed to a Mate 30 delay in the West due to the issues of accessing Google services, the company has already announced that both the Nova 5T and Y9 S will ship by the end of the year with Google services intact.
A date for the Mate 30 series launch may be there but the biggest questions about the devices are still up in the air.
- What software will they run?
- As much as they may run Android, will they have access to the Google Play Store and Google Play Services?
- How will the Entity List affect their components?
- And how much is the trade war going to affect the pricing?
I guess we’ll have to wait till launch day to see how this affects the new devices.
Away from the software, Huawei’s recent flagship phones have all had impressive hardware, and the Mate 30 Pro is likely to follow in that tradition. It should make use of the Kirin 990 processor, which Huawei is set to announce this week at the IFA trade show in Berlin. Unverified leaks indicate that the Mate 30 Pro will feature a large circular quad-camera module and a “waterfall” display with extremely curved edges.
In the meantime, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro is not to be confused with the P30 Pro which came out earlier this year. But it’s understandable if sometimes you can’t tell the difference between the two phone ranges.
The Mate range is the business-focused smartphone from Huawei, usually including brand new tech first, for example, the addition of wireless power-sharing which debuted on last year’s Mate 20 Pro. On the other hand, the P range is more consumer-focused, in most cases with a great camera set up.
In easier terms, the P range is like the Samsung Galaxy S range, whereas the Mate range is more like the Samsung Note.
With Huawei unveiling the new Mate 30 series in Munich on September 19, It’s likely that the phone will be on sale a few weeks later, meaning that if you choose to buy it, you can potentially get your hands on a new Huawei phone by mid-October.
