Despite a lack of Google involvement in their phones these days, Huawei is pressing ahead with launching new smartphones, today introducing their Mate 40 series, featuring four devices, as well as a series of accessories including a new set of over-ear headphones.
The Mate 40 series consists of four phones, the Mate 40, Mate 40 Pro, Mate 40 Pro+ and the Porsche Design Mate RS. All of the phones feature a Leica engineered rear camera setup enclosed in a ‘Space Ring’.
The phones use the new curved Huawei ‘Horizon Display’ which features curved edges up to 88-degrees, which make it comfortable to hold. There’s AI driven palm rejection algorithms built-in to the phone, which should hopefully stop any accidental touches on that curved display.
Huawei has also included an option for a virtual volume rocker on the curved sides, allowing both left and right handed people to use the phone with ease.
Specs for the phones differ across the range, as do the colour options and materials.
The Mate 40 features the new Kirin 9000 5G chip manufactured using the 5nm manufacturing process. The processor includes 8-cores, as well as a high-end Mali G78 GPU and an improved Neural Processing Unit (NPU).
Huawei is offering the Mate 40 and Mate 40 Pro in a range of colours including the new Mystic Silver option that shows different colours depending on the angle of light. There’s also a Yellow and Green ‘Vegan Leather’ option, and a Black and White nano-ceramic option.
The Mate 40 Pro+ and Porsche Design Mate 40 RS both come in Ceramic White and Ceramic Black, though the Mate 40 RS model includes Porsche Design stylings.
Launching with Android 10 and running Huawei’s custom EMUI 11 skin over the top, the phone runs Huawei Mobile Services instead of Google Mobile Services, and uses the Huawei App Gallery instead of Google Play for their app store.
Despite the absence of direct updates from Google in light of the ongoing US trade ban, Huawei has gone to lengths to include new software features on the Mate 40 series.
New features include customisable Always On Display (AOD) and a new Eyes On Display which senses when you are looking at the phone, and reacts to your attention with playful, customisable animations. EMUI 11 also has more privacy built-in, including the ability to detect someone looking at your screen, which lets the phone hide your important notifications.
There’s also new Smart Multi-Window controls to let you multi-task more easily, and Smart Gestures to let you control your phone without touching it.
Update: Huawei Australia has this morning confirmed that the HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro will RRP in Australia for $1,999.00 and will be available for purchase from November in Mystic Silver, sold exclusively from Huawei Authorised Experience Stores (Chatswood and World Square, both located in Sydney).
Huawei has only announced European pricing at this stage, with Huawei Australia not yet confirming local availability for any of the Mate 40 series…yet. In terms of pricing though, here’s what you can expect to pay in Europe
Huawei has also announced a new range of accessories for the Mate 40 series, which they’re calling ‘Companions’.
The Huawei Companions range for the Mate 40 series consists of a 50W Wireless Car Charger, 66W Wired Car Charger, a ‘Huawei 12000 SuperCharge 66W Power Bank’, Huawei Ring Light Case featuring a ring light and the Huawei M-Pen 2 stylus featuring 4096-level pressure sensitivity and can be simultaneously active on multiple devices.
For those fans of Huawei’s Watch GT series, a Porsche Design option is now available.
The new Porsche Design Watch GT2 features an ultra light body made sapphire glass, and a ceramic case and titanium body which is lightweight and also anti-corrosive.
Huawei’s excellent 2-week battery life is included, as is their activity tracking and health monitoring features which now includes continuous all-day Sp02 monitoring.
There’s no word on if, or when we’ll see the Porsche Design Watch GT2 in Australia, but it will cost €695 in Europe.
If the thought of new phones, or new watch aren’t for you the FreeBuds Studio are a good looking pair of over-ear headphones….even if there aren’t any ‘buds’ in sight.
Huawei is moving beyond the earbuds currently on offer in the ‘FreeBuds’ range, with this set of exquisitely designed minimal headphones which use a stainless steel arm joining the ear-cups which are covered in a super-soft, comfortable material.
The FreeBuds Studio feature a 4-layer diaphragm driver, the headphones support 24-bit/96KHz resolution codecs for a superior sound.
Like their in-ear buds there’s Active Noise Cancelling on-board with 6-microphones used to cancel sound up to 40dB. A Dual-Antenna design ensures excellent connectivity to your devices, and dual device connection lets you pair with more than one device at a time.
Huawei are launching the FreeBuds Studio in black and Gold colour options, and they’ll cost €299 when released – though no Australian pricing has been announced.
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