Huawei has unveiled its ground-breaking HUAWEI Mate 30 Series at an exclusive launch event in Munich. Setting new standards in every area from aesthetic design through to hardware engineering and software innovation, the HUAWEI Mate 30 Series is the world’s first-second generation 5G smartphone and the pinnacle of mobile technological development.

Benefiting from Huawei’s 32-years of expertise in communication technologies and a decade in design innovation, the HUAWEI Mate 30 looks and performs like no other smartphone. Inspired by the design principle of minimalism, the HUAWEI Mate 30 Series showcases the perfect example of how aesthetic design fuses with technology. Its unique, iconic OLED HUAWEI Horizon Display offers an immersive viewing experience, while the Kirin 990 5G SoC – the first to integrate processing units and a 5G modem on the same chip using the 7nm+ EUV process– affords unrivalled levels of performance and efficiency. A revolutionary integrated quad-camera includes the SuperSensing Cine Camera, a dual main camera system designed for amazing photographic and video graphic results, while the HUAWEI SuperCharge and EMUI10 offer long-lasting battery life for heavy mobile users and enhanced user experience. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, said: “The HUAWEI Mate 30 Series unleashes the full potential of the smartphone. Designed to stand out, it challenges convention while delivering an unrivalled user experience. The era of 5G is an opportunity to rethink smartphone technology and the HUAWEI Mate 30 series is the ultimate expression of what’s possible.” Rethink Design: Futuristic iconic handset.

The HUAWEI Mate 30 Series builds upon the aesthetic of the HUAWEI Mate 20 Series with a futuristic design that is sure to make a lasting impression. With an ultra-narrow notch design and the thinnest of bezels, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro features the HUAWEI Horizon Display, which curves at an angle of 88 degrees to maximise the display area to provide an unparalleled, edge-to-edge immersive viewing experience.

HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro introduces the Intuitive Side-touch Interaction feature to replace the side volume buttons with invisible virtual keys. This feature also allows users to customise the volume key position on either side of the device and makes HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro the most integrated, all-in-one design smartphone currently available. Together, HUAWEI 3D Face Unlock and In-Screen Fingerprint provide high levels of biometric security and convenience.

Turn the device over and the iconic ring design of the quad-camera system immediately stands out, surrounded by a metallic ‘halo’. Mirroring the design of a DSLR camera and designed to be held comfortably, the beautiful HUAWEI Mate 30 Series makes the user the focus of the crowd, attracting all the attention. The HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro also features HUAWEI Acoustic Display Technology to deliver high-quality audio through a sound-emitting display.

Rethink Performance – World’s First 2^nd Generation 5G Smartphone

The HUAWEI Mate 30 Series is powered by the HUAWEI Kirin 990 series chipset, Huawei’s most sophisticated smartphone chipset launched to date. The HUAWEI Kirin 990 5G challenges the limits of silicon-based physics by incorporating a three-level power efficient architecture for the CPU, Huawei’s self-developed Da Vinci NPU architecture (large dual-NPU + tiny NPU cores) as well as a supersised 16-core GPU to deliver super-fast performance and high-power efficiency.  Manufactured with the cutting-edge 7nm+ EUV process, the disruptive HUAWEI Kirin 990 5G supports 2G/3G/4G network and 5G Non-StandAlone (NSA) and StandAlone (SA) modes, along with Dual SIM, Dual Standby and FDD/TDD full frequency bands to deliver seamless connectivity. The HUAWEI Mate 30 Series has also been optimised for ultimate OS performance. As the world’s first 2^nd generation 5G smartphone, the HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro 5G features 14 antennas for 5G, delivering ground-breaking speed with unrivalled connectivity. The HUAWEI Mate 30 sports a large battery of 4200mAh, while HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro has an even bigger battery of 4500mAh. With TÜV Rheinland certified wired and wireless Huawei SuperCharge Technology, the 27W Wireless HUAWEI SuperCharge and the 40W HUAWEI SuperCharge provide users safe and fast charging, while wired and wireless in-car charging and a wired power bank ensure a seamless experience across all scenarios. Additionally, the HUAWEI Mate 30 Series provides upgraded reverse wireless charging bringing users a quick and convenient way to recharge other devices.

Rethink Photography and Videography – SuperSensing Cine Camera for Stunning Images and Videos

The HUAWEI Mate 30 is equipped with a SuperSensing Triple Camera, comprising a 40MP SuperSensing Camera, 16MP Ultra Wide-angle Camera and an 8MP Telephoto Camera. Coupled with an ISP 5.0 Image Signal Processor, the HUAWEI Mate 30 enables users to capture high-quality photographs and videos. The HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro sports a revolutionary quad-camera system with the 40MP Cine Camera, 40MP SuperSensing Camera, an 8MP Telephoto Camera and a 3D Depth Sensing Camera.  The SuperSensing Cine Camera is a Dual-main camera system capable of taking stunning photos that rival high-end cameras. The Cine Camera features a large 1/1.54-inch sensor size with a high maximum Video ISO of 51200 to capture videos with an extended dynamic range at 4K/60fps as well as ultra slow-motion at the highest 7680 fps. It also supports 4K Low-light Ultra-wide time-lapse video.

The HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro also offers pro-bokeh capabilities while recoding for professional-looking results. Additionally, the second of the dual-camera system is a 1/1.7-inch HUAWEI SuperSensing Camera which attracts 40% more lights to deliver stunning results in low light conditions with an impressive light sensitivity of ISO409600, making it the best low light one-shot device ever even for ultra-wide shots. The 8MP HUAWEI Telephoto Camera offers 3x optical zoom, 5x Hybrid Zoom and up to 30x Digital Zoom. Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) + AI Stabilisation (AIS) and 3D Depth Sensing, complete the package making the HUAWEI Mate 30 Series the most capable handset for smartphone photography and videography available to consumers. A front-facing 3D Depth Sensing Camera delivers pro-bokeh effects with accurate depth-of-field information for selfies and portraits.

No Google Play Services or Play Store

Probably the biggest and most important announcement was the new smartphones will not be released with Google’s services such as the Play Store or Play Services preinstalled on the phone. Unfortunately this is the end result of the ongoing trade war between the US and China, with Huawei considering themselves as being used as bargaining chips and pawns by the US’s decision to block the company from all commercial interaction with US companies, something the company describes as having nothing to do with security or even 5G infrastructure concerns.

The implications here are huge both for Huawei as for the overall industry, and there will be no clear winners on either side and on the long-term, it seems Google and the Android ecosystem has more to lose. Huawei is pushing forward with a full replacement of Google’s services, with the alternative being called “Huawei Mobile Services”, or HMS, in order to offer the same functionality that were offered by Google’s GMS.

In case that the trade sanctions imposed by the US were to be lifted, Richard Yu explained that they’d be ready to “immediately” reintegrate the Google services and applications onto their firmware and push out updates to their phones.

In the meanwhile, Huawei is planning long-term and investing in their own HMS ecosystem. In order to attract developers and to gain traction, the company is making available a $1bn fund for developers, ecosystem and marketing to offer alternatives for their users. Richard Yu described one way to attract developers is that they will adopt a 15/85% share on app purchases, giving developers a larger piece of the pie than the 30/70 share that currently is in place for the Play Store and the iOS App Store. Huawei explains that they don’t want to do this, but given the circumstances, they’re forced to.

Huawei Mate 30 Series

Mate 30 Pro Specs

Body
Dimensions
158.1 x 73.1 x 8.8 mm (6.22 x 2.88 x 0.35 in)
Weight
198 g (6.98 oz)
Build
Front/back glass (Gorilla Glass 6), aluminium frame
SIM
Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Hybrid Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 2m for 30 mins)
Display
Type
OLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours
Size
6.53 inches, 108.7 cm2 (~94.1% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution
1176 x 2400 pixels, 18.5:9 ratio (~409 ppi density)
Protection
Corning Gorilla Glass 6

DCI-P3
HDR10
Platform
OS
Android 10; EMUI 10
Chipset
HiSilicon Kirin 990 (7 nm+)
CPU
Octa-core (2×2.86 GHz Cortex-A76 & 2×2.09 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4×1.86 GHz Cortex-A55)
GPU
Mali-G76 MP16
Memory
Card slot
NM (Nano Memory), up to 256GB (uses shared SIM slot)
Internal
128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM, UFS3.0
Main Camera
Quad
40 MP, f/1.6, 27mm (wide), 1/1.7″, PDAF, OIS
8 MP, f/2.4, 80mm (telephoto), 1/4″, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
40 MP, f/1.8, 18mm (ultrawide), 1/1.54″, PDAF
3D TOF camera
Features
Leica optics, dual-LED dual-tone flash, panorama, HDR
Video
2160p@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps, 1080p@960fps, 720p@7680fps, gyro-EIS
Selfie camera
Dual
32 MP, f/2.0, (wide)
3D TOF camera
Features
HDR, panorama

Sound
Loudspeaker
Yes, with stereo speakers
No 3.5mm jack

32-bit/384kHz audio
Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
Comms
WLAN
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth
5.1, A2DP, aptX HD, LE
GPS
Yes, with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS
NFC
Yes
Infrared port
Yes
Radio
No
USB
3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go
Features
Sensors
Face ID, fingerprint (under display, optical), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, barometer, compass
Battery

Non-removable Li-Po 4500 mAh battery
Charging
Fast battery charging 40W
Fast wireless charging 27W
Power bank/Reverse wireless charging
Misc
Colours – Black, Space Silver, Cosmic Purple, Emerald Green

Rethink Interaction: A Faster, Safer and More Engaging Experience

The HUAWEI Mate 30 Series features a range of new features that deliver an amazingly smooth and engaging user experience.

Including EMUI10 operating system featuring a contemporary magazine inspired layout, Always-On-Display (AOD) where the colour of the lock screen changes throughout the day·

Dark Mode brings enhanced legibility making the screen look gentler and more comfortable when night falls

Intuitive Side-touch Interaction to customise invisible virtual keys for volume adjustment, gaming and camera set-up as well as being ideal for both right and left-handed users

AI gesture control for contactless screen interaction, whereas AI Auto-Rotate and AI Private View are all designed to improve users experience

HiCar smart travel for advanced, seamless connectivity between the device and a car’s communication and entertainment system

Multi-screen Collaboration allows users to transfer data and control multiple screens between Huawei devices

HUAWEI 3D Face Unlock and In-screen Fingerprint to provide advanced data security and privacy protection with (HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro only)

Colours, Pricing and Availability

The 6.53-inch HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro and 6.62-inch HUAWEI Mate 30 come in various colour variants and materials: Emerald Green, Space Silver, Cosmic Purple, Black, while Forest Green and Orange are available in vegan leather.

The Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro will be available in October in China and select European markets, with remaining European countries availability coming a bit later.