Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 20-09-2019

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

Chinese technology company Huawei has launched three new flagship devices in its Mate 30 Series lineup, the Mate 30, Mate 30 Pro and Porsche design Mate 30 RS. 

The exclusive launch event in Munich on Thursday comes at a very difficult time for Huawei whose presence on the USA’s entity list prevents US companies from doing business with the Chinese firm. 

The Mate 30 Pro boasts a quad Leica-branded rear camera array contained within a circular camera cutout that Huawei is calling a “Halo ring design.”

It has a 40MP Cine Camera, 40MP SuperSensing Camera, an 8MP Telephoto Camera and a 3D Depth Sensing Camera. 

In terms of video, Huawei claims that the phone can record in up to 4K 60 fps, or record in slow motion at speeds of up to 7680 fps when filming in 720p. 

Huawei showed off the ultra slow-motion camera in action with footage of a hummingbird in flight, where its wings were still visible despite the speed at which they were moving.

With an ultra-narrow notch design and the thin bezels, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro features what the company is calling the Horizon Display, which curves at an angle of 88 degrees to maximise the display area to provide an edge-to-edge immersive viewing. 

The Mate 30 Pro also introduces the Intuitive Side-touch Interaction feature to replace the side volume buttons with invisible virtual key which allows users to customise the volume key position on either sides of the device. Together with 3D Face Unlock and In-Screen Fingerprint provide high levels of biometric security.

It’s powered by the Kirin 990 series chipset. The Kirin 990 5G challenges the limits of silicon-based physics by incorporating a three-level power efficiency architecture for the CPU, Huawei’s self-developed Da Vinci NPU architecture (large dual-NPU + tiny NPU cores) as well as a supersized 16-core GPU to deliver super-fast performance and high-power efficiency. 

The screens of the two devices are slightly different. The Mate 30 Pro has a 6.53-inch screen which curves around the edges of the device, while the regular Mate 30 has a more traditional flat display that’s slightly bigger at 6.62 inches in size. 

Battery sizes also differ between the two phones: the Mate 30 Pro has a larger 4,500mAh battery, compared to 4,200mAh in the Mate 30. Both phones support fast charging up to 40W wired, or 27W when wirelessly charging.

The Mate 30 series runs on EMUI 10, which Huawei’s consumer CEO Richard Yu says is based on Android 10.

Huawei also launched its Watch GT 2 range of wearables. Equipped with the self-developed Kirin AI chip, the range offers a long battery life and a host of new features and functions including 15 sports modes, 10 training modes specifically for running, an enhanced music player and Bluetooth voice calls. 

Huawei also announced the availability of its FreeBuds 3 true wireless Bluetooth earphones which won 11 Best of IFA media awards at the recent IFA consumer electronics show. The black and white versions of FreeBuds 3 will be available in China, Europe, Middle East, Russia, Asia Pacific and Latin America starting from October 2019. 

Colours, Pricing and Availability

The 6.53-inch Mate 30 Pro and 6.62-inch 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 Series will be available internationally from October 2019 at the following prices: 

Mate 30 256GB – €799 (R13,037) , 30 Pro 256GB – €1,099 (R17,933), Mate 30 Pro 5G 256GB – €1,199 (R19,564) , Mate 30 RS 512GB – €2,095 (R34,185).