Amid controversy over their relationship with the United States, and a trade ban which has limited their access to key hardware and software, Huawei is forging ahead with a hardware launch event on Thursday in Munich. Ahead of the official unveiling, what can we expect?

Mate 30
At the event, we’re expecting to see three (four technically) phones from Huawei, all from the ‘Mate 30’ family, however we’ll get most information about the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro.

The Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro are the focus of the event, offering higher end specs. 

Huawei is pulling out no stops for the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro. Of course the Mate 30 Pro will have the best specs available, with a large curved display similar to the OPPO Waterfall display announced recently though it will have a substantial notch.

The Mate 30 won’t have quite the display as the Pro model, nor as big a notch in the display, though you’ll likely have to settle for a smaller amount of sensors when using Face Unlock. 

On the rear of the Mate 30 Pro you can expect a circular camera array which is believed to house dual 40MP main sensors, as well as an 8MP sensor possibly behind an ultra-wide lens, though rumours also point to a 3x telephoto lens, and finally a Time of Flight Sensor. The Mate 30 should have similar camera specs, though we could be surprised.

Rumours of a super-slow-motion video up to 7680fps have surfaced via ITHome, though it’s likely this will be interpolated for a much smaller fps, though at higher resolution.

The Mate 30 Pro is expected to have a 4,500mAh battery inside with a fast charging option at up to 40W, or wireless fast charging up to 27W.

Finally you’ll be able to buy the Mate 30/Mate 30 Pro in Space Silver, Cosmic Purple, Black, and Emerald Green colour options.

Under the hood, the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro are powered by the recently announced Kirrin 990 CPU. Leaks on RAM and storage combinations for the phones have been varied but we expect at 128GB of storage, and an option for 256GB, with at least 6GB and 8GB RAM, with a possible 12GB model also apparently an option.

The use of the Kirrin 990 also means we could be seeing the Mate 30/Mate 30 Pro launched with 5G – a bit of a buzz word at the moment with access to most 5G networks extremely limited, but if it’s there it may gain them some traction in a busy mobile marketplace.

Huawei will also announce a Porsche Design variant of the Mate 30 Pro. No real details on the phone have emerged beyond the renders supplied by Evan in Black and Red colouring, but it looks like a leather-like back with a quad-rear camera setup:

The third member of the family is the Mate 30 Lite, or what we’ve already been introduced to as the Nova 5i Pro. The comparison between the two phones was drawn by Evan Blass via his now private @evleaks twitter account advising ‘BTW, the Mate30 Lite is the same as the recently-released nova 5i Pro.’

The Nova 5i Pro, and very likely the Mate 30 Lite, comes with some pretty decent specs, starting with the Kirin 810 processor, with Huawei offering several memory options for the phone – 6GB or 8GB RAM/128GB storage or 8GB RAM/256GB storage. 

The phone has a 6.26-inch FHD+ LCD Display with a 32MP camera sensor sitting in the hole-punch notch at the top of that display.

The rear camera setup includes four sensors, a 48MP main sensor, with an 8MP sensor behind an ultra-wide angle lens, a 2MP macro sensor for close-ups and a 2MP depth sensor. 

Finally, the Nova 5i Pro has a 4,000mAh battery to keep it running all day. The comparison between the Mate 30 Lite and Nova 5i Pro aren’t too far out there, with Huawei having previously launched previous Nova generations with specs similar to the Mate Lite model.

Software
The biggest question is whether the newly announced phones will launch with Android. Due to the trade restrictions the US government has imposed on Huawei, they have been unable to gain a license to the suite of Google Apps normally present.

For Huawei this means they can either deliver a version of Android built from the open source Android Open Source Project, with an option to install Google Apps via an aftermarket installation process, or offer the phones running their Android alternative: HarmonyOS, which reportedly runs Android apps through a compatibility layer.

Whichever option they choose, Huawei has a big sales pitch to make to customers. Adding barriers to using the phone straight out of the box will be onerous to many phone users, so Huawei hopefully has something up their sleeve to smooth out the process.

Huawei Watch GT
Finally, Huawei is looking to update their smartwatch, the Huawei Watch GT with a second generation model, called, the Huawei Watch GT 2.

The second generation watch appears to have lost some weight with smaller bezels and a slimmer profile and be available in both ‘sport’ and ‘classic’ models.

According to WinFuture.de, the Huawei Watch GT 2 will offer a slightly larger 445mAh battery, as well as a speaker and a microphone. The watch also includes a standalone GPS and a heart rate monitor pointing to a decent standalone experience, though no confirmation of an LTE model has been seen to date.

The watch will be available in a number of colours, with what appears to be a selection of watch bands. 

Huawei will unveil their new device line-up on at 2pm CEST in Munich, Germany – that’s around 10pm AEST, Thursday the 19th of September Australian time. You can tune in to the live stream of the announcement on the Huawei Mate 30 teaser page or right here.