Chinese technology giant Huawei Technologies unveiled the Mate 70 series of smartphones on Tuesday, reinforcing its return to the premium smartphone market and introducing its own operating system, which appears to distance itself from US technology.
The Mate 70 is the successor to the Mate 60 series, launched in August last year, widely regarded as the handsets that marked Huawei’s return to premium smartphones and competing with iPhones after its business was badly hit by US export restrictions. .
The launch of the Mate 70 comes as the US is expected to announce new export controls that could add up to 200 Chinese chip companies to a trade blacklist as early as this week, restricting their access to US suppliers, Reuters reported on Saturday.
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The device is “the most powerful Mate phone ever,” said Richard Yu, president of Huawei’s consumer business group, at an event in the company’s hometown of Shenzhen that was streamed online and in its stores.
Prices for the Mate 70 will start at 5,499 yuan ($758), Yu said. The base iPhone 16 model sells for 5,999 yuan in China.
Yu also said that the Mate 70 is the first mainstream smartphone to include a satellite communications system, has an improved processor and runs Huawei’s own HarmonyOS NEXT operating system, which together increase performance by 40% compared to the previous models.
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The Mate 70 series is the first major commercial launch of HarmonyOS NEXT, a significant step in Huawei’s drive to achieve software independence since US restrictions cut off its access to Google services in 2019.
HarmonyOS NEXT is the non-Android version of Huawei’s operating system that began testing this year, marking a complete departure from Google’s code as the company seeks to eliminate its dependence on US technology.
Last week, Huawei said it had secured more than 15,000 apps for the HarmonyOS ecosystem, with plans to expand to 100,000 apps in the coming months.
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Still, Huawei is keeping its options open by offering Android compatibility as a backup solution. The strategy suggests the company may need more time to prepare HarmonyOS NEXT for full public deployment while it builds its developer ecosystem.
Richard Yu said the Mate 70 series will offer users the choice between HarmonyOS 4.3, which maintains Android compatibility, and the new HarmonyOS NEXT 5.0.
All new Huawei phones and tablets released next year will run the non-Android version, Yu added.
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Improved chip
Teardown analyzes revealed that both the Mate 60 series and the Pura 70 series – launched in April – feature advanced chips manufactured by China’s SMIC, highlighting the country’s growing semiconductor capabilities despite Western export controls.
Huawei, however, has not confirmed this fact. The company typically doesn’t discuss advances in its chips at product launch events, and improvements are often discovered later by device teardown companies.
At least some versions of the Mate 70 will use Huawei’s Kirin 9100 chipset, made by leading Chinese contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), although production challenges may restrict them to higher-end models, according to with a source familiar with the matter.
Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the chip.
Patriotic sentiment around Huawei’s technological advancement has helped fuel its market recovery and intensified competition with other players, including Apple, in China – the world’s largest smartphone market.
Huawei ranked as China’s second-largest smartphone vendor in the third quarter, with shipments exceeding 10 million units for the fourth consecutive quarter, according to research firm Canalys. It is a significant recovery compared to the second quarter of 2022, when the company sold just 4.1 million units.
Research firm Counterpoint said it expects sales of the Mate 70 series to exceed 10 million units.
