Uncertainty around the lack of Google services means Huawei is spending $1billion on its Huawei mobile services
Huawei has unveiled its latest flagship Mate 30 smartphone series today (September 19) but stopped short of announcing a UK release date as it confirmed it won’t come with any Google apps.
During the event held in Munich, Huawei introduced four smartphones including the Mate 30, Mate 30 Pro, Mate 30 Pro 5G and Mate 30 RS Porsche edition.
It is expected that the series will launch later this year in Western European markets with prices beginning at ¬799 for the Mate 30 (8GB RAM and 128GB storage), ¬1,099 for the Mate 30 Pro, ¬1,199 for the 5G variant (8GB RAM and 256GB storage).
The Mate 30 RS Porsche edition starts at ¬2,099 and comes with 12GB RAM with 512GB of storage.
The Mate 30 series will come in an array of colours including; black, silver, forest green, emerald green, orange and purple (see above).
Google limitations
However due to an ongoing US-China trade war where Huawei has been placed on the US Entity List, the vendor has been restricted access to some of Google’s services.
This has led to the new range being launched without pre-installed Google apps and access to the Google PlayStore.
Unsurprisingly there was little mention of ‘Google’ during the keynote session, which was hosted by Huawei consumer group CEO Richard Yu, with the ‘Rethink Possibilities’ caption seemingly a nod to the difficult circumstances that Huawei has faced.
However Yu did confirm that Huawei is investing $1 billion into its mobile and apps services.
During the launch Yu also suggested there will be a way to “side-load” Google’s apps onto the handsets.
Yu said: “Today because of the US ban this phone cannot pre-install the GMS (Google Mobile Services) core. It’s forced us to use the HMS (Huawei Mobile Services) core.”
Specs
The Mate 30 series is powered by Huawei’s Kirin 990 5G chipset and supports 2G, 3G, 4G plus 5G Non-StandAlone (NSA) and StandAlone (SA) modes.
There is a 4,500mAh battery on the Mate 30 Pro, with a 4,200mAh battery on the Mate 30. Again both smartphones come with reverse wireless charging, a feature first introduced with last year’s Mate 20 Pro model.
Other features including AI gesture control, dark mode, 3D face unlock and in-screen fingerprint and multi-screen collaboration are also present.
The Mate 30 features a triple camera, with the Pro equipped with a quad camera system.
Huawei’s Mate 30 will have a 40MP SuperSensor camera, 16MP ultra wide-angle lens and 8MP telephoto camera.
While the Mate 30 Pro features a 40MP cine camera, 40MP SuperSensor camera and 8MP telephoto camera.
Reaction
GfK global director Imran Choudhary said he was impressed by the Mate 30 specs.
“The Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro bring to consumers some cutting edge technology. We know from our consumer research that key drivers to purchase outside of the brand include features like the camera, battery life and the screen size and resolution. In all these areas, the new devices do well.”
While Protect Your Bubble’s director of gadget insurance James Brown was impressed by the features, he does question the cloud surrounding Google.
“The Huawei Mate 30 series delivers a powerful punch of clever gadgets and lightning-fast performance, but the big question is whether consumers will buy a smartphone without Google Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and the Play Store?”
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