It’s looking inevitable that a foldable iPhone Ultra is coming later this year. Looking at what the iOS 27 beta code reveals, Apple’s teeing us up for a new form factor.

So, while I was in Shenzen, I nipped into a Huawei store and went hands-on with the Pura X Max… You know the one, right? That one everybody reported was a close match to the leaks of the fabled foldable iPhone.

And…well…all I can say is while the smaller, stubbier foldable is definitely a little more pocketable, it reminds me of one of my Dad’s life lessons that resonated with me: “just because something looks different doesn't mean it’s better."

The screen aspect ratio feels off here in both that small cover screen and trying to type on the keyboard folded open, the lack of verticality can be felt in productivity, and I just hope the rumors are wrong.

Weird dimensions

Now to be clear, this isn’t a diss of the phone hardware fundamentals. This is a premium sandwich of metal and glass that feels impressively upmarket — using a wide-format panel that when unfolded packs a 7.7-inch diagonal screen.

On first impressions of holding it in the hand, you’ve got a nice solid grip around it’s shorter stature. But then, you start to use it, and things fall apart quickly. Not to say it’s a bad experience, but in my own personal experience, I noticed three key issues.

First, that front panel lacks height to really get stuff done on. Your messages timeline gets drastically cut down and the screen becomes like 65% keyboard when you summon it.

Second, I unfolded it for the full keyboard and I can see some struggles reaching the keys in the middle near the crease with shorter thumbs and that wider display aspect ratio. And third, the lack of verticality does hit the Pura Max’s productivity credentials here.

Yes, I know we already have sorta similar passport-style foldable like the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, but this is shorter and fatter. Already with Google’s option, I thought this felt weird, so to go even harder in this direction doesn’t help the situation!

In between a rock and a hard place

You know the feeling (I know it all too well). It doesn’t matter which path your take, someone is always going to get annoyed. That is the situation foldable phones find themselves in right now.

Thanks to Samsung being in this game for years now, the world expects a tall phone with an inner panel that’s closer to a square in aspect ratio. It’s the form factor I personally prefer for browsing/getting stuff done, but will fully admit it’s not good for entertainment (especially watching letter-boxed films).

Meanwhile, if this iPhone Fold wannabe is indeed a sign of what’s to come, Apple’s device will more effectively nail the entertainment side of it, but not be so great for getting stuff done on.

The point I’m trying to make is there isn’t really such a thing as a “right answer” to this question — at least not yet anyway. It’s going to come down to personal preference, and for me, I prefer to keep my fingers crossed that what I just handled was not an early glimpse of the iPhone Ultra.

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I've been saying this for years: brands like Samsung and Apple need to pick up the pace when it comes to camera hardware and imaging tech, and the Oppo Find X9 Ultra was the most recent phone to prove that point.

While the iPhone 17 Pro Max tops out at around 8x optical zoom, the Find X9 Ultra pushed that to 10x optical zoom, with an option to go up to 20x using sensor crop.

It's not even been a week since I moved on from that phone, and I've already tried another device that reinforces the same idea: Apple and Samsung just aren't pushing hard enough here.

The Huawei Pura 90 Pro Max has a 10-step variable aperture camera

I was in Thailand this week for the launch of Huawei's Fit 5 Pro smartwatch and MatePad Pro Max, but I also got some hands-on time with the company's new Pura 90 Pro Max. The phone launched recently in China, alongside a new foldable that offers a similar form factor as the iPhone Fold, but there's still no word on a global release.

If you haven't been paying attention, Pura is Huawei's camera-focused flagship lineup. Last year's Pura 80 Ultra introduced a physically retractable dual-telephoto setup, and now with the Pura 90 Pro Max, the company is pushing things further with both hardware and software upgrades.

The phone features a triple camera setup: a 50MP primary sensor, a 40MP ultra-wide, and a 200MP telephoto lens. But what's really interesting is the primary sensor. It uses an RYYB (Red-Yellow-Yellow-Blue) setup instead of the traditional RGB, which Huawei says improves light intake for brighter, cleaner photos.

However, the headline feature of this smartphone is the new variable aperture system. The Pura 90 Pro Max supports a 10-stop physical aperture that ranges from f/1.4 to f/4.0. That means the camera can physically adjust how much light enters the sensor depending on the scene.

For example, in low light, it can open up to f/1.4 to let in more light for better night shots. In bright conditions, it can close down to f/4.0 to avoid overexposure. By default, the camera automatically adjusts this in the standard point-and-shoot mode, but you can manually control it through the Camera app's Pro mode.

Plus, it also gives you control over the depth of field directly from the main sensor. Pair that with LOFIC (Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor) tech, which helps improve dynamic range, and you get images that are more balanced and better exposed straight out of the camera.

The iPhone 18 Pro might finally catch up

This is exactly the kind of feature I think the iPhone 18 Pro needs to copy. There have already been reports suggesting Apple is working on a variable aperture system for the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.

So far, iPhones have relied on fixed apertures. For example, the iPhone 17 Pro sticks with a fixed f/1.8 on the main camera, which means it can't adapt to different lighting conditions physically.

If Apple does bring variable aperture this year, it would finally close the gap with what we've been seeing from Chinese flagships. Reports suggest Apple has already started working on the components, although we don't know how advanced the implementation will be yet.

The Pura 90 Pro Max also ships with AI-powered pose suggestions

In addition to the variable aperture and the company's first 200MP telephoto sensor, a new feature Huawei has introduced on the Pura 90 Pro Max is AI pose suggestions. When you're shooting a person, you can tap the pose feature in the camera app, and based on the scene, the phone suggests poses that might look good.

Once you tap it, the camera overlays a guide on the subject so they can match the suggested pose. It also offers multiple pose options to choose from. The whole thing runs on-device AI, which means it works without an internet connection and keeps everything private.

In practice, it's a mixed bag. Sometimes the suggestions are genuinely helpful, other times not so much. It also feels a bit awkward since the person being photographed has to look at the screen to match the pose. But the idea itself is interesting, and I can see it improving over time.

Other than that, the Pura 90 Pro Max packs a large 6.9-inch OLED display with an anti-reflective coating, a distinctive dual-tone design, and a big battery with fast charging. Of course, it doesn't come with Google services out of the box, and I wasn't able to fully test the variable aperture in detail, but even a quick hands-on made it clear that Huawei is pushing some interesting ideas here.

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There have been a lot of rumors around the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro, but the latest claim has revealed a potential upgrade for the phone that could be a big win for camera fans.

Well-known leaker Digital Chat Station posted on Chinese social network Weibo that Apple is currently working on two big camera upgrades: a variable-aperture main camera and a large-aperture telephoto lens. While DCS doesn’t specify which particular models this upgrade could come for, other rumors might provide an answer.

Back in 2024, leaker Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that Apple was planning to work on variable aperture rates for the iPhone 18 series. This was later followed up in October 2025, when a Korean report stated that Apple was proceeding with these plans, but only for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, and was in contact with its suppliers for the necessary components. With this in mind, it seems fair to assume that the upgrades mentioned by DCS are the same.

What does a variable aperture actually do?

The idea behind a variable aperture is simple - It allows a device to control how much light reaches the built-in camera sensor. How wide the aperture opens is represented by an f-stop number, with lower numbers meaning a larger opening, and vice versa. So, if you’re in dark conditions, the aperture will open so the sensor can receive more light, and close in bright conditions. This allows for more detailed, better-lit images.

This is commonly found on DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, but this tech is far less prevalent on smartphones. Also, phones that do feature a variable aperture often do not offer free control over the aperture. Instead, the devices allow the phone to adjust between two presets. For instance, the Honor Magic 7 Pro offers f/1.4 and f/2.0 aperture modes for its main camera. While that's not a lot of choice, that’s still more than the iPhone 17 series, or any of the other best camera phones we've tested have. These all use cameras with locked apertures instead.

Apple isn’t the only company looking into the technology, as there are rumors that Samsung has been working on the upgrade for the upcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra. Interestingly, the Korean company was one of the first to actually feature a two-stop variable aperture on mainstream phones, with the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S10. However, this was later dropped on the Galaxy S20 series and later to allow Samsung to focus on larger, higher-resolution sensors.

While the rumor concerning variable camera apertures has been around a while, Apple is well known for keeping any changes close to its chest. For now, we can only wait and see what Apple announces when it unveils its next generation of phones.

We’re expecting Apple to showcase the iPhone 18 Pro series alongside the iPhone Fold in September, but in the meantime, let us know what you think about the possibility of advanced cameras in the iPhone 18 Pro series.

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While foldable phones have a lot to offer, they still don't quite match the display size of some of the best tablets. However, tri-fold phones are one step closer, offering a larger display while still fitting in your pocket.

Despite that, there is only one such phone on the market, the Huawei Mate XT. However, Samsung has long been rumored to be working on its own version. This device, which could be called either the TriFold or the G Fold, could take everything we love about the Galaxy Z Fold range and expand upon it.

With such a small number of devices, comparisons were always going to happen. After all, this is a whole new avenue for modern smartphones, and it could become the new norm. With that in mind, we've gathered everything we know about Samsung's possible new device to see how it compares with its only competition.

Samsung Tri-Fold vs Huawei Mate XT: Specs

Samsung Tri-Fold vs Huawei Mate XT: Price and availability

Unfortunately, innovation comes with a cost, and that seemingly goes double for trifold devices. The Huawei Mate XT cost the equivalent of $2,900 when it was released in China. Sadly, Huawei has kept the Huawei Mate XT to select markets, limiting who could buy it.

We don’t currently know precisely how much the Samsung Galaxy Tri-Fold will cost, but it would make sense for the phone to cost at least $2,500.

We also don't know where it will be available, as we have seen rumors that the phone would be a limited release in China. However, more recent rumors have hinted that Samsung hasn’t made a final decision on whether or not it will sell the device in the U.S.

Samsung Tri-Fold vs Huawei Mate XT: Design and Displays

There are two main factors in a trifold phone: the size of the screen and how it folds. We know that the Huawei Mate XT features a 10.2-inch main display, with a 6.4-inch front screen. It’s impressive enough, and it exceeds devices like the Pixel 10 Pro Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Regarding how it folds, the best way to look at it is like a giant S. The middle part of the display folds over onto the right side of the screen. Then, the left-hand side of the screen folds in the opposite direction, which turns that side of the display into the front screen.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy Tri-Fold is rumored to be moving in a different direction in terms of its folding mechanism. According to rumors, Samsung is planning an inward-folding device that features an independent cover screen. It appears that the phone will feature a 10-inch display, alongside a 6.4-inch outer display.

At a glance, the difference between the two devices concerns durability, as the Huawei phone will have a section of the screen facing outward. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Tri-Fold won't, meaning that it could be slightly more resistant to drops. However, both phones have the downside of relying on the hinges, which are also the weakest points.

Samsung Tri-Fold vs Huawei Mate XT: Cameras

Foldable phones have a somewhat unfair reputation for being lacking in the camera department. However, the Huawei Mate XT has a relatively decent setup. The phone comes with a 50MP main camera, a 12MP ultrawide camera and a 12MP 5.5x telephoto lens. Finally, there is also an 8MP front camera.

In comparison, we don’t really know much about the cameras that come with the Galaxy TriFold, but we can make some educated guesses. For instance, it is widely accepted that Samsung’s triple foldable phone will feature the same 200MP main camera and 12MP ultra-wide cameras seen on the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Ideally, the phone will also feature the same 10MP 3x optical zoom, or boost it to a 50MP 5x model, but that’s more up in the air currently. It's also unclear if the phone will have the same set of 10MP cameras on the front and main display.

Samsung Tri-Fold vs Huawei Mate XT: Performance and Software

The Huawei Mate XT is believed to feature the company's own in-house chip, the Kirin 9010 5G. While we haven’t had a chance to run any tests on the phone, we do know that the Kirin 9010 is an 8-core chipset manufactured using a 7-nanometer process.

According to Notebook checker, its Geekbench scores are relatively low in both single-core and multi-core tests. However, the phone does come with 16GB of RAM, which could help boost the power.

Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy Tri-Fold will likely come with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite, the same seen in the Galaxy S25 Ultra. If accurate, this would represent a marked increase over Huawei, as Qualcomm’s chip is a real powerhouse. We don’t know for certain what RAM the phone will have, as most reports seem to indicate between 12 and 16 GB of RAM.

In terms of software, Huawei recently elected to move away from Android and instead utilize its own HarmonyOS. When we had a hands-on with the Huawei, we found using it to be a little alien, especially as the phone offered a lot of China-specific apps.

However, the motion between apps felt smooth, as did the app resizing when you open and close the phone. Unfortunately, the phone can only split two apps, which is a bit limited and disappointing for such a large screen.

We would expect that the Galaxy Tri-Fold will feature the Android-based OneUI OS that other Samsung models feature. That means you’ll have many of the same features seen on the best Samsung phones, including Now Brief and a stellar experience. We’d also expect to see Samsung DeX included, as well as the ability to split three apps, which is available on other Samsung devices.

Samsung Tri-Fold vs Huawei Mate XT: AI

The Huawei Mate XT comes with several AI options, including the Celia assistant, which offers features like an AI info consultant to summarize articles and provide real-time translation. The phone also features several AI photo editing tools that enhance photos and videos.

One of the more interesting additions is an AI camera, which automatically adjusts camera settings based on the subject being photographed.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy Tri-Fold will more than likely offer full Gemini and Galaxy AI support. As such, we can expect features like Now Brief, AI Photo edit, AI Translate and Health AI. If the chip rumors are true, then the Tri-Fold could be a real powerhouse in this department.

Samsung Tri-Fold vs Huawei Mate XT: Batteries

Batteries are always interesting when it comes it Chinese models, as, due to different laws and standards, they often offer much larger capacity. However, the Huawei Mate XT feels relatively subdued with a 5,600 mAh cell.

While that’s certainly large for a modern phone, it seems minimal when considering it needs to power a much larger display. However, the phone does offer 66W/50W charging, which could help to make a difference.

Meanwhile, recent patents have indicated that the Galaxy Tri-Fold could feature three batteries, allowing the phone to at least match the 5,600 mAh capacity. However, the addition of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which has been shown to improve battery performance, could help the phone to last much longer than you would expect.

Samsung Tri-Fold vs Huawei Mate XT: Conclusion

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Huawei's latest flagship smartwatch is here to do battle with the Galaxy Watch 7 and the Google Pixel Watch 3. And thanks to a launch deal from the Chinese brand itself, you can currently grab the wearable with a bit of a discount.

Right now, you can pick up the Huawei Watch 5 with £50 off its £399 launch price with the addition of a coupon on Huawei's UK site. And, as a nice little sweetener, the brand is also throwing in an extra free strap as part of the deal.

The Huawei Watch 5 could probably fool you into thinking it's not a smartwatch, but a regular analogue timepiece from the days of old. In an age when wearables are leaning increasingly into sporty and rugged aesthetics, the Chinese brand's latest device has a classic and premium design language.

That's largely thanks to the circular case coming in a choice of stainless steel or titanium and you can get it in either 46mm or 45mm sizing. The LTPO display is secured behind sapphire glass and boasts an impressive 80% screen-to-body ratio.

Huawei's ace-in-the-hole for the Watch 5 is the device's "X-Tap" sensor located on the side of the watch. Placing your finger on it delivers an SpO2 reading in under 10 seconds while the One-Tap Health Glance feature checks over 11 different health metrics (including heart rate variability and skin temperature) in under a minute.

Even if you don't plan to use it for sports, there's over 100 sport modes included on the watch and thanks to eSIM support, you can load up hiking or running maps without having to bring your phone with you.

This deal makes the device even cheaper for a limited time, and Huawei is also throwing in that aforementioned free strap and five free premium watch faces that would normally cost a total of £24.

The Huawei Watch 5 works with both Android and iOS but for those already using a Huawei phone, it's a nice upgrade that's going to be £50 cheaper until June 29 when this offer ends.

Huawei has just revealed the latest devices in its wearable line-up and has followed up the news with a limited time offer running on its own store.

Right now, anyone wanting to pick up the newly-announced Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro can get an exclusive edition from the Huawei store with a £30 off coupon and two extra free straps.

The first strap is the brand's Silver Nylon option but the second can be a customizable strap of your choice, letting you personalise the device to your liking.

Huawei's Fit 4 Pro is the more premium option of the company's Fit 4 smartwatches and offers a thinner and lighter design crafted from sapphire glass, and aviation-grade aluminium body.

The case is just 9.3mm thin weighing 30.4 grams, with that same 1.82-inch AMOLED display as the regular variant. However, while the regular Watch Fit 4 has a peak brightness of 2,000 nits, the Pro model ups that to 3,000 for an even better screen experience in broad daylight.

Huawei has added a tonne of pro-level sports features including Golf Mode that has access to over 15,000 courses around the world. And anyone that hooks a wayward drive into a water hazard can rest assured; the 40 meters of waterproofing as part of its Diving Mode will come in handy if you fancy trying to retrieve the ball. There's also Trail Running Mode will offline contour maps. Throughout all, the company's TruSense System will deliver vital monitoring like ECG, heart rate and blood oxygen levels.

You can easily swap in different straps to suit — whether going to the gym, spending a day at the office or turning in for the night — and Huawei claims it has some of the most abundant strap options in the industry. Which is useful if you want to take this deal up and customise one of your own.

Spring is the perfect time to get outdoors, and thanks to Huawei’s spring sale, it’s a great time to upgrade your tech too.

Right now you can get the Huawei Watch Fit 3 on sale for just £99 at Huawei (£40 off.) This is a total steal for a fully-featured smartwatch. And what’s more, it comes with an extra strap for free to switch up its style!

The Huawei Watch Fit 3 is packed with useful health tracking features, so it’s an awesome buy if you want to stay on top of your activity this season. It has tracking modes for over 100 different sports, including everything from padel to track runs. Plus, it can stay on top of your heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and track your sleep too.

The Huawei Watch Fit 3 is comfortable to wear thanks to its ultra-slim design, and it’s also easy to read at a distance thanks to its 1.82-inch AMOLED display.

Battery life is great, too — this smartwatch is rated to last 7 days with normal use or up to 10 days total. For anybody who’s counting, that trounces the Apple Watch 10’s battery life (18 hours with normal use, or up to 35 hours with battery saver mode turned on.)

We haven’t tested this device ourselves, but our sister site TechRadar gave the Huawei Watch Fit 3 an excellent 4.5 star rating in its review.

Make sure to get this deal while you can! And for more savings, check out our Huawei promo codes coverage.

In the world of foldable smartphones, we generally expect to see two designs: thin "flip" phones like the Galaxy Z Flip and Moto Razr and book-style phones like the Galaxy Z Fold and Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Huawei is looking to change our expectations for foldable smartphones with the Pura X. At first glance, it looks like it could be the Galaxy Z Flip 7, but when you look closer, you realize it's a lot wider, almost rivaling the size of the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 7.

The new Pura X is like no foldable we've seen so far, and that's exciting for the future of these types of phones. If Huawei can develop this design, who knows what it and other companies can do in the future?

As for the screens, you get a 16:10 aspect ratio, where the phone's interesting width is visible. Huawei offers a 6.3-inch internal screen with a 2,120 X 1,320 resolution. It provides a speedy refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The outer screen is a 3.5-inch square with a 980 X 980 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate.

The innovative folding phone has solid cameras with a 50MP primary lens leading the charge. There's a 40 MP ultra-wide and an 8 MP telephoto lens with 3.5x optical zoom supporting the main lens. On the front, you get a 10.7MP camera.

Under the hood, you get specs that should let this phone be used like a tablet — 12GB and 16GB of RAM configurations are available. The phone offers a flagship-level SoC, but Huawei didn't specify which model of its Kirin chips is inside.

Important to note is that this phone will not run Android. Instead, it's Huewei's own HarmonyOS Next. It'll be the first phone from the company to include the new Harmony Intelligence AI assistant.

Outlook

Unfortunately, those in the West won't be able to find this innovative phone easily. In China, the base model is RMB7,499 (US$1,038). If you're thinking the fancy Collection Edition might be more your style, it'll start at RMB8,999 (US$1,245).

As disappointing as that is, I wouldn't be surprised to see other foldable phone makers borrow a similar design. Perhaps even Apple will opt for a wider design with the long-rumored iPhone Flip.

The biggest issue I could see in this design is holding the phone for people with small hands. If you already have difficulty holding a large phone like the iPhone 16 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, a 16:10 phone might be even more difficult to work with.

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Global smartwatch shipments dipped 7% in 2024 compared to the year prior. This is the first time since the original Apple Watch model debuted in 2014 that the market has seen any decline.

Based on data from the market research firm Counterpoint, Apple was hit hard by sluggish sales numbers. Compared to 2023, the Cupertino King shipped customers 19% fewer Apple Watch units. That’s quite the drop.

Why are Apple Watch sales dropping?

Source: Counterpoint Research Global Smartwatch Shipments Tracker by Model, Q4 2024

Blame it on the highly-anticipated Apple Watch Ultra 3 failing to materialize or the fact that the tenth-anniversary Apple Watch — the only new release we did get in 2024 — isn’t all that different from the Series 9 that came before it, even if it is the best smartwatch you can buy today.

Apple’s patent dispute with Masimo — which Apple recently effectively won — over the brand’s blood oxygen sensor tech also hurt sales early in 2024. For a short time, sales of the Series 9 and Ultra 2 were banned in the U.S.

Finally, Apple has yet to meaningfully incorporate Apple Intelligence features into the Apple Watch (though AI-generated notification summaries are pretty sweet).

All this adds up to a lack of excitement surrounding the Apple Watch. And without something truly groundbreaking or eye-popping in the pipeline for this year, I suspect Apple will continue to see its sales numbers shrink.

That said, with rumors pointing to a forthcoming Apple Watch Ultra 3 that could sport a larger display, significant battery life improvements, and high blood pressure warnings, along with a potential Apple Watch SE 3 at a more wallet-friendly price point, don’t count Cook and Co. out just yet.

Some smartwatch brands saw growth

On the flip side, Samsung noted a slight uptick in smartwatch sales of 3%. Google, meanwhile, was absent from the report.

Smartwatch makers focused on budget-friendly models managed to fare even better. The Chinese manufacturer Huawei, for instance, shipped 35% more devices in 2024 than in 2023. Xiaomi, meanwhile, noted a massive 135% increase in smartwatch sales.

While both manufacturers have a modest presence in the U.S., they’re selling smartwatches like hotcakes in other markets, most notably in Asia.

According to Xiaomi, the wallet-friendly Xiaomi Redmi series — which starts at around $50 — and the higher-end Xiaomi S1 proved especially popular.

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Christmas is almost here! If you’re searching for some stocking stuffers for tech lovers, look no further than this sale at Huawei. This retailer is taking up to 20% off a selection of smartwatches and headphones, so don’t hang around.

If you want a cheaper alternative to the Apple Watch, the Huawei Watch Fit 3 for £109 at Huawei (£30 off) is a great choice. It has a bright AMOLED display, up to 10 days of battery life and a suite of useful health tracking features.

Keep scrolling to see all the best deals at Huawei. And for more ways to save, see our Huawei coupon codes guide.

Quick links

• shop all deals at Huawei
• Huawei FreeBuds 6i: was £89 now £69 @ Huawei
• Huawei Watch Fit 3: was £139 now £109 @ Huawei [free strap!]
• Huawei FreeBuds Pro 3: was £179 now £139 @ Huawei
• Huawei FreeClip: was £179 now £149 @ Huawei
• Huawei Watch GT 5: £229 @ Huawei [free strap + earbuds!]
• Huawei Watch D2: £349 @ Huawei [free strap+ earbuds!]

Best deals now

Looking to upgrade your laptop or tablet? This Huawei sale is the perfect opportunity to do so. Many of Huawei’s best laptops and tablets have seen heavy discounts, and there’s still time to shop these deals that’ll arrive before Christmas.

For example, right now the Huawei MateBook 14 is on sale for £712 at Huawei via coupon code "AHWXMAS24". This deal is for the config with 16GB RAM, 512GB storage and an Intel Core Ultra 5 CPU. We checked it out in our Huawei Matebook 14 review and loved its sharp OLED display, portability and productivity-friendly design.

Check out my favorite deals on Huawei laptops and tablets below. Plus, see our Huawei promo codes coverage for more ways to save.

Quick Links

• shop all deals at Huawei
• Huawei MatePad SE 11: was £199 now £161 via "AHWXMAS24" [free stylus!]
• Huawei MateBook D16: was £699 now £427 via "AHWXMAS24"
• MatePad 12 X: was £539 now £455 via "AHWXMAS24" [free stylus!]
• Huawei MateBook D14: was £699 now £474 via "AHWXMAS24"
• Huawei MateBook 14: was £949 now £712 via "AHWXMAS24"
• MatePad Pro 12.2: was £799 now £712 via "AHWXMAS24" [free stylus!]

Best deals now

Dual-screen foldable laptops feel like the future, but the future needs a little more time in the oven. The main question mark around them is that of ergonomics — the signature keyboard and touchpad of any laptop is basically a necessity for getting stuff done. So what happens when you get rid of them in favor of a giant screen?

Well, Digital Chat Station has shared a new leak that a company (heavily hinted to be Huawei) is working on a new idea in this area — ditching the bundled keyboard that comes with foldables today and replacing it with a virtual on-display keyboard with linear motor haptics.

Integrated into the bottom half of the device, this motor would (on paper) replicate the tactile feel of pressing keyboard keys, and allow for an ultra-thin laptop shell like the Huawei Matebook X Pro. It will also run on custom silicon, which would mean Kirin if we follow the subtle signs that point to this company building it.

My take: a damn cool idea, but does it work in practice?

So let’s cut to the chase. I’m confident that the foldable tech you see in phones like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 will become the next thing for laptops. At the moment, we’re very much in that discovery phase — from big foldable displays like the HP Spectre Fold that are cool but questionable in durability and price, to far more functional dual-screen laptops like the Asus Zenbook Duo that don’t necessarily have the same wow factor.

But one thing all of these different ideas agree on is the need for the real tactility of a physical keyboard and touchpad. You can get away with typing on a screen on something like a smartphone because the length of time which you do so is usually a lot shorter. For a laptop, however, you could be spending hours typing away, and that’s why the ergonomics of this are so important.

And that leads me to red flag number 1: will the haptic keyboard provide enough of that feeling of depth to make this actually usable for long periods of time? I’m not so sure. And what about the touchpad? The touchscreen interface is good and all, but flipping between typing and tapping is just not as fast as having your thumb on the touchpad ready to navigate.

Then, there’s red flag number 2. You may remember I tested (and fell in love) with the — quickly turning into the best laptop that most of you can’t buy because of Intel and Qualcomm being banned from shipping chips to the Chinese tech giant.

That means if Digital Chat Station’s heavy hinting towards this being Huawei’s handy work is correct, we’re looking at an in-house solution and by extension, possibly the company’s own interpretation of a desktop OS to finagle around the restrictions placed upon it.

And while the company does make some great phones like the tri-fold Mate XT, their fatal flaw has always been the neutered OS not having access to all of Android’s services. Now imagine that on the scale of a laptop…doesn’t sound good.

But a lot of this is me taking a hard turn into Speculation Station. On paper, it’s clear that laptops are moving in this direction, and this is another more innovative method to get there. Let’s just hope the company sticks the landing.

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If regular foldable phones are starting to look a little commonplace for your liking, then you need to check out the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design, which claims to be "the world's first commercial triple foldable phone." And it's a phone I just got to try out for myself.

We've known foldables like this (with two hinges instead of one) were in development with several brands, but Huawei has the honor of actually getting its phone on sale first. It's currently only up for sale in China, although there are rumors it could go global in the new year. It's also an eye-popping $2,800 when you convert the Chinese price, nearly a full thousand dollars more than a typical two-panel foldable.

I love using foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 6, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the OnePlus Open. These are far from the same device with different logos printed on the back but there has been a converging of ideas and designs over the past few years of the foldable phone's existence. The Mate XT is something totally new, so I went hands-on with it to see if this is going to be the next evolutionary step for foldables, a new sub-category or just a technologically-advanced dead end.

* Rumored

Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design: Design and display

The Mate XT measures a whopping 10.2 inches fully open, with a wide tablet-like aspect ratio. It's then a more typical 6.4-inch rectangle when fully folded, and a 7.9-inch square-ish shape when part-open. The screen has a 90Hz refresh rate and a 3K resolution, plus a punch-hole camera for selfies should you need it.

By comparison, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 has 7.6 and 6.3-inch screens, and the OnePlus Open 8 and 6.3 inches. 

More display space has led to a thinner design, letting the Mate XT boast a 3.6mm (0.14 inches) thickness when open, beating the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and OnePlus Open by a couple of millimeters. As if the three-part screen wasn't enough to brag about.

But consequently the Huawei's thicker when closed at 12.8mm (0.5 inches), making it chunkier than basically any other phone you can buy today. It's also heavier at 298g (10.5 ounces) but an extra 50/60g for 50% more screen isn't that bad a trade-off.

Creases are a major issues for foldable screens, but Huawei's managed to tame both of them on the Mate XT. It's no worse than the Galaxy Z Fold 6 or the OnePlus Open.

In terms of colors, the Mate XT comes in either red or black vegan leather, both with gold hinges and accents. It's a luxurious-looking phone even when you have it all closed up. It's confusing to handle the phone at first because the hinges don't open in the same direction, so you end up trying to bend the phone in a direction it's not meant to. Fortunately, the build quality is high enough that it doesn't feel like you're putting the phone in danger when you forget how to open it.

What does put the phone in danger is how one of the hinges in the phone puts a bent portion of the display on the outside edge, putting it at a lot of risk were you to drop this phone, even if it's closed. The in-box case covers this up with a flap that runs the whole length of the phone, but it is perhaps evidence of a fatal flaw in this triple foldable design that can't easily be addressed without reworking the whole phone.

Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design: Cameras 

Foldables do have a reputation for holding back on camera hardware, but Huawei's elected to ignore this rule. The Mate XT's 50MP main camera is comparable to its competitors on paper, though it does have a variable aperture for greater photo control, something seen on only specialist photography phones like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

While it only has a 12MP ultrawide camera that pales in comparison to the 48MP one on the OnePlus Open, it does feature a 12MP 5.5x telephoto, which is quite extraordinary for a foldable. It's this that shows Huawei is indeed serious about putting quality optics into the Mate XT. Rounding things off is an 8MP front camera. It sounds a bit low-res, but it is probably still better than the 4MP inner camera of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 at least.

Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design: Specs

Huawei isn't talking much about the Mate XT's chipset, but it's believed to be a Kirin 9010, one of the company's in-house-developed chips. For memory, the Mate XT uses 16GB of RAM, the same capacity as the Open, and more than the Z Fold 6's 12GB. Starting at 256GB storage like the Z Fold 6 and offering 512GB and 1TB options, the Mate XT matches the Samsung foldable for on-board space for your data, while the OnePlus Open enjoys a generous 512GB default spec.

Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design: Software

Having abandoned Android for its own HarmonyOS, the Mate XT felt a little alien to use, and especially when the majority of apps installed on our demo units were China-specific ones. But moving around and between the apps certainly felt smooth, as did the app resizing when you open or close the screen. Which makes sense since none of the Mate XT's three display sizes are new, it's just the way it achieves them all in one that is.

Note that multi-tasking is limited to two split apps plus a third in slide-over mode, which isn't any better than the average foldable, and certainly not up to par with Samsung's three-app split option, or OnePlus' excellent Open Canvas desktop mode.

Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design: Battery and charging

The Mate XT's 5,600 mAh battery is huge for a foldable, although perhaps not when you consider it's only 10% or so larger than a regular phone's battery while driving a display that's twice as big. While it's not a direct comparison, an 11-inch tablet normally has around 8,000 mAh of capacity. When it's time to refuel, Huawei's equipped this monstrous foldable with speedy 66W/50W charging, though I didn't get to try that during my short time with the phone.

Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design: Outlook

If you're getting convinced that this phone is the one for you, then please remember that it costs about $2,800 when converted from the Chinese price, and would likely be even more expensive if you tried to buy it abroad. Although the box does at least seem to include a number of accessories like wall outlet and car chargers, and a pair of wireless earbuds and an in-box case with a rotating stand.

Phone buyers have shown that at least a few of them out there are willing to pay up to 2 grand for a foldable phone. But we'll have to wait and see if the novelty and prestige of having three parts to your foldable instead of two makes that an acceptable price.

If your bank account has anything left in it after buying the Mate XT, Huawei will sell you an additional folding keyboard with a tiny trackpad if you want to try and use the Mate XT as a full work device. It's certainly got the screen space you need to edit documents, make calls, browse the web, or all of these at once. 

Triple foldables won't be an exclusive to Huawei forever, but it could take a while before our favorite phone makers make equivalent devices. And then there's the question of if it's worth paying another grand over the price of a standard foldable for another hinge and the screen space of an iPad, as against an iPad mini.

The tax on the convenience of a pocketable tablet is very high, even more so than a typical foldable phone. You pay more, your phone's much less durable and more expensive to repair, and many developers are still working on making their apps foldable-friendly. A standard flagship phone and a tablet with keyboard bought together is unlikely to cost you more than the Mate XT, and will probably be much easier to buy and use.

But given this phone's already on back-order in China, perhaps Huawei's managed to get in on the ground floor of a lucrative new trend. It's certainly grabbed people's attention, and that can often be the first step toward grabbing the contents of their wallet. 

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While most of the internet's attention was focused on Apple's It's Glowtime event and the launch of the iPhone 16, Huawei was doing its own thing by announcing the Mate XT Ultimate Design. This is the tri-fold phone we've heard so much about over the last few weeks through rumors and leaks. Now, the company has made it official with a price tag so high that it might make you dizzy if you look down.

Along with the innovative tri-fold design, the price is another big thing that'll catch your attention. The base model with 256GB of storage is 19,999 yuan, about $2,800. To put that into perspective, the marvelous Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 starts at around $2,000. If you decide to jump to the 1TB version, you must spend 23,999 yuan, around $3,370. 

It's easy to poke fun at the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 with its $1,899 price. However, compared to the price of the Mate XT Ultimate Design in China, Samsung's offering is almost affordable. Of course, the price is high because the screen is a 10.2-inch monster with an extra fold. Still, I'd imagine most people would see the price and give this phone a hard pass.

However, those outside China probably won't be allowed to pass or buy the phone regardless of their thoughts on the price. As usual with Huawei phones, the Mate XT Ultimate Design is unlikely to launch in the U.S. There's no guarantee it will even launch outside of China, but that remains to be seen. 

The screen can be used in three configurations — closed at 6.4 inches, partially open at a 7.9-inch size and fully unfurled at the previously mentioned 10.2 inches. 

While the giant screen is the main event, other notable specs include 16GB of RAM, a 2,232 x 3,184 resolution on the screen and a 5,600mAh battery with 66W wired or 50W wireless charging. The cameras sound promising, with a 50-megapixel primary camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide shooter and a 12-megapixel periscope lens. 

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Rumors about the upcoming Huawei tri-folding smartphone are everywhere. The company finally decided to put the rumors to bed by revealing that it plans to show off the phone on Tuesday, September 10. Or rather, the company announced an event for September 9 at 2:30 a.m. ET and teased what looks like a Z-shape folding handset in the background.

Interestingly, Huawei appears unafraid to compete with Apple's iPhone 16 event and the massive wake of news that'll follow, as shared by GSMArena. Apple's event happens on September 9 at 1 p.m. ET, and the company is expected to announce the biggest iPhone to date with a 6.9-inch display. That screen will seem tiny compared to the rumored 10-inch tri-fold display rumored to be on Huawei's phone.

We don't know much about Huawei's upcoming phone outside of the design and its massive display. Details like the specs (they're rumored to be high-end), resolution of said display and other aspects remain unknown. 

We heard from industry analyst Ross Young that it will be the most expensive smartphone yet, perhaps making the iPhone 16 Pro Max feel cheap in comparison. Even the ridiculously expensive Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold might seem affordable in comparison, though it'll be interesting to see just how costly the Huawei is.

We also don't know in what regions Huawei plans to launch this exciting phone. It could be contained to China, which would be disappointing for those in the U.S. and Europe looking to get their hands on the innovative device. Huawei still can't sell phones in the U.S., so the chances of getting it there are unlikely.

Another rumor suggests that Huawei's tri-fold phone can be used to run "PC-level applications," which would be a massive departure from the mobile apps we're typically locked into on phones. However, the leaks don't specify whether they mean mobile apps with PC-like interfaces or actual PC apps, so we'll have to wait until September 9 to learn more.

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We only recently learned about the astronomic price of Huawei's alleged tri-fold foldable phone, and now we have news that the Chinese manufacturer will release the phone very soon.

A report from a Chinese-language site, My Drivers, spotted by GSMArena, claimed that Huawei CEO Richard Yu confirmed the world's first tri-fold phone will launch in September during an EV car event in Shanghai this week. A customer at the event asked Yu when the tri-fold display would be purchasable, and he simply replied, "Next month."

Yu has been spotted several times in public with the triple-screen phone. We're not sure what the new device's name will be, but it supposedly features a massive 10-inch display when unfolded. Whether or not it immediately becomes one of the best foldable phones or a strange anomaly is up in the air.

Surprisingly, the device Yu has been seen with looks pretty thin and is rumored to be fairly lightweight. Chinese companies like Huawei and Vivo have had great success making astoundingly thin folding phones. 

Despite being seen in public, there haven't been many leaks around Huawei's device. The company has kept a surprisingly tight lid on the handset.

With the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, we have some pretty thin foldable phones, but based on images we've seen, the Huawei triple fold might be as large or thinner as those devices.

Now, you and I may be unable to do it whenever the phone releases. The rumored price has ranged anywhere from $2,800 to $4,900, converting from Chinese yuan to USD. Of course, prices change depending on region, but this hints at how expensive the tri-fold phone might get.

It's wild that the tri-fold phone will be a viable reality, but it may be some time before we see a version in the US. 

Samsung has developed some tri-fold display concepts, but there is no guarantee that they'll produce one soon. Still, another company releasing such a device might incentivize Samsung to get their version off the ground faster.

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Huawei is reportedly working on a tri-fold phone. The company's chairman, Richard Yu, was spotted with the device, giving further credence to the idea that it's coming. However, it seems the company is having difficulty getting it down to a reasonable price.

The latest rumor from jasonwill101 on X suggests that Huawei's tri-folding phone prototype costs 35,000 RMB. That's around $4,900, almost three times as much as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6's $1,799 price tag. 

Thankfully, the final retail release is expected to go down a bit to 29,000 RMB, around $4,000. Still, that's more than double the price of split-folding phones like Samsung's offering and the newly-announced Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. 

As prototype devices tend to have earlier hardware that's harder to source, it makes sense for the initial version to cost more. However, many people struggle to afford the cheaper foldable phones that are already on the market. With analysts saying the demand for foldables is decreasing, it's hard to say whether there's room for a $4,000 phone to hit the market, no matter how cool the gimmick is. 

Perhaps Huawei doesn't have plans to draw mainstream appeal with this phone; instead, it aims to appeal to the same types of shoppers who get expensive Supreme clothes with limited drops (as a Scotty Cameron golf collector, I might be in that target market, too). 

As noted by Phone Arena, the high price might come down to requirements for a new hinge design, supply chain issues (there aren't a lot of companies ordering tri-fold screens), or the slow production of the company's Kirin chips.

The rumor mill suggests that Huawei plans to release this phone in 2024, so we might not have to wait too long to find out the final price and what this interesting new foldable could bring to the table.

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Huawei is expanding and improving on its innovative Creation of Beauty campaign with a suite of new products led by the elegant new MateBook X Pro 2024 notebook. This powerful new laptop boasts the latest high-performance processors that vastly improves performance over its predecessor. However, that doesn’t mean you need to compromise on portability. Huawei has brought the weight down for this new model, tipping the scales at just 980g.

Huawei engineers have spent two years upgrading the MateBook X Pro’s materials through the new Huawei CLOUD Falcon Architecture. This involves a lightweight Modular PCB resulting in a compact internal structure which, in turn, allows for a larger battery, fan and speaker. This works in tandem with Huawei’s upgraded Shark Fin Heat Dissipation system with a three-dimensional air inlet and outlet design making air intake across the back, left and right of the notebook air intake flow more smoothly. In total, the performance of the laptop as well as its battery life are noticeably improved, the chassis stays cool to the touch and software runs smoothly.

Building on the powerful internals and lighter than light design is a beautiful new screen designed to facilitate creativity in mesmerising new ways. The Huawei MateBook X Pro is the first laptop to come with a 14.2-inch flexible OLED screen running at a 120Hz refresh rate, giving animations and movies extreme fluidity and depth of contrast. Each MateBook X Pro screen has been professionally color-corrected before leaving the factory. It’s effortlessly suited for professional creation such as 4K video rendering and exporting or large-scale software programming.

The MateBook X Pro is accompanied by the MateBook 14 laptop and MatePad 11.5”S tablet which both foster the Creation of Beauty through unique and innovative features. On the latter, Huawei engineers studied how the eyes react to different light and analyzed the impact of traditional paper on visual and drawing experience to develop the PaperMatte Display technology. This enables users to not only read more clearly, but write and draw more naturally that leads to a deeper creative expression. The MatePad 11.5"S also comes with a HUAWEI Smart Magnetic Keyboard (powered by NearLink) that lets you stand the tablet on a small desk and type on the keyboard for a satisfying workflow even in a smaller space.

The tools of creation aren’t simply limited to hardware. Huawei-developed apps like GoPaint and Huawei Notes also provide users with simple and convenient drawing and recording functions that seamlessly sync across devices. GoPaint has been developed with precise technical engineering to present lower latency and improve graphics rendering — so when using multiple layers and large canvases, creators can smoothly produce professional illustrations without worrying about technical limitations. It is said that the more powerful features of the GoPaint app may be launched in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, Huawei Notes now uses advanced audio processing technologies and intelligent algorithms to accurately sync audio and text. That means you can dictate thoughts or work and have it quickly transcribed for you. And it works according to your needs so, for example, when reviewing the notes, users can locate handwriting content to also obtain any corresponding audio information they may have attached to the same place.

By working to closely integrate both hardware and software solutions, Huawei remains able to bring a unifying creative toolkit to global consumers. They can enjoy the whole process of creation, whether for business or pleasure.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has blocked Chinese tech giant Huawei from receiving supplies of certain semiconductors from Intel and Qualcomm in the name of national security and foreign policy.

This is significant because it's a new level of pressure being applied to Huawei by the U.S. government, which has long held that the company is a potential threat to national security due to its ties to the Chinese government. 

It's also noteworthy timing, since reports are that the companies involved were notified on Tuesday, May 7—the same day as Apple's "Let Loose" iPad event, but more importantly, the same day we published our Huawei MateBook X Pro hands-on review. 

Huawei's MateBook X Pro is a compelling ultraportable that could rival the MacBook Air M3, and it's relevant to today's news because in April, Huawei made a big deal about the MateBook X Pro being its first "AI laptop". This was likely done to cash in on the AI laptop marketing craze that's gripped the 2024 PC industry after Intel started hyping the AI-focused NPUs (Neural Processing Units) built into its new Intel Meteor Lake chips. 

Problem is, Republican lawmakers made a big stink about the company and this new laptop back in April because it reminded them U.S. companies are shipping their latest laptop chips to China.

"One of the greatest mysteries in Washington, D.C. is why the Department of Commerce continues to allow U.S. technology to be shipped to Huawei," Wisconsin Representative Michael Gallagher, a Republican who chairs the House of Representatives select committee on China, told Reuters at the time.

Now it seems as though the Biden administration is responding to that outcry by revoking the licenses which allowed Intel and Qualcomm to ship at least some of their chips to Huawei. They had to get these licenses after Huawei and its affiliates were added to the "Entity List" of U.S. national security concerns in 2019 because "the U.S. Government has determined that there is reasonable cause to believe that Huawei has been involved in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States."

A representative of the U.S. Department of Commerce has confirmed to the Financial Times that it has "revoked certain licenses for exports to Huawei," but stopped short of confirming which companies were affected.

Tom's Guide is one of many media organizations which have reached out to Huawei for comment, and though we've yet to hear back we'll update this story if we do.

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After witnessing the Huawei MateBook X Pro kill the M3 MacBook Air, my time with the MateBook 14 left me shrugging. After blowing my mind with magnesium magnificence, this 14-inch aluminum unibody laptop is fine, but rather forgettable.

Don’t get it twisted. That Intel Core Ultra 7 running under the hood with a 40W TDP and Super Turbo mode keeps things running oh-so smoothly, which is maintained nicely with the impressive thermal management. Plus, on top of that, the 2.8K OLED panel with 3:2 aspect ratio is a dream on the eyes.

But here we are — another basic slab of metal, redesigned to look like a knock-off M1 MacBook Air. Hats off, though, to the craftsmanship, particularly the dot patterned air vents around the back and dropping the frame around the keyboard to allow for a sublime typing experience.

Normally, I wouldn’t be so critical of keeping things super minimalist and refined, and if this is your thing, I’m sure you’ll love it. But in the face of the X Pro, I just know Huawei is capable of so much more visually alluring, physically satisfying designs (especially when it comes to the touchpad).

Huawei MateBook 14: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A 14-inch Windows 11 laptop that's quite portable at under 3 pounds.
• Who is it for? This is an ideal laptop for productivity (courtesy of that Intel Core Ultra chipset) and content consumption (seriously, that OLED display is gorgeous).
• What does it cost? In Europe, we know that the MateBook 14 will start at €1,099. Since this is the same as the past generation, I'm confident the same £999 starting price will remain in UK too.
• What do we like? The big highlights are that super sharp OLED touchscreen display with pen support, the keyboard and the premium feel of the aluminum shape.
• What don’t we like? The 40W TDP of the Intel chip (while good for performance) does impact the battery life; the webcam is underwhelming; you’ll miss Thunderbolt 4; and the touchpad is disappointing in the face of the MateBook X Pro. Oh, and the design is rather dull.

Huawei MateBook 14: Specs

Huawei MateBook 14: The ups

Regardless of my design diss, this is a solid laptop in use due to three key reasons.

Intel Core Ultra cranked up to 40

Under the hood, the Intel Core Ultra 7 of this machine (with a 40 W TDP) paired with 32GB DDR5 RAM gives you an admirable amount of power for your workload.

In all of the work I threw at it in my average day-to-day — plenty of multitasking between a ton of Chrome tabs, regular Photoshop editing, playing music in the background and opening a few other apps to boot, I didn’t notice a single hint of slow down. 

Plus, while it’s not a gaming laptop (don’t expect this to run your beefy AAA titles well), you can fiddle with the settings and manage to get a good chunk of titles working. There is some Intel Arc graphics weirdness such as rubber banding in Forza Horizon 5, but hitting 50 FPS at low settings in 1080p is admirable.

Super Turbo 2.0 gives you a visible improvement in the speed of opening key apps too like large Microsoft Office files and dense RAW PSDs. And all of it is kept nice and cool with an upgraded dual shark fin fan system, with no identifiable thermal throttling in sight.

Versatile usability

Taking the touchpad out of the equation (more on that later), this is a versatile system to use. Including a pen with the multi-touch display is a nice bit of consumer friendliness — with virtually no lag between putting it to virtual paper.

And this comes paired with a keyboard that is simply a joy to use. Compared to the MateBook X Pro, I noticed no real difference in terms of the physical qualities of the typing experience. You’re getting a nice amount of travel on each key with a nice soft-yet-tactile landing to every press.

But one way it does edge clear is that Huawei has removed the metallic framing that usually surrounds the keyboard (you can see this on a MacBook Pro for example). It’s a small change, but one that makes it feel a whole lot less limited when your fingers move to the edge keys.

Whichever way you’re feeling creative — be it through visual presentation or the written word — the MateBook 14 stays right there with you.

Sweet, sweet OLED

It may not be X Pro levels of sharp and bright, but the MateBook 14’s OLED display is still a sight to behold. The 2.8K resolution is super crisp, while the 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio adds a super lovely HDR depth to everything, and that’s before even mentioning the flash flood of color.

Huawei claims a 450-nit peak brightness, which is fine for most bright rooms with big windows letting in a ton of light — not necessarily in direct sunlight from personal experience. But whether it’s watching Rush Hour 3 for the 1,000th time or editing images, this screen will not let you down.

Huawei MateBook 14: The downs

Outside of a couple compromises I spotted in my hands-on time, there’s two other things that just seem like own goals given what I know Huawei is capable of with the MateBook X Pro — starting with a big one.

Spongey touchpad

I know Huawei is capable of true magic here. I can’t get over the X Pro’s size, grace, tactile click and incredible user-friendliness. So to go back to a slightly constrained touchpad that has a rather spongey click feels a little disappointing.

None of the edge controls make the transition over, but luckily multi-touch options do work responsively — so at least there’s that.

Compromises can be felt

On one side, it’s good to see a 3.5mm combo audio jack. I never thought I’d have to say that, but with its absence on the X Pro and the Dell XPS 14, this is supposedly good news rather than just the norm now. But without Thunderbolt 4, I really felt my external SSD slow down. 

On top of that, the 1080p webcam does have some AI-enabled smarts like eye-contact, but the picture has quite a mushy quality that turns quickly into fuzziness with any slight challenge of light.

And finally, with that 40W TDP running through the veins of the Intel Core Ultra, the battery life when really getting to work on it will constrain you slightly. It’s not gaming laptop levels by any stretch of the imagination, but in reaching 0% in roughly six hours of use, just make sure you’ve got a charger nearby.

Not so green with envy

Come on, Huawei. You killed it in the design department with the MateBook X Pro — why is this so run-of-the-mill? Don’t get me wrong, the green option does look good. But another aluminum block makes this next to impossible to pick out of a line of a ton of other slabs. Put simply, it’s just a little bit boring.

And I understand the game plan: match the MacBook. It’s a utilitarian frame that everyone looks up to for its solid rigidity and premium quality, but let’s be honest, it’s getting exhausting now. With the amount of innovation Huawei pumped into the frame of its more expensive option, could the MateBook 14 not take at least a couple of notes from it?

Maybe the giant touchpad, the condensed edges to really make the screen-to-body ratio a slither of bezel, or even just the slight tapering of the side profile. Something? Anything!

Huawei MateBook 14: Outlook

And that’s the story of the Huawei MateBook 14 — a solid laptop and nothing more. After the joie de vivre felt with the MateBook X Pro, I can’t help but feel a little let down by how much of a MacBook Pro me-too the design is.

If you can look past that (and that touchpad sponge), this is a good all-rounder for working by day and play/binge watching by night. Especially with the marvel of that OLED display.

The Huawei MateBook X Pro has been an underrated ultraportable over the past couple of years. In fact, last year’s model is my favorite laptop of the year (which most of you can’t buy because of the US ban).

Now, the big H is back, and on the team’s three-year mission to kill the MacBook Air, they might have just done it against the M3 model with this insanely good piece of hardware. Remember when Apple called the Air “strikingly” light? Well at 2.2 pounds, the X Pro embarrasses the Cupertino crew.

We also talk about how the display on the super thin MacBook is “bright and colorful,” but the 14.2-inch flexible OLED panel here is simply jaw-dropping from every angle. Chalk that down as another check in Huawei’s column.

The keyboard feels better to type on, the trackpad is arguably the best I’ve ever used with its elegant surface and software trickery. The Morandi Blue magnesium alloy is head and shoulders above the MacBook Air — both in terms of eye-catching color and its resistance to fingerprints.

But, as I say in the headline, it’s missing one thing. Don’t get me wrong, the use of a fully-fledged Intel Core Ultra 9 185H over the weaker U-series chips is great. However, I’ve never looked at a laptop and said “This thing needs a Snapdragon X Elite” more than I have while going hands-on with this.

Not a deal breaker (and it is still faster in multi-core performance than the Air), but Intel’s chip is indeed a little hungrier on the power draw from that 70 Wh battery, and it does spin up quite a storm under heavy loads.

And yes, while I don’t have price information, I expect it to stay at the rather steep £1,799. But taking into account its specs, luxurious design, impressive usability and screen? If you’re able to buy it, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better Windows 11 laptop than this.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024): Cheat sheet

• What is it? A powerful, thin and light Windows notebook
• Who is it for? For the hard workers on the go — needing something ultraportable to get intense creative work done, while needing a good screen for watching videos during long trips.
• What does it cost? Huawei has officially announced the MateBook X Pro will start from €1,999. Since this is the same as previous generations I wouldn’t be surprised if it sticks at that rather steep £1,799 (roughly $2,250).
• What do we like? At 2.2 pounds, it’s the lightest laptop I’ve ever used — but it doesn’t skip on the power with an Intel Core Ultra 9 and 32GB DDR5 RAM. This all keeps images superfluid on that drop-dead gorgeous OLED touchscreen display, and the attention paid to the delicate keyboard and gigantic touchpad is unmatched.
• What don’t we like? Expect this to be expensive. On top of that, the 40W TDP of the Intel chip (while good for performance) does mean the battery takes a little bit of a hit.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024): Specs

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024): The ups

As my favorite Windows laptop, the MateBook X Pro does a lot right — almost nullifying its negative aspects.

Ridiculously good looking

I mean come on. Just look at it. To take a common Britishism, the MateBook X Pro is “fit af” (that would be “a smokeshow” to my compatriots across the Atlantic). On the aesthetic face of it, not much has changed, but why would you switch up a good thing?

The same magnesium alloy shell returns (something that Huawei calls the “skin-soothing metallic body”) — carved into this curved, utilitarian shape that looks unmistakably luxurious from every angle. And this new lighter blue finish adds an alluring dash of personality to the otherwise minimalist elegance.

On top of that, this thing is durable. I’m not saying it’s like those ultra-rugged systems that you see people drop from great heights (please don’t do that), but the rough-yet-smooth surface covering the laptop has undergone a Micro-arc oxidation process to improve water resistance. What this translates into is a laptop that’s impressively resistant to fingerprints and stains.

Funny story: the reviewer’s guide every journalist received with a new product they’re testing suggested that I spill coffee on the surface, which immediately terrified me. But the photos you are looking at here were taken after I did indeed spill some prime Costa Rican dark coffee on the lid and wiped it off. Not a single bit of staining, and no fingerprints even when I was eating some Monster Munch (ask your British mates).

Plus, we can’t go any further without talking about that weight. I expected a little heft — like the 2.7-pound MacBook Air is by no means heavy, but you can feel its weight. At 2.2 pounds, this CNC Unibody is lightweight unlike anything I’ve felt before.

It’s no slouch

Let’s get technical. The MateBook X Pro packs an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (a nice change of pace in a sea of thin and lights like this), alongside 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 2TB SSD. Make no mistake about it — this is one powerful laptop.

There are for sure places where the sheer might of Apple’s M3 will peep ahead, but given what this system with a 40 W TDP is capable of, you won’t notice any of a difference. In fact, you may see certain things being a touch faster, such as opening apps, exporting 4K video, or processing more intensive tasks when under a multitasking load.

You’ll find yourself in that same level of Apple bamboozlement when people bought the M1 MacBook Air — asking yourself “How is this thing so light, yet so damn fast?”

The MateBook X Pro fuels a bunch of Huawei’s AI smarts — because of course it does since every company is using AI to improve elements of the UI. Here specifically, you’re getting an enhanced 1080p webcam picture, including eye correction to maintain eye contact. Just make sure you turn off the Beauty Mode — it makes you look rather artificial.

On top of that, you’ve got three mic noise canceling modes boosted by AI, which do a great job of eliminating background distractions during calls. And the cherry on top, the AI search works like a better version of Apple’s Spotlight search across files, apps, the web, and even data on your phone (the latter being if you have a Huawei phone).

Unmatched ergonomics

It’s not just about the tools. It’s about how you use them, and the Huawei MateBook X Pro is a key example of that — offering arguably the best typing and clicking experience I’ve ever used on a Windows laptop.

The subtle dish of every key paired with 1.5mm of travel and a soft-yet-tactile landing of each key leads to a delightful typing experience, which matches the ergonomic greatness of the MacBook Air/Pro.

But let’s talk about the massive touchpad that goes all the way up to the bottom edge like an infinity pool. Following in Apple’s footsteps, there’s no actual mechanical click, as it’s all a solid-state construction. The haptic motor mimics clicks with a strong crispness, which gives you a gorgeous response to every interaction.

However, the real beauty comes in what else Huawei pulls off with the touchpad hardware. It’s an old story from my days of testing the first iteration of this design at Laptop Mag, but I’ll retell it. When my fingers grazed the side of the touchpad, I was honestly scared I’d broken it because there was a clicking sensation.

Instead, it’s edge controls! The left edge controls screen brightness, the right changes the volume, and moving across the top will scrub back and forth through videos. Once you experience it, you’ll find it hard to go back to any other laptop — it’s kind of a “why doesn’t everybody do this” kind of innovation that I love.

You’ve also got other gesture controls, such as knocking to take a screenshot or start a recording, but I’ll cut to the chase. This continues to be the best touchpad/keyboard combination I’ve ever used on a laptop.

A true feast for the eyes and ears

The older X Pro models were already a joy to watch movies and listen to songs on, but Huawei has gone a step further with four simple letters: OLED. Put simply, this 14.2-inch display is a masterpiece to the eyes.

Pairing a super sharp 3.1K resolution with a 3:2 aspect ratio and 120Hz refresh rate, this tall, crispy screen is a color-accurate joy to work on with up to a 1000-nit peak brightness. In all the lighting conditions I threw at this, including the rare glimpse of British summer this week in the park, I could clearly see what I was working on.

And my word what a sight it is. The vibrant colors melt off the screen and the 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio adds real depth to my time watching 3 Body Problem. But probably most surprising is the six-speaker setup here.

Whenever I see a laptop this skinny, tinny audio is sort of assumed of it. However, with impressive bass and a great, surrounding soundstage of well-balanced highs and mids, these speakers can overwhelm any time the fans kick up nicely.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024): The downs

There’s a lot to love, but there are a couple of self-owns here. One that I’m scratching my head about, and another that just seems to be a situation of the ever changing circumstances in the great silicon wars of 2024.

The limited port array gets even more limited

Sure, I expect the number of ports to be low on something this thin and light. But removing the 3.5mm headphone jack is a little silly to say the least. Sure, I appreciate the two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and the implementation of a hard webcam switch on the right, next to the USB-C. But a wired audio connection is still important in the laptop space.

I know Huawei didn’t start this trend — that’s something Dell has to answer for with its XPS 13 Plus. But come on! Would it kill companies to not snatch away the common sockets that we need and expect?

This needs Snapdragon X Elite

Intel Core Ultra chips have proven themselves to be pretty decent. In this situation, the MateBook X Pro works pretty great with its 40 W TDP. But one key thing that Intel hasn’t quite cracked yet is stamina.

The battery life doesn't quite hit the lofty heights of the MacBook Air, and that was evident in my time using the X Pro. Cracking on with my standard workload of several Chrome windows/tabs, regular Photoshop use, and Apple Music playing in the background, the 70 Wh cell in here dropped from 100% to around 25% in roughly six hours.

I’m sure I could’ve gotten more out of it under less pressure like just binge-watching episodes of Ted Lasso, but the key reason behind this is that Core Ultra has quite the power draw. This is where I drop the fact that the Snapdragon X Elite manages to beat Intel’s chipsets while drawing 65% less power at the same time.

And when you think of the 5 laptops that are set to launch with Qualcomm’s chipset — all in the ultraportable category — it’s almost as if the slender frame of the X Pro is crying out for this Arm CPU. If there is a chance for Huawei to change course (hell, you could even call it the MateBook X Elite), now’s the time to do so.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024): Verdict

If you come at the king, you best not miss, and Huawei has come correct with the MateBook X Pro — putting the M3 MacBook Air on notice. Matching its performance, while being lighter, packing a gorgeous OLED panel, and the best keyboard/touchpad combo I’ve used on a Windows laptop, Apple is clearly in its sights and the shot’s been taken.

It’s not perfect, though, with the omission of a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the Snapdragon X Elite being what’s needed for Huawei to jump that final hurdle and challenge Cupertino on battery life. But for what this pricey device is, if you have the money (and you don’t live in the US), this is my favorite Windows laptop.

Huawei is putting other lightweight wearables, like the Fitbit Inspire 3 and Amazfit Band 7, on notice with the launch of the Huawei Band 9, an ultra-thin fitness-focused smartwatch with a 1.47-inch AMOLED screen and roughly two weeks of battery life. 

Rich in wellness tech and compatible with both Apple and Android devices, it could be a contender for the best lightweight wearable title. Here's everything you need to know about the new Huawei Band 9.

Huawei Band 9 – design and battery life

The Huawei Band 9 has a rectangular case the exact same weight, 0.5 ounces, and thickness, 9mm, as its predecessor with the same bright, 1.47-inch AMOLED touch display. There's one physical button on the side of the watch. 

Water resistance is still 50 meters, which is good enough for a quick dip but not extended periods of swimming. Battery life remains the same: up to 14 days under the best circumstances and nine days with normal use, which is respectable. 

The new device will come in five colors including white, black, pink, yellow and blue. The rubber straps have notably received an overhaul and should now be softer on the skin and more durable than previous iterations.

There's also an updated woven antibacterial yarn strap that looks pretty stylish. However, it appears to be available only on the blue model.

Huawei Band 9 – health and fitness features

While physical improvements to the Band 9 are fairly minimal, it does feature some upgraded health monitoring tech and updated processing algorithms. 

A new nine-axis motion sensor replaces the six-axis sensor found in the Band 8. Huawei says that for swimmers in particular, this should result in better swim stroke detection and overall workout tracking precision. 

The Band 9 also gains an ambient light sensor which automatically dims the screen, depending on how bright the surroundings are, to save battery life. 

On the software side, the device's vital signs monitoring algorithms received an update which Huawei says should improve heart rate tracking accuracy and speed up the time it takes to perform a SpO2 reading.

Like its predecessor, the Band 9 also keeps tabs on your pulse to monitor for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib). You also get some built-in stress management tools, along with menstrual health tracking. 

The sleep-tracking software is also refreshed. It now monitors for abnormal breathing patterns in addition to watching blood oxygen levels and heart rate. In the AM, the Band 9 can be set up to provide insights into your night's rest and workout recommendations for the day.   

Huawei Band 9 – smartwatch features

Smart features are limited on the Huawei Band 9. Niceties like support for mobile payments, Maps and storage for offline music are absent. In fact, aside from Bluetooth notifications and remote music control, there aren't any to report. 

Huawei Band 9 – outlook

The Huawei Band 9 is a relatively minor update over the Huawei Band 8. If you have the former, there's little reason to upgrade. 

Huawei has yet to announce pricing, but we'd expect the tracker to land somewhere around $60, similar to its predecessor. Global availability and timelines for delivery have yet to be divulged — no word yet if it will make its way to the U.S. 

$60 would put this GPS-less tracker at about a third of the price of the Fitbit Inspire 3, the best value fitness tracker in 2024. And while the Band 9 sports a larger screen, the Inspire 3 remains the affordable wearable to beat for fitness tracking accuracy and reliable health monitoring. 

The Amazfit Band 7 ($49) and Xiaomi Smart Band 8 series (~$50) will also likely prove stiff competition for the new Huawei device in terms of price and styling. 

Ultimately, time will tell if the upgrades made to the Band 9 — especially those related to wellness and tracking accuracy — are enough for Huawei to claim the lightweight smartwatch title. We'll update you once we get one in for testing. 

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Let’s talk about the Huawei MateBook X Pro — arguably one of the best laptops of the year that (most of) you can’t even buy. But U.S. sales restrictions be damned, it’s an incredible system through and through, and I feel like rubbing it in a little.

Why do I say this? Well it comes down to three things: the visually striking design, its impressive usability and performance for an ultrabook, and that touchpad. I never thought I’d get so excited about using a pointing device as I did with the graceful surface.

I actually reviewed the 2023 X Pro during my time at Laptop Mag, but when it comes to all round experience, nothing has come close during my time at Tom’s Guide to this portable powerhouse. Allow me to explain why.

Ticking (almost) all the boxes

So let’s start with that drop dead gorgeous matte finish in Ink Blue — just the right shade of my favorite color that doesn’t look too bright and not basically black. Even better is that oh-so smooth CNC-milled magnesium alloy that is graced by a soft touch coating. It’s resistant to scuffs and fingerprints (like actually resistant…looking at you Space Black MacBook Pro), and it feels fantastic to the touch.

Open it up and you’ll find the 14.2-inch LTPS display with a productivity-friendly 3:2 aspect ratio and a 2K resolution. I know in saying this, our OLED master Dave will probably want to take a train down to give me a stern talking to, but I honestly thought this was an OLED panel when I first used it. The colors are mightily impressive, the contrast ratio paired with HDR makes for a ton of depth to each picture that is unheard of in LCD technology, and everything feels buttery smooth with a 90Hz refresh rate.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have some flaws. Given how thin it is (0.6 inches), this machine does heat up pretty quickly, the webcam up top is a bit of a potato, and given it is an ultrabook, you’re getting a rather restricted port array. But they quickly fade into the background because of two key reasons that make the user experience of the Matebook X Pro head and shoulders above any Windows machine I’ve used.

Touch it, bring it, babe

When it comes to a good keyboard and touchpad, my absolute favorite has always been the 14-inch MacBook Pro… That was until I picked up the Huawei Matebook X Pro — and it is the captain now. It's a true love story, better than Love Actually (the Prime Minister story, not the one that made me hate Alan Rickman for a while).

The chiclet keyboard with 1.5mm of travel has a great soft landing design, which is perfect for a forceful typist like myself and protecting my finger pads from utter devastation. Not only that, but the key caps themselves are nice and large for you to get used to and explore.

But that’s not the main attraction here, so let’s gaze our eyes further down to that massive touchpad — bigger than the MacBook Air’s at that. Multi-touch gestures and a smooth surface are all good and everything, while the haptic motor in the solid state construction gives a satisfying tactile sensation to every click. Then, I moved my finger along the edges and felt a short, sharp rapid fire of haptic vibrations.

At first, I was terrified that I’d just broken the laptop, but Huawei has pulled an absolute blinder here and implemented system controls into the edges of the touchpad itself. Moving your finger up and down the left side controls the volume, the right for brightness, and across the top to scrub through videos.

It feels almost Apple-like in user-friendliness, and far outstrips every single Windows laptop I’ve used in this field. You won’t find anything like this anywhere else.

Performance where it matters — give me Meteor Lake!

Currently, the Matebook X Pro sports an Intel Core i7-1370P, 16GB of LPDDR5 and a 1TB SSD. It’s a small spec bump over last year’s model, but it does make for an impressive upgrade over the M2 MacBook Air. Of course, it doesn’t hold a candle to the M3 models, but that’s not what this machine is built to do. 

Instead, it’s rather the one for nailing all the essential tasks, while handling some of the more intensive tasks with relative ease. The X Pro does do this all handily, but come on now. Meteor Lake is here, and while using these chipsets for anything other than AI is a bit meh, there are some improvements in graphics and small gains in multicore performance.

So Huawei, if you can hear me, give me a new version of the Matebook X Pro — at least to give me another reason to brag to my U.S. colleagues.

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How much can a smartwatch really help you to improve your health and fitness? Most of us are familiar with the perennial problem of knowing you need to be healthier, but not quite understanding how to get there (and staying motivated to do so). Huawei's latest research looks at whether a smartwatch has the power to make a difference.

The study, looking at the general attitudes, awareness and fitness habits of 8,000 participants across Europe, reveals an interesting paradox in our health aspirations versus reality. While 82% of respondents express an interest in physical health, only half are content with their current fitness levels, and a staggering 60% admitted to not having regular health checks. 

When asked which health measures they most often monitor, the 5 most common were physical activity (57%), hydration levels (54%), sleep quality and duration (50%), heart rate (51%), and calories burned (45%). In contrast, critical health indicators like respiratory rate (37%), blood sugar levels (34%), body fat percentage (34%), and ECG readings (26%) are often overlooked.

Yet, there's one game-changing factor that the study reveals can absolutely play a major role in your health journey: owning a smartwatch. 

Smartwatches can improve your quality of life

Smartwatch owners are not just casually glancing at their devices; they are actively tracking vital health metrics. They monitor heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, and calories nearly three times more diligently than those without a smartwatch. 

Additionally, 47% of users say their smartwatch nudges them to exercise more frequently, 41% report an increase in their workout duration, and 28% have altered their diet based on their watch's recommendations. Consequently, a compelling 88% of survey respondents believe their smartwatch has elevated their physical health, with 86% affirming an improvement in their overall quality of life.

The conclusion is clear: smartwatches are potent tools for health improvement. However, choosing the right one, equipped to track essential fitness metrics, is crucial. Huawei’s smartwatch range is designed to meet these needs, offering a variety of features to support your health and wellness journey.

Living healthy with Huawei Smartwatches 

Huawei has long been at the forefront of health and fitness technology with their wide range of smartwatches. Alongside their advanced features, and eye-catching, luxe designs, these are also full of impressive health tracking features. 

In particular, the flagship HUAWEI Watch 4 which is medically certified to carry out ECG examinations, with a simple one button ‘Health Glance’ feature that checks up to seven core health metrics in just 60 seconds. Additionally, the HUAWEI Watch D is another medically-certified wearable that comes with ECG analysis and an in-built inflatable band inside the strap to accurately measure your blood pressure.

If you’re looking for style as well as substance, the HUAWEI WATCH GT 4 comes in a range of eye-catching designs, sizes and types of watch faces to suit your tastes. More importantly, it comes with a number of health and fitness tracking features including  a scientific work out coach, and a 24/7 health management system.  

And for the more super active and adventurous type, the beautiful HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate comes with specialist expedition and diving features for the keen swimmer.

Beautifully crafted from super-premium materials, the Watch Ultimate is designed to be durable and hard-wearing. So if you want to make health a top resolution for the new year, let Huawei smartwatches help you keep track of your fitness and well-being.

For more information, check out the full range of Huawei wearables.  

Tech giant Huawei just took a serious step into the health and fitness space, with the launch of its new Health Lab in Helsinki, Finland. As well as being set up to research performance metrics of more than 20 different sports, the new lab will help the brand deepen its research into its wearables’ health tracking. 

We all rely on our fitness trackers for a lot more than just counting our steps — in a survey conducted by Huawei and Ipsos of over 8,000 people, 92% said they want to improve at least one aspect of their lifestyle when it comes to their health. Whether it’s drinking more water, or getting more deep sleep, fitness trackers have come a long way over the past decade, helping users gain insights into their overall health. On top of that, 50% of people surveyed said they were unhappy with their current physical fitness levels. As well as monitoring fitness, trackers have the potential to inspire people to move more and make healthier decisions. 

What’s in the Finland Health Lab? 

To provide better offerings for their customers, Huawei’s Health Lab will help the brand deepen its research into health monitoring technologies. The state-of-the-art lab will house a multi-functional treadmill, that can recreate conditions of various terrains — from mountains and hills to flatter planes, to better gauge how a user’s pacing changes. The treadmill, which has a top speed of 50km/h, can also accommodate roller skating, cycling, and wheelchair cycling, and has a built-in camera and integrated heart rate monitor, to help Huawei develop innovative features for its fitness trackers, such as the HUAWEI WATCH GT 4.

As well as the treadmill, the 1,000 sqm Health Lab has several high-tech testing facilities that would be at home in a sci-fi film. There are five major testing areas in total — a  counter-current pool, where testers can swim without ever having to turn or stop, a ski simulator, plus multi-functional and instrumental treadmills which will help researchers gain insight into advanced running and walking gait analysis. The treadmill has a plantar pressure assessment tool, for example, that can detect vibrations that can’t be sensed by vision or touch. This can help develop tools that can help users alter their posture on the run, preventing injuries before they happen. There’s also an open gym, which is fully equipped with cardiovascular equipment. 

The five different test areas can stimulate the conditions of more than 20 sports, while also tracking 200 physiological and biomechanical indicators. Researchers will use them to test and monitor the accuracy of Huawei’s wearable devices and find areas to improve and innovate. Plus, the research team behind the Health Lab includes six doctors and 20 experts from five different fields — physiology, AI, machine learning, software testing, and software engineering.

It’s clear from the move that for Huawei, just working out a user’s VO2 max isn’t enough for them — they want to develop technology that’ll change how a user moves. It’s exciting to see what’s coming next from the brand, and how this research will, in turn, help us all gain a deeper understanding of our health using Huawei’s wearables. 

2014 was the year that Huawei officially entered the wearable space with the Huawei Talkband B1. A wearable that combined a Bluetooth headset with the fitness and health features of a smart band.

That was just the start of a 10-year pursuit to redefine what a wearable was and is now capable of, with the big breakthroughs coming thick and fast since the launch of the Talkband B1. In 2016, Huawei unveiled version 1.0 of its HUAWEI TruSeenTM heart rate sensor technology, which has since evolved to go beyond monitoring heart rate. The latest iteration of TruSeen can now deliver SpO2 and ECG measurements bringing accuracy improvements while increasing the ability to be used for serious health checks and research. 

TruSeen was soon followed by Huawei’s TruSportTM, TruSleepTM and TruRelaxTM platforms, to enhance what Huawei smartwatches could do when keeping tabs on your exercise, sleep and more stressful parts of your day.

Smartwatches are also built for communication and taking you away from your smartphone, so in 2017 Huawei introduced eSIM on the Huawei Watch 2 to do that very thing. Fast forward to 2021 and Huawei’s ambitions to revolutionise health monitoring from the wrist with the Huawei Watch D. This was a smartwatch that could deliver cuff-free blood pressure monitoring along with medical-grade ECG readings from a single watch. No other smartwatch can do that, especially the blood pressure part without calibration first.

That brings us to what will be the next big step in Huawei’s decade of building groundbreaking and cutting-edge wearables. On September 14th 2023, Huawei will launch its next wearable product and also talk about what it has in store for the next ten years of wearables and beyond.

That next wearable product has already been exposed by Huawei on social media and judging by that teaser a new smartwatch or two is on the horizon. We say two smartwatches thanks to the different bezels on show on Huawei’s teaser. The Fashion forward slogan also seems to be a clear nod that we can expect design to be at the heart of Huawei’s big reveal.

Huawei is of course no stranger to making attractive smartwatches. In 2023, we’ve already seen the Huawei Watch 4 and Watch 4 Pro for those that crave the best of Huawei’s smartwatch features. It wrapped up features like a spherical, sapphire LTPO AMOLED touchscreen, eSim technology and the ability to glance at multiple health metrics at one time inside of aerospace-grade titanium. 

The Huawei Watch Ultimate, a smartwatch fit for divers, showcased Huawei’s ability to take premium materials like ceramic and liquid metal to create a smartwatch you’d proudly show off underneath your shirt sleeve. It was a similar story for the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro, which comes in titanium and ceramic case options, while the Huawei Watch GT Cyber will let you change watch cases to better match it up with your look. That’s an array of smartwatches that show Huawei has a smartwatch for everyone and offers some hints where Huawei will go next with its new smartwatch.

Beyond a stylish exterior what could be in store for us on the software front? As we’ve seen from Huawei over the years, it could be a lot. Few have innovated in the way that Huawei has and it’s had some notable firsts. We’ve already mentioned its blood pressure monitoring breakthrough with the Huawei Watch D and we’ve also seen the Huawei Watch Buds as a smartwatch that stores away a set of truly wireless earbuds. Huawei has built a running watch with floating external antennas to give runners the accuracy in data they crave and made a kids smartwatch with rotating dual screens.

The watch that lives on your wrist is only part of the package and that’s why Huawei has also been flexing its innovative muscles with its Huawei Health companion smartphone app. Yes, it’s the place where you’ll look deeper into your exercise or sleep stats, but it’s also somewhere now you can turn to for recommendations about enjoying better quality sleep.

Beyond the Huawei Health apps lies Huawei’s Health research platform, where Huawei explores what wearables can be capable of in the realm of health monitoring and the possibility that smartwatches could be used to prevent chronic diseases.

Huawei’s research apps already include over 200 health studies covering everything from heart health, respiratory well-being to blood glucose management in the China market so far and hopefully with international studies to follow soon. This platform has over 13 million participants in research studies currently and is working with over 110 research institutes to make sure its wearables can offer truly life-changing smarts.

Huawei has taken the research in-house too, with 10 research institutes already in existence in its native China. To bolster its fitness and health expertise, it has three health laboratories with more labs to open in Europe before the end of 2023.

That extensive research and studies Huawei is conducting focused on health issues like atrial fibrillation and hypertension have also been recognised by leading medical journals to emphasise the progress Huawei is making on the health monitoring front.

And to the future, beyond the launch event and what Huawei has in store for wearables a bit further down the line. Huawei is already looking closer at how it can track ovarian health, emotional health and is taking the blood pressure monitoring into the exercise monitoring realm too as it pushes to take different and more unique approaches to tracking health. TruSeen 5.5+ is coming too and will look to boost things on the health and wellness monitoring front further.

What is clear is that whatever is the next frontier for wearables, Huawei will be there to lead it. Amplified by the fact it’s already shipped over 130 million Huawei smartwatches globally, while over 100 million users log into the Huawei Health app. It’s applied for over 800 patents and already makes smartwatches for those that care about adventure, heart health or you just want a stylish connected timepiece to own. Huawei has built the foundations and launched the smartwatches to take wearables into its next exciting era.

Non-invasive glucose monitoring on smartwatches seems to have been in the pipeline for a long time, with little to show for it. Rumors that it could appear on the Apple Watch go back years, but so far it hasn’t made an appearance. Now it sounds like Huawei has beaten Apple to the punch.

Over on Weibo one Huawei executive claims that the newly-launched Huawei Watch 4 has a built-in glucose monitoring feature. More to the point, it’s supposed to be a non-invasive glucose monitor that doesn’t require any additional hardware to operate. Though there's a catch.

The Huawei Watch can't read your blood glucose levels directly. Instead the company says it'll measure 10 specific health metrics, in as little as 60 seconds, to detect signs that blood sugar is too high. So if it detects that you are at risk of hyperglycaemia, the Huawei Watch 4 will warn you about it.

Metrics measured by this feature include heart rate, pulse wave characteristics “and more”, though the company hasn’t revealed what else is involved. The Huawei Watch 4 also has the hardware to monitor blood pressure, blood oxygen and body temperature, which may play a part in the high glucose warning.

Huawei hasn’t gone out of its way to explain the feature particularly well. That means there are a bunch of unanswered questions, including how this glucose monitor detects a rise in blood sugar and how accurate that system actually is. Hyper and hypo glycemia are serious issues for diabetics, and can be life threatening, so they’re not the kind of thing you want to leave to chance.

So this isn't going to replace your traditional method of tracking blood-sugar levels, but it could prove beneficial as an additional safeguard. Just don't rely on it too much.

The Huawei Watch 4 isn’t likely to go on sale in the United States, much like every other Huawei product out there. So Americans aren’t going to be able to try this feature for themselves. Fortunately we know Apple is working on non-invasive blood sugar tracking, which would actually track blood sugar levels rather than the general signs of high blood sugar. 

Whether this feature could launch on Apple Watch 9 is unclear. After all, rumors suggested that glucose monitoring could launch on the Apple Watch 8, and before that the Apple Watch 7 — only for this to never happen. Apple has made it clear that this sort of tech isn’t easy, especially in a small wrist-bound form factor, so we may have to wait a little bit longer.

In the meantime it’s nice to see some progress has been made offering some kind of non-invasive glucose monitoring to a smartwatch. Even if we don’t know much about it yet, and that it likely won’t be available in the U.S., well, ever.

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While the foldable phone market is all-but limited to Samsung in the U.S., that isn’t the case elsewhere — especially in China and other parts of Asia. Huawei has been involved in the foldable market almost as long as Samsung, and has revealed the brand new foldable Mate X3 in China. It’s also thinner and lighter than an iPhone 14 Pro Max and Galaxy Z Fold 4.

The Huawei Mate X3 is a book-style foldable, much like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, which opens up to reveal a 7.85-inch display. That display features an adaptive 1-120Hz refresh rate and 2496 x 2224 resolution. On the outside is a 6.4-inch cover display, with 120Hz refresh rate and FHD resolution.

The Mate X3 also happens to be the lightest commercially available foldable phone, weighing just 8.4 ounces (239 grams). The iPhone 14 Pro Max weighs 8.47 oz (240 grams), and the Z Fold 4 weighs 9.28 ounces. The X3 also undercuts the Huawei Mate XS 2, which weighs 8.99 oz and previously held the title of lightest foldable phone

While the difference in that weight is negligible between the Mate X3 and the iPhone, it’s still a pretty notable accomplishment. Particularly given how hefty Samsung’s current foldable flagship is.

The Mate X3 is also significantly thinner in its unfolded state, measuring 0.2 inches (5.3mm). Apple’s most premium model is 0.31 inches thick, while the Z Fold 4 is 0.24 inches thick in the same configuration. For comparison’s sake the Mate XS 2 was 0.21 inches thick when unfolded.

Other features of the Mate X3 include a triple-lens camera module, complete with a 50MP main lens, 13MP ultrawide and a 12MP telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom. There’s also two 8MP hole-punch cameras, each housed on one of the phone’s two displays.

The CPU is a little disappointing, with the Mate X3 packing in the Snapdragon 8 Plus 4G chipset. It’s not the oldest chip around, but considering the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 will likely come with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, it feels like Huawei should have gone for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. At the very least include 5G, because this isn't 2018 anymore.

Other points of note include a 4,800 mAh battery, 66W fast charging, 50W wireless charging, 7.5W reverse wireless charging, IPX8 water resistance, dual SIM and a “free stop hinge” which allows you to fold the phone in a variety of positions.

Of course, Huawei doesn’t sell phones in the U.S., so you won’t be able to buy a Mate X3 unless some serious political changes happen in the next few months. You’d also have to go without Google services, including access to the Google Play store, which isn’t a particularly enticing prospect.

Still, it’s good to see that the foldable phone business is evolving, even if a lot of these devices aren’t going on sale in the United States. Someone has to keep Samsung on its toes while we patiently wait for the likes of the Google Pixel Fold, iPhone Flip and OnePlus V Fold.

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Any smartwatch that launched without the ability to swap your strap would be laughed out of existence. That’s how big a deal the idea of customizing and personalizing your wearable is. Meanwhile, Huawei has taken it a step further with the Huawei Watch GT Cyber — which is on show at MWC 2023.

The Huawei Watch GT Cyber takes a novel, but not wholly original, approach to personal customization. Not content with simply letting users swap their straps, it’s given them the opportunity to swap the case as well.

In other words, the watch’s moment (or watch face if you prefer), pops straight out of the case ready to be transferred into a brand new chassis. The Apple Watch 8, as advanced as it is, doesn't let you do this. Neither does the Apple Watch Ultra. 

It’s really easy to do as well, though you do need a little bit of force to push the watch out. Enough that I was a little worried about breaking it.

If that sounds familiar it might be because other devices have attempted this in the past. The Fitbit Blaze, from the pre-Google buyout days, immediately comes to mind. Of course, it wasn’t just about personal style, since the Blaze couldn’t be recharged until you popped out the face. 

Huawei’s watch doesn’t appear to have that same limitation. In fact, the idea here is that users are given the choice to change their style instantly. It's even possible to set the watch to change its watch face, depending on which case it’s in. Plus, like other Huawei smartwatches, you can scan your clothing and let the software generate a watch face that matches the day’s fashion.

Sadly, Huawei confirmed that there are only six case designs available — squashing our hopes to have a different one for every day of the week.

You could pop the Huawei Watch Cyber GT out and carry it around like a chain-less pocket watch if you so wished, but then you’d miss out all the usual smartwatch features you’d enjoy if you wore it on your wrist.

The Huawei Watch Cyber GT comes with all the same features and durability as other watches in the GT range. It’s water resistance is rated to 5 atmospheres; the watch moment itself comes in a stainless steel frame; and there’s both sleep and fitness tracking tech inside.

The obvious downside is that this is one chunky watch, even for someone with hands and wrists as large as mine. Thankfully not uncomfortably so, and it seems Huawei is aware of this. In fact, it seemed rather keen to emphasise the GT Cyber’s similarities to the G-Shock watches that were all the rage back in the ‘90s.

Here’s the downside: You probably won’t be able to buy one of these watches anytime soon. Currently the Huawei Watch GT Cyber is only available in select regions, including China, South East Asia and parts of Central and South America. The watch, a single case and two extra straps apparently costs ¥1,600 in China — which works out at roughly $230.

The fact there are no plans to bring the Huawei Watch Cyber GT to North America and Europe in the immediate future is a shame. But it’s an unfortunate fact of life when it comes to tech from big Chinese brands — Huawei in particular. Here’s hoping that the GT Cyber, or some future iteration, does eventually make it to the western market. 

Though maybe in a slightly reduced form factor. There’s a reason G-Shocks died out, and there’s only so much ironic nostalgia can do.

Smartwatches and true wireless earbuds are both popular in their own right, so why not combine them into one handy wearable? That appears to be Huawei’s thinking, as it showcased its quirky new smartwatch — the Huawei Watch Buds — in a teaser trailer on the Chinese social networking site Weibo.

At first glance a rather chunky smartwatch, the unique selling point appears to be a face that flips open to reveal a charging dock for two dinky earbuds. Pop them out, and you’ll instantly be able to listen to music — no need to worry about leaving home without headphones again.

While Huawei’s Weibo video is very much in the ‘teaser’ category, you can get a better look at how it’ll work courtesy of the hands-on video from QSQTechnology video embedded below. 

While there’s no pricing or release date, we know you won’t be able to buy it in America, thanks to the continued ban on Huawei products. But will the innovative design catch on as something that other smartwatch makers try to imitate? 

We wouldn’t count on it.

Convenience at what price?

The benefits are obvious. In theory, it’s a lot harder to leave home without any earphones, and you shouldn’t ever worry about misplacing your charger either. Just pop them inside the watch for 15 minutes and see them fill up. 

But I’m not totally convinced that the convenience justifies the clear drawbacks.

We’ve already noted that the watch looks chunky. That’s not surprising, given it has to fit not only the usual smartwatch innards, but also a pair of earbuds. But smartwatch manufacturers have been trying their hardest to make their wearables thinner without decimating battery life, and this seems to be a step backwards both in aesthetic and longevity terms.

With the added space used to hold earbuds rather than a larger battery, you won’t get any extra mAh capacity. Indeed, it might be worse, given said battery has to support both the watch itself and the charging of earbuds. Who knows what that will do for the smartwatch’s ability to last the day?

There’s also the question of sound quality. Obviously, we haven’t heard these earbuds, but they’re understandably small enough to fit inside a watch, which suggests that they may not offer a decent bass response, let alone features like active noise cancellation. Suffice it to say, I doubt they’ll be anywhere near good enough to feature on our list of the best wireless earbuds.

Huawei isn’t the first company to use other tech to house true wireless earbuds. Earlier this year, Nokia unveiled the 5710 XpressAudio — an inexpensive feature phone that houses a pair of wireless earphones inside its utilitarian frame. That’s probably a bit more practical, even if feature phones remain a tough sell in 2022.

The Huawei MateView GT marks the Chinese tech giant’s first foray into the gaming monitor space — and it’s a credible one. As you’d expect from a company that provides products and services as diverse as smartphones and tablets, PCs and routers, wearables and audio, 5G and enterprise networking, and oh so much more, it’s thrown everything it could into this smorgasbord of a project. So from its curved, ultrawide configuration to its 165 Hz refresh rate, from its claimed high level of color support to HDR10 potential, and from its above-average brightness to its integrated sound system, there’s a lot going on here to appeal to the Everygamer who wants a one-stop-shop display.

The flip side of this is that even if you like a lot of what it does, its shortage of aggressive aesthetics and flawless follow-through for everything it attempts may prevent it from being ideal for your gaming setup, even if it is one of the best gaming monitors for some shoppers. But if you need what it has — and if you’re somewhere where you’re able to get your hands on it — it’s worth a look.

Huawei MateView GT review: Pricing and availability

As of this writing, the MateView GT is not currently available for purchase everywhere — including the United States. Per our contact at Huawei, at this stage in the monitor’s global rollout, it is being sold in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. Exactly how much it costs depends on your location, but pricing is presently pegged at £499.99 in the U.K. and €549.99 in France. That would be in keeping with a $650–$700 price in terms of U.S. dollars. (We have no information about additional planned availability in North America or elsewhere.)

Huawei MateView GT review: Design

For a gaming monitor, the MateView GT is efficiently designed. The front of its screen, which measures about 14.3 by 31.4 inches, is lined with thin (less than one-eighth inch) bezels on the left, right, and top, and a thicker (just over one-half inch) one on the bottom, which is only adorned with the Huawei logo.

The rear of the monitor is even less flashy, with none of the intricately molded sci-fi patterns or throbbing LED slashes you see on something like the Gigabyte Aorus FI32U. 

There’s another, larger Huawei logo at the top, above the stand connector, a removable panel below for hiding the ports (one USB Type-C for connecting the power adapter and another supporting data, DisplayPort 1.4, and USB Power Delivery; two HDMI 2.0 ports; one full-size DisplayPort 1.4 connector; and a 3.5mm audio jack), a five-way joystick for navigating the on-screen display (OSD) on the screen’s bottom edge, and little else.

At least, that is, until you get down to the bottom of the stand and discover that what appears to be its foot is, in fact, an integrated soundbar. The tubelike unit measures just under 17.5 inches in length and about 1.8 inches in width, and it contains dual 5-watt speakers and sports a 7-inch RGB strip splashed down its center (about which more shortly). An integrated dual-microphone array, with built-in noise cancellation, on the top of the screen completes the picture of the MateView GT as fully equipped audio station.

As for the stand itself, like the screen, it’s a non-nonsense affair, all black metal and plastic, supporting the screen and housing the soundbar while imparting no wow of its own. And although it does let you move the monitor quite a ways up and down, and tilt it forward and back, you can neither swivel the monitor left or right (not helpful given how determinantal curved displays are to viewing angles to begin with) nor rotate it into portrait mode.

Huawei MateView GT review: Screen

The MateView GT’s screen measures 34 inches on the diagonal and boasts a native resolution of 3,440x1,440. This isn’t the narrowest or most ungainly we’ve seen—the Samsung Odyssey G9 and others of its 5,120x1,440 ilk take that prize—but it doesn’t sync up with other standard resolutions (it’s not double 1,920x1,080, for example, or double 2,560x1,440 like the Samsung), so you will have to really want the Ultra-Wide Quad HD (UWQHD) resolution for this to make sense for you. Its curvature of 1,500R, which means it would extend out to a circle 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in length, is beyond that of the 1,000R used by the Samsung to mimic the shape of the human eye and thus is slightly less realistically immersive.

The same, however, is not true of the monitor’s color performance, which impresses in every picture mode. On its default settings (P3 mode), it registered a 0.32 Delta-E (the value representing how accurately the monitor displays colors compared with the source, with lower numbers being better), covered 135.2% of the sRGB color gamut, and covered an even more eye-popping 95.8% of the wider DCI-P3 color gamut. (All these measurements were taken using a calibrated Klein K10-A colorimeter and DisplayCal calibration software.) These numbers were occasionally bettered by other modes (Scenery had the best Delta-E, at 0.22, and FPS mode covered the most of both gamuts, with results of 139.1% for sRGB and 98.6% for DCI-P3), but were, with one exception, consistent throughout.

That exception was the MOBA mode, which shuts off various colors to reduce eye strain during intense, professionally oriented gaming sessions for players of, say, Dota 2 and League of Legends. Not only was the color gamut coverage particularly awful in this mode — 28.3% of sRGB and 20% of DCI-P3, and no, those are not typos — but the picture also looked bad. (Black-and-white monitors have not been a serious thing for decades, and I don’t feel any pressing need for a resurgence.) Huawei is hardly alone in having a mode that does this, but know that it’s useless under nearly every imaginable situation. (See the next section for more.)

The MateView GT can get attractively bright in SDR mode. Using our K10-A with Klein’s own ChromaSurf software, we noted that its maximum brightness hovers around 350 nits in every mode (with the brightest being Scenery, at 359 nits). In HDR mode, it increases a touch to just over 400 nits, which is okay but not scintillating for a monitor in this class.

Our other top picks for ultrawide monitors, the 38-inch LG 38GL950G and the Samsung Odyssey G9, are roughly on par with the MateView GT in terms of sRGB color gamut coverage; the LG does a bit more (148.9%) and the Samsung a bit less (113.7%), though the Huawei beats the Samsung as far as DCI-P3 (with the G9 maxing out around 80.6%). Both those monitors do get brighter, though: The LG averages 544 nits of peak brightness and the Samsung 400 in SDR mode, with the latter getting up to 1,000 nits with HDR content (or 561 nits full screen).

These monitors are larger and pricier than the Huawei, granted, but another, less expensive favorite, the 2,560x1,440 Razer Raptor 27, covers 162% of the sRGB gamut, and the 32-inch Corsair Xeneon 32QHD165 does even more (194%), though neither monitor gets as bright as the others.

Huawei MateView GT review: Performance

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: How well does that bonkers MOBA mode work in practice? Danged if I know. Look, I’m not an eSports athlete (or, er, any other kind of athlete), so take the following with a mine of salt. But I found that the drained-out, unrealistic, and anti-artistic colors of Dota 2 pulled me out of that game rather than drawing me in, and the less said the better about how they looked in other Windows applications. If you want to minimize distractions so much that you’re willing to sacrifice picture quality, maybe it’s worth experimenting with, but for anyone other than the most elite of elite gamers, it’s a gimmick at best.

The good news is that the monitor was substantially better in every other mode, in every other type of game we tested. That high brightness is appealing, and the colors always looked good. The default settings for each mode matched the needs of the content well in every genre, and thanks to that high refresh rate and support for AMD FreeSync Premium, action was smooth and ghost-free in a diverse lineup of games ranging from simulation (Microsoft Flight Simulator), strategy (Sid Meier’s Civilization VI), and racing (DiRT 5) to shooters of both the third- and first-person variety (Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Far Cry 6, respectively). 

YouTube videos and movies played via streaming services were similarly fine, but remember that the wide, 21:9 aspect ratio means they will rarely (if ever) fill the MateView GT’s screen.

The effect of the aspect ratio will be determined a lot by what you’re playing. If you’re running an FPS where all the action and interface elements (if any) are in the center of the screen, you’ll be fine. But longer monitors tend to be detrimental to the gaming experience if you frequently need to scan the extreme sides or corners; it’s not a problem on a traditional 16:9 display, of course, but when stretched out, those things will never be in your field of view. If it was hardly a challenge to the same degree as on the even wider Samsung Odyssey G9, it still came up on the MateView GT. It was most obvious with Civilization VI (where content on the sides is essential to gameplay) and was a lesser but still notable problem with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. 

On the other hand, DiRT 5 and Flight Simulator played superbly and at a higher level of immersion than 16:9 can offer. In other words, let your gaming preference guide you.

The soundbar is, unsurprisingly, a huge step up from typical integrated monitor speakers, offering a lot more volume and vibrant presence that can, if not bust the walls of a standard-size room, at least meet them head-on. That said, it’s not stunning sound. There’s not a great deal of bass — it was detectable in only the flattest of ways listening to The Knife’s “Silent Shout” — and some distortion crept into recordings of soprano vocals when the volume was maxed out. You’re still best served by connecting a dedicated pair of good speakers to your PC or hooking the computer up to your living room’s sound system, but this is a perfectly serviceable solution for gamers who don’t fancy themselves off-hour audiophiles.

There’s one off aspect of the soundbar’s design worth mentioning. By running your hand over the RGB strip, you can raise or lower the monitor’s volume without having to go into the OSD (and the light will change to reflect the new level). This is a clever idea, but it’s not much more convenient than doing it in Windows or having a hardware switch, due to the positioning of the strip on the soundbar’s front curve. And if you have the monitor at or near its lowest up-down position, you’ll have to brush the strip while operating the joystick, which sends the volume jumping all over the range.

Huawei MateView GT review: Interface

With a blue background, bold white lettering, and a satisfyingly low amount of default transparency, the MateView GT’s OSD is easy to look at; the joystick also makes it easy to navigate. There are five top-level menus, each of which offers a number of suboptions to choose from in customizing the monitor to your liking. In most cases, just selecting the menu will display the choices within it, which greatly simplifies the process of finding the setting you’re looking for. The GamingVision menu is where you adjust the picture mode (which may not be that intuitive), customize the lighting effects of the soundbar (including changing its color and flashing pattern), and tweak other game-centric features such as the contrast-boosting Dark Field Control or a crosshairs overlay; Color is where you adjust the brightness, contrast, color temperature, and Low Blue Light function; in Picture, you can set overdrive to any of five levels or change the scaling; and Input Source and System Settings do exactly what you’d expect from their names.

One unique setting allows you to specify the “shortcut” for the joystick, or what happens when you push it in any direction without clicking it first — a thoughtful addition I’ve never seen before. It’s lacking some of the inventive settings we’ve seen on other monitors, such as the ability to save display or technical settings in customizable profiles you can pull up anytime you want (the Aorus FI32U and the Gigabyte M32U both have these), and those would be nice additions. But overall, it’s a fine interface that does most everything you’ll need it to do.

Huawei MateView GT review: Verdict

Given all it offers, the Huawei MateView GT is a compelling creation from one of the world’s leading manufacturers (if not one that always gets a lot of play or respect in the West), and aims to please everyone on one level or another. It comes close to succeeding, with good performance in critical areas, and a lot of the kinds of bells and whistles gamers will appreciate.

It’s the lack of fit and finish, though, that prevents the MateView GT from being a slam dunk — things like the sound bar operation, the drab design, and the limited adjustment options. Plus, you have to specifically want an ultrawide without wanting to go as far as the more powerful (and more expensive) Samsung Odyssey G9 or as splashy as the LG 38GL950G, and in either case that means foregoing 4K. Because 4K monitors like the Gigabyte Aorus FI32U or the Gigabyte M32U are more widely available for comparable prices and have as many or more features, and slightly lower-resolution 16:9 monitors can cost hundreds less, you have to really want what Huawei is selling.

If you do, if you live somewhere you can buy it, and especially if you don’t have a sound setup worth talking about, the MateView GT is a good way to tick most of the key boxes for less money than you may expect. But it may be more notable still as a sign of things to come. If this is Huawei’s opening salvo in the monitor wars, we’re interested to see what the company comes up with next.

Security researchers have found that over half a million Huawei smartphones have been infected with the Joker malware. 

The Joker malware has been doing the rounds on Google Play for a while, and signs up the infected phone to premium mobile subscriptions. But this is the first time it’s been spotted on Huawei devices (via BleepingComputer).

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The malware was discovered by researchers from Russian antivirus firm Doctor Web, hidden inside 10 harmless-looking apps within Huawei’s AppGallery. 

Normally, Joker malware spreads through Google Play, but researchers have now realized the people behind it appear to have expanded their efforts to alternate Android app stores.

The apps themselves function as promised, but also do a bunch of nefarious stuff in the background. In the past, Joker-infected apps have been found to subscribe users to premium SMS services, in part by intercepting and responding to SMS confirmation codes. That means users would find themselves with a hefty bill at the end of the month.

What’s more, Joker could also steal contact lists and text messages, in order to help itself spread amongst your friends.

The malware was first disclosed after it made its way to Google Play back in 2019. Google has booted a couple dozen apps from Google Play in the time since, but the people behind these scam apps now appear to be taking it further afield.

Doctor Web researchers noted that in this instance, the maximum number of services Joker will subscribe a user to is five. That's a lot, and it was noted that the crooks behind the scenes could increase that number whenever they liked. 

The apps in question include a virtual keyboard, messaging apps, sticker collections, a game, and more. Many of the offending apps came from the same developer, and fortunately Huawei has removed them all from AppGallery now — though not before they were downloaded over half a million times.

Unfortunately, not having a Huawei phone doesn’t mean you’re safe. Researchers noted that the same modules downloaded by infected apps in AppGallery were also present in apps on Google Play. A full list of indicators of compromise is available here, if you want to check for yourself.

So sticking to Google’s own app store doesn’t guarantee safety; be careful what you download, folks, no matter where you get those apps from.

• More: Huawei Mate X2: Release date, specs, price, and more

Huawei doesn't have the best reputation in the US, but internationally, it was once a major smartphone player. Despite US sanctions, it's still kicking and putting out beautiful, powerful phones. We expect its next device to be the P50 Pro, and now there are some new concept renders courtesy of Concept Creator and LetsGoDigital.

Right off the bat, you can see a distinctive Leica camera module and the curved display. It's a beautiful phone from any angle and we hope the final design matches what we see here. 

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Rumors peg the P50 Pro to feature the world's first one-inch camera sensor on a smartphone, the Sony IMX800.  This would allow the main camera to bring in more light, making for brighter photos and better low-light shots without having to fiddle as much with settings like ISO. Rumors also suggest that the phone will have a triple lens setup: wide, ultrawide and telephoto.

We've heard that Huawei will announce the new P-series in April, which lines up with other hints and suggestions. However, Huawei might delay the phone due to supply chain issues from both the pandemic and US trade sanctions. 

While the P50 name isn't confirmed, it follows suit from Huawei's previous P devices. There might be two models, a Pro and a regular, with the latter taking the place of the Lite variants of old. The P50 Pro is slated to have Huawei's homegrown Kirin 9000 processor, while the regular P50 might get the lower-tier Kirin 9000E.

LetsGoDigital postulates that the P50 Pro will have a curved 6.6-inch QHD+ OLED display and a 120 Hz refresh rate. It might also have an in-display fingerprint sensor. Based on the renders, the selfie cam will be a single sensor with a centered hole punch cutout. 

All told, the Huawei P50 Pro could be one hell of a phone. Of course, we can't forget about the biggest caveat with any Huawei phone these days. Due to US trade sanctions, the Chinese company cannot access Google Apps, including the Play Store. App installs are handled through Huawei's own app store, but it's nonetheless is strange experience if you're used to all that the Play Store offers.

We don't have any clue when Huawei will announce the new P-series. It could be as soon as this month, but it could also be pushed back into June due to supply issues. Only Huawei knows, so we'll just have to wait.

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Now that the Apple HomePod is discontinued, there’s plenty of room for new products aiming to join the best Bluetooth speakers. As if on cue, Huawei just unveiled the Huawei Sound: a more compact, and affordable, version of last year’s Sound X speaker.

Available now in the U.K., the £199 Huawei Sound lops a third off the original Sound X’s £299 price. But it still comes certified for Hi-Res Audio, along with a handy NFC tag for pairing Android phones at a touch.

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For the sound, Huawei once again collaborated with audio specialist Devialet. This new speaker, therefore, features a 4-inch 40W woofer and three 5W drivers, all designed by the French company, along with two passive radiators in a push-push configuration to cancel out unwanted chassis vibrations. The Sound may be smaller than the Sound X, but a single-driver, Amazon Echo Dot-style smart speaker this is not.

At 7.4 inches tall and 5.8 inches wide, the Huawei Sound is actually a teeny bit bigger than the HomePod, but it shaves both height and width off the Sound X. The drawback is it only having half the woofer and speaker count of the Sound X, though the cheaper speaker still promises 360-degree audio playback.

A more notable omission is the lack of a voice assistant — despite similar styling to the HomePod and certain Amazon Echo devices, this is not a smart speaker in the usual sense. You can't control playback with your voice and you certainly can’t use the Huawei Sound to control any smart home devices you might own.

Still, it does have some neat tricks, like NFC pairing and universal plug 'n' play (UPnP) support. The latter lets you transfer Hi-Res music from your preferred UPnP streaming apps to the Sound’s 8GB of onboard storage. Bluetooth is the primary means of connection, though you can use the 3.5mm aux input as well.

As Huawei is effectively banned from doing business in the U.S. it seems unlikely that the Sound will ever make its way stateside, though interested U.K. parties can order it direct from Huawei. It's also available in Australia, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Spain and Turkey.

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We could soon see a new addition to the ranks of the best cheap noise-cancelling headphones, as Huawei announced its FreeBuds 4i true wireless earbuds are coming to the West — and it will only cost £80 in the U.K., roughly the equivalent of $110.

That represents a huge saving on the $249 AirPods Pro, which the FreeBuds 4i has clearly tapped for design inspiration. It’s even cheaper than the standard Apple AirPods, which doesn’t have active noise cancellation (ANC) at all, and will likely undercut the oft-leaked AirPods 3 as well. However, with Huawei’s ongoing ban in the U.S., it’s unclear if the FreeBuds 4i will ever make it stateside.

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Coming in white, black and red colorways, the Huawei FreeBuds 4i could easily pass for the AirPods Pro from a distance: it has a similar stem design as well as replaceable silicone tips. 

But battery life could be even better than Apple’s effort, as Huawei promises up to 7.5 hours of ANC playback per charge. That apparently reaches up to 22 hours with repeated use of the charging case, which is also quoted to provide the buds with four hours of playback time from a 10-minute charge.

10mm dynamic drivers deliver the sound, which apparently includes “powerful bass performance.” Huawei has produced some fine-sounding wireless earbuds in the past, like the Huawei FreeBuds 3, so hopefully the FreeBuds 4i can sound pump out even better audio.

The FreeBuds 4i also supports fast pairing with Huawei smartphones running EMUI 10.0 or later, similarly to how the AirPods range can quickly pair with iOS devices.

Still, the biggest draw here is surely the price. True wireless ANC buds are extremely hard to find for such little cash; it’s a stark contrast to another recent Huawei release, the $3,000-ish Huawei Mate X2 foldable smartphone.

Speaking of phones, though, Huawei will find fewer takers for the EMUI fast pairing than it has in China. Huawei devices aren’t banned in the U.K. like they are in the U.S., but they’re still sold without Google apps, which doesn’t help their appeal. Perhaps the FreeBuds 4i, which doesn’t seem to lose any features as a result of these legal issues, will have better luck.

The set of ANC buds is set for its U.K. release on March 26. You can pre-order it now from Huawei, an offer which also includes a £5 discount and a free Huawei Band 4 fitness tracker worth £40.

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Smart glasses still don't feel like a must-have piece of tech yet, but the Huawei Eyewear II are a strong attempt at proving that they are.

With the benefit of Huawei's excellent engineering and penchant for close integration between its products, the Eyewear offer a unique alternative to a pair of wireless earbuds, offering several identical features plus a few special abilities of its own thanks to a well fleshed-out companion app.

The Eyewear also gets the benefit of being a well-put-together product in a space with few competitors at the moment. Aside from the Amazon Echo Frames or the Bose Frames, other smart glasses are looking to provide a more feature-rich experience, whereas Huawei's glasses do fewer things, but perform them all to a passing grade or better.

However if you're weighing up buying a pair of these or some top-tier wireless earbuds, you're likely to still be better off plumping for the AirPods Pro or Galaxy Buds Pro. Even if you're a Huawei acolyte, you'd likely be better served by the FreeBuds 3. As this Eyewear II review will explain, you need to be a very specific kind of user, or in love with the idea of smart glasses generally, if you want to buy these expensive spectacles.

Huawei X Gentle Monster Eyewear II: Price and availability

The Eyewear II are easy to pick up the U.K. You can find them at the Huawei Store or on Amazon, Very or Currys. However with Huawei not welcome in the U.S., you'll need to go on a hunt through auction sites to see if there are pairs available to import.

Both designs of the Eyewear II cost £310, although buying them through Huawei lets you access special discounts for other accessories, plus a free basic smartwatch too.

Huawei X Gentle Monster Eyewear II: Design

Huawei once again teamed up with South Korean glasses maker Gentle Monster to design the second generation of its smart glasses, and you can't deny they look good.

There are two versions of the Eyewear II available: The rounder Myma or the narrower Lang (pictured). You can get either with polarized lenses, but there's also the option of prescription lenses in certain markets.

Whichever option you pick, they don't draw too much attention to themselves. The all-glass front of the Lang specs certainly looks unique, but not so much that they scream "smart glasses" at passers-by. There are no buttons on the sides, and the speaker grilles are hidden on the bottom edge, so it's only the thickness of the arms that give away that something's up.

The arms are fairly chonky compared to normal glasses, but that's because you'll find all the clever stuff within. Towards the lens on either side are touch sensors, which let you control things with taps, swipes and pinches. Behind them, sitting just over your ear, are the speakers. 

Despite their size, the Eyewear are still comfortable to wear thanks to the contact points on your nose and ears being kept close to the proportions of a normal pair of glasses. They're light too, with the heavier Myma version weighing just 1.69 ounces (47.9 grams), which is a touch lighter than the equivalent Bose Frames' 1.76 ounces (49.89 grams) but only just.

The glasses live inside a black cuboid case, which with its pleasant-feeling leather and two shiny zippers looks suitably fancy. It's not the most convenient shape to carry around though as a result

Charging is nice and simple since the case is also its wireless charger. The case doesn't contain a battery however, so you'll need to have the case plugged in for it to power up the glasses. If, like me, you're used to the cases for your earbuds also acting as a mobile charging station, this is unintuitive, and caught me out a few times, leaving me with a pair of unresponsive glasses. But it does mean that despite the case's size, it remains light.

Huawei X Gentle Monster Eyewear II: Audio

I didn't expect the Eyewear to be bad, but nor did I expect them to be quite as enjoyable as they are either. Everything comes out of the dual speakers with a bright clear sound, although there isn't a huge amount of bass.

Comparing the quality of Pharoah Sanders' "You've Got to Have Freedom" on the Eyewear and the AirPods Pro, the overblown saxophone, elaborate piano and double bass sound richer on the earbuds. However the Eyewear offers one advantage in that its open design means you get a surprisingly effective soundstage effect. Sure you can get stereo on any half-decent pair of 'buds, but you don't get the opportunity to hear exactly where in the room all the musicians were standing on many of them.

Watching an episode of Schitt's Creek proved less enjoyable. With only dialog playing, the limited effective range of the speakers becomes quite obvious. It feels like you're listening to the Rose family deal with the town's peculiar goings-on from down the phone instead of right in the scene with them.

You won't want to use the Eyewear for in-depth listening; the kind of time you put on your favorite album, sit down in your comfiest chair and revel in all the details. You lose too much detail compared to normal headphones. Instead, the Eyewear make for an excellent casual listening tool, when you're trying to do something else but want something in the background. This would be better from my perspective if they had prescription lenses in, since having the world look darker and out of focus isn't helpful for my productivity. All the same, I enjoyed being able to listen to a YouTube video while still being able to speak to my housemates as they passed through the kitchen, and no doubt users with better eyesight would like it even more.

However, you won't want to listen to tracks in a particularly noisy environment. Not only is there no form of noise-canceling, but there's also nothing blocking your ears like there is with normal headphones, so you're going to be hearing the world as much as your music. Even opening the windows of my bedroom/office to let in the sounds of nearby traffic was enough to almost totally drown out the glasses playing a podcast at a reasonable volume.

That's good in some cases, say if you're walking to work and want to keep an ear out for traffic. This won't be good if you're trying to concentrate when you get there.

The microphones are weaker. I recorded a few voice notes with the Eyewear and my voice always sounded distant and a little crackly. That was using the so-called HD recording mode of the glasses, a feature locked to Huawei phones, so I dread to think what the normal quality mode sounds like. Huawei mentions in its marketing material that the Eyewear is an excellent tool for hands-free vlogging, but if I clicked on a YouTube video that sounded like that, I'd be clicking off again very quickly.

Huawei X Gentle Monster Eyewear II: Comfort and controls

The Eyewear are wonderfully unobtrusive to wear. Perhaps it's because I wear glasses anyway, but I did forget I was wearing them for long period of time until I moved from my desk and noticed that the sound came with me. That's not even praise I'd give to the AirPods Pro, which while comfy and well fitted, don't disappear from memory like the Eyewear do.

Using the tap controls are nice and easy as well. Unlike other audio products where you have to learn where the sweet spot for making the touch controls work is, you can basically tap or swipe anywhere on the glasses' arms and get the result you want.

You turn on the Eyewear simply by placing it on your face. It's a bit slow to boot up, taking anywhere between two to five seconds, but soon enough the glasses politely introduce themselves with a "good afternoon" or similar timely greeting.

With the glasses on, you have a surprising number of control methods. You can tap the glasses, swipe along them or pinch and hold them. 

Play/pause, skip tracks, alter volume or summon your phone's digital assistant. You can also enable a four-finger pinch gesture that lets you perform a voice translation or voice note.

When you're finished with the glasses, just take them off to let them shut down. However they don't actually turn off immediately, since you can put the glasses back on again and continue listening to music straight away if you change your mind within the three-minute window before the Eyewear turns off fully. The glasses know they're not on your face though, so your phone will either pause whatever you're playing or reroute the sound through another device when they're removed, unless you change that option in the settings.

It's a little slow to react though, at least when I tested them with a Mate 30 Pro. No phone's capable of a perfectly smooth hand-off between an audio device and its own speakers, but the couple of seconds' delay is more sluggish than the comparable experience with an iPhone and a pair of AirPods.

Huawei X Gentle Monster Eyewear II: Privacy

Although you can hear basically everything going on outside the Eyewear, your own sounds are kept secret. I asked my flatmates to tell me how much they could hear of a podcast and with the volume at my normal level, apparently they couldn't hear a thing. I had to max out the volume before they could tell the glasses were actually playing music, but that was far too loud for me to comfortably use.

Huawei X Gentle Monster Eyewear II: Companion apps

You can use the Eyewear via a phone's Bluetooth menu as an ordinary audio device, but the only way to get full functionality is to download Huawei's AI Life app, available on the Google Play Store or Huawei's App Gallery. You won't find this on the iOS App Store, so Huawei offers instead a specific Eyewear app for you to manage the glasses through, although it offers fewer features.

Whichever app you're using, it's through this that you can alter various options and send firmware updates to the Eyewear. The big-ticket features enabled by the app are control rebinding and the "Find my glasses" mode on AI Life. 

You have a little freedom in customizing what the controls do. Each command out of double tap, swipe and pinch on either the left or right arm has the choice of two commands or to do nothing. You can also disable wear detection if you find that awkward to use.

Find my glasses, unsurprisingly, helps you to track down your lost pair of Eyewear. You need to log in with your Huawei ID, but once you've done this, the app shows you a map with the glasses' location, and the glasses themselves produce a beeping sound when you get close to help you locate it in a small area.

Huawei X Gentle Monster Eyewear II: Battery

A full charge of the Eyewear will give you 5 hours of playback according to the official figures. I however was able to listen to almost 7 hours of YouTube videos before the glasses keeled over, so clearly it's possible to squeeze more use out of a single charge depending on your usage.

That longevity is on par with the average pair of true wireless earbuds. Except without the benefit of a charging case, it's a little trickier to fill them up if you're on the move.

Filling them up from empty to 100% charged takes about an hour and a half. That's perhaps slower than would be ideal, but it means you can easily get a day's use from the glasses with a short charging break. 

Since it uses USB-C to charge, you should easily find a cable to use if you don't happen to have one on you, plus your glasses sit safely in the case while it does. That's unlike the Bose Frames, which use a proprietary connector that attaches directly to the glasses themselves, which is far less convenient and increases the risk of accidental damage to the glasses.

The overall experience of keeping the Eyewear topped up isn't ideal. But it's a lot better than what other comparable products are using.

Huawei X Gentle Monster Eyewear II: Bottom Line

The Huawei Eyewear II are well designed both in terms of hardware and software, just as you'd expect from the company. However as clever as these are, they can't do a huge amount more than a nice set of wireless earbuds, and several things they do worse than a pair of 'buds half the price or less. Even though these seem better than the Bose Frames, the increased price doesn't seem quite worth it.

These aren't an essential gadget, more an expensive hi-tech novelty; impressive rather than practical. However I have to tip my hat to Huawei for adding in a number of refinements that I can foresee becoming the standard for smart glasses in future. It's hard to recommend them though, to even people keen on the idea of smart glasses, because of the eye-watering price tag and the difficulty of finding them in the U.S.

Black Friday’s a brilliant time to buy new technology, and there’s never been a better time to invest in Huawei thanks to its superb Black Friday deals. 

When you buy Huawei hardware you’re not just getting cutting-edge technology and great design. You’re joining a family of devices designed to work and play together.

Stellar smartphones with cutting-edge cameras

Huawei is probably best known for its stellar smartphones such as the P30 Pro, P30 Lite and P40 Pro. They’re sleek, they’re stylish and they’re absolutely packed with the latest tech. 

Take the P40 Pro, for example. Its four-camera system includes 50MP and 40MP sensors, optical image stabilisation, 5x optical zoom and a mighty 50x digital zoom, and every photo you take benefits from Huawei’s artificial intelligence to deliver truly stunning shots day or night. 

Powered by a speedy Kirin 990 5G SOC and with a beautiful 6.58-inch OLED display, it’s an extraordinary device.

Everything’s connected with Huawei Share

One of Huawei’s smartest technologies isn’t in just one device. It’s in Huawei’s smartphones, tablets and laptops too, and it’s called Huawei Share. It makes it easy to share photos, videos and other files between different Huawei devices, and with certain MateBook laptops and smartphones you can even control your phone from your PC.

And these are no ordinary PCs. 

Incredible laptops. Amazing displays

There are great Black Friday deals on Huawei’s MateBook 13, MateBook 14 MateBook X Pro and MateBook D15, all of which come with gorgeous displays, fast processors and truly innovative design.

Take the MateBook 14: the first thing you’ll notice about isn’t its speedy storage or its powerful processor. It’s the stunning 2K FullView display, which delivers an incredibly broad, clean and intense visual experience. 

Its 3:2 aspect ratio gives you much more vertical space than other laptops, making it ideal for designing masterpieces or using multiple apps simultaneously, and it’s been certified by TÜV Rheinland3 for reducing harmful blue light to help your eyes feel fresh for longer.

Wearables you’ll want to show off

 In addition to its stunning smartphones and powerful PCs, the Huawei family also includes some superb wearables. Wearables such as the Watch GT Noir, Watch Fit and Watch GT2 Pro, which combine stylish design with cutting-edge tech and long battery life: the Watch GT series can run for 2 weeks between charges.

We particularly like Huawei’s Freebuds Pro. These award-winning earbuds deliver exceptional noise cancellation with a unique Voice Mode as well as Awareness Mode for when you need to hear some of the ambient sound. They’re great for recording, and of course they sound fantastic. Best of all, they last for ages: up to 36 hours of cable-free listening when you use their charging case.

Whether you’re looking for a powerful laptop with a 2K FullView display, a state-of-the-art smartphone with a cutting-edge camera or one of Huawei’s superb smartwatches, these Black Friday deals are a great way to join the Huawei family.

A whole world of Huawei Black Friday deals

Huawei isn’t just offering great Black Friday deals in the UK. It’s offering them all over the world.

Huawei Black Friday deals in France 

 Save €300 on the P30 Pro New Edition

Save €250 on the HUAWEI MateBook 13 2020 AMD 8Go and 256Go 

Save €100 on the HUAWEI WATCH GT 

€50 off the MediaPad T5 Wifi 2Go+16Go.

Huawei Black Friday deals in Germany 

Get big savings on the HUAWEI P30 Lite Ne, WATCH GT2 and MediaPad M5 Lite 

Huawei Black Friday deals in Italy 

 Big Black Friday savings on the HUAWEI Watch Fit, MatePad Pro and P30 Pro

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Get big discounts on the MateBook 13 R5, HUAWEI WATCH FIT and HUAWEI Nova 5T 

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Huawei Black Friday deals in the UAE 

Great Black Friday deals on the Huawei GT 2 Pro, Mate 40 Pro and P40 Pro 

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Big savings on the HUAWEI MateBook D 15, HUAWEI WATCH FIT and Freebuds Pro 

The Huawei Mate 40 Pro arrives a little more than a year after the Chinese telecoms giant was rudely booted out of the U.S. Government's good graces, and had to rebuild its software ecosystem back up from ground level with the benefit of Android. The Mate 40 Pro is Huawei’s best attempt at a Google-less smartphone so far, but is it enough to genuinely tempt users away from Samsung, OnePlus, or even Apple?

If you're obsessed with having the best hardware in your handset, possibly. Huawei's delivered another polished experience with its most powerful silicon and most competitive cameras yet. However like the P40 Pro before it, having to accept this phone’s software limitations is a pain.

• The best phones you can buy today
• See how the Mate 40 measures up against the best Android phones

Things aren’t as bad as they used to be thanks to some alternatives and workarounds Huawei now has in place, plus the benefits of Multi-screen collaboration with other Huawei devices might tempt productivity-hungry users. For the average user though, our Huawei Mate 40 Pro review finds that this isn't an automatic choice for your next phone.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review: Price and release date

Once again, U.S. users won't find the Mate 40 Pro at their local phone store, with the only option being online retailers who import devices from overseas. Be aware though that this can cost a lot more than you might expect, and you'll be wise to check which 4G and 5G bands the specific model supports to see whether the phone works with your chosen carrier.

In the U.K., the Mate 40 Pro's a lot easier to find. It's available in a single 8GB RAM/256GB storage spec in a choice of Black or Mystic Silver for £1099.99 — the same as you'll pay for an iPhone 12 Pro Max with 128GB storage. It’s also in the same ballpark as the £949 Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and the £1,179 Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review: Design

From the front, the Huawei Mate 40 Pro better resembles its smaller P40 Pro sibling than its Mate 30 Pro predecessor, because of its pill-shaped front camera cutout in the top left corner.

That approach is much more attractive than the Mate 30's central notch, but it still takes up a lot more room than the common single punch-hole camera you find on most Android phones.

Around the sides, you'll see Huawei has kept the dramatic 88-degree curves on the display, which meet neatly with the more subtle rear curvature to make a phone that's very comfortable to hold in your palm. However the phone seems noticeably thicker than many others I've tried this year; the 7.5-ounce weight adds to that bigger feel, too.

Turning the phone over reveals Huawei’s new "Space Ring" camera array, with the four sensors arranged in the corners of an imagined square within the circular donut. It's a neat homage to the circle of cameras on the Mate 30, but I think I prefer the older style that doesn't leave a random gap in the middle. That said, Huawei has put the hole in the donut to good use by placing the Leica branding there, reminding us all of the partnership between Huawei and the German camera and lens maker.

With the Mate 40 Pro, Huawei has once again produced a trademark uncomplicated design, which looks particularly classy in this black color option. The Mystic Silver with its pearlescent quality would make for a more eye-catching color if you'd prefer. Both colors feature a small splash of red on the power button, another Mate series trademark. Next to it you'll see that there's a volume rocker, which is interesting since Huawei got rid of that feature on the Mate 30 last year, replacing it with on-screen volume control gestures. Those return, accessed by double tapping either edge, but you can also control it like a normal phone if that's your preference.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review: Display and audio

At 6.76 inches, the Mate 40 Pro has a display that’s on the larger side, though it’s still smaller than  the 6.78-inch OnePlus 8 Pro, or the 6.9-inch Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

Those three phones also beat the Mate 40 in terms of resolution and refresh rate. Huawei’s phone offers an FHD panel with a maximum refresh rate of 90Hz. All the rest offer QHD and 120Hz but pay for it in shorter battery life, something Huawei claims it has no problem with.

As a test, I watched the trailer for the second season of gritty anthropomorphic animal anime Beastars. The FHD resolution didn't affect my enjoyment of the plot teasers, displaying the textures of the different characters' fur and the strong flat colors the show uses to reference its manga origins vividly.

During my time using the phone for various everyday tasks, I didn't mind the slightly lower refresh rate, instead appreciating the size and brightness of the display. Provided you have a pocket or bag big enough, you'll enjoy taking in web pages, social media feeds or streaming content on this screen, which even outdoors in bright sunlight won't let you down.

Swapping to some music, I tried listening to bluegrass classic "If it Hadn't Been For Love" by The Steeldrivers, and was really pleased with Huawei's decision to ditch the anaemic sub-display speaker found on earlier phones. Now a standard speaker fires out of the phone's top edge, leaving the display unblemished and providing a well balanced sound. The speaker skews heavily toward vocals and treble, though, which is why I still prefer the more all-round sound of the iPhone 12 Pro.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review: Cameras

Here's where we get to see exactly what the Leica-tuned cameras on the Huawei Mate 40 Pro are capable of. The rear cameras feature a 50MP main camera using Huawei's unique RYYB sensor for increased light sensitivity, a 20MP ultrawide camera that doubles as the phone's main video camera, and a 12MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom and a maximum of 50x digital zoom. There's also a laser depth sensor to help with special effects and AR apps when needed. 

Grabbing an iPhone 12 Pro as a comparison, I took the Mate 40 Pro for a tour of Paddington's canals. Our first shot, overlooking Rembrandt Gardens, shows a typical Huawei trait — cooler color temperatures. The autumn leaves and lawns of this small public park look more attractive from the iPhone's perspective, but it left the open sky areas overexposed. The Mate 40 managed to excellently show off the late afternoon sky.

An ultrawide shot of the canal is a little tricky to compare since the Huawei and iPhone have different fields of view for their lenses. You can fit much more into a shot with the 0.5x iPhone camera, but the Mate 40 Pro's 0.6x camera captures the colors in a much more interesting way.

I did two telephoto camera comparisons of this statue, since the Huawei has a 5x optical zoom, while the iPhone’s optical zoom tops out at 2x optical. At 5x, the Huawei is superior as you'd expect. Its image is at an ideal level of saturation, while the iPhone's image is duller, and also has significant noise in the back of the shot.

But 2x, the competition is much closer than I predicted. The unpleasant fuzziness from the iPhone's image has gone, but the Mate 40 retains its more attractive coloring. I was expecting this two-part round to be a draw, each side winning when using only optical zoom. But I feel like due to its versatility, this round belongs to the Huawei.

My final test with the two phones' rear cameras was this nighttime shot of a pub. The iPhone's shot has warmer colors, but the Huawei was better able to keep the flares of light small, which leads to a more accurate representation of the scene's colors as I saw them.

Finally, I tried out the portrait selfie mode, another category I'd expect the Mate 40 Pro to do well in thanks to its combination of a 13MP camera and a 3D depth sensor, similar to the iPhone 12 Pro's TrueDepth 12MP front camera.

These two images could both easily be my preference depending on the day or which way the wind was blowing. The iPhone's shot looks more artistic with a better blur effect and a more flattering coloring for my hair, skin and jacket. On the other hand, the Mate 40s more honest representation of me and my surroundings has its own appeal. Both phones did a great job at cutting me out from the background though, so I have no complaints from a technical standpoint.

It's taken Huawei a few attempts, but whatever software tweaks it's figured out over the past few months have really helped it take better shots under normal lighting conditions, as well as the bright and dark settings where its phones have traditionally done well. The Mate 40 Pro’s impressive hardware can go blow-for-blow with Apple's latest iPhone without a problem, and I find it difficult to pick between the two phones' photos most of the time. I am keen to try the Mate 40 Pro against some other strong photography phones like the Pixel 5 or the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, and see if it truly has what it takes to be one of the best camera phones around.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review: Performance

The Mate 40 takes a different approach to its internal components than the majority of its Android rivals. Instead of going for the standard duo of a Snapdragon 865 and either 8GB or 12GB RAM, Huawei has used its own Kirin 9000 chipset; and you’ll find only 8GB of memory.

Fortunately, through Huawei's Phone Clone, AppGallery and Petal Search apps, you're able to get the apps you want from copying them from your old phone, downloading APK files from trusted sources or by using an alternative app store. It's not quite as straightforward as just searching on the Play Store and hitting download, but if you're comfortable living without the Google app ecosystem, you can basically get any Android app you like on the Mate 40 with a bit more effort.

You've also got the option to open and use up to three apps at once with the Multi-Window feature, and an "Eyes-On Display" that reduces notification volume and keeps the device awake when the phone detects you're looking at it. Plus there's a bunch of visual upgrades that make menus smarter and transitions between them smoother. You’ll also find upgrades to Huawei's Celia digital assistant, and the return of Private View, which makes sure your notifications stay hidden if someone who isn't you picks up the phone.

Currently, we are unable to get Geekbench 5, which measures overall performance, working on the Mate 40 Pro. However, we were able to run GFX Bench's Wild Life graphics benchmark, to give us an idea of how well the Huawei performs when it needs to render detailed graphics. Its average score was 6,116 frames, with a frame rate of 36.6 FPS. That puts it a little bit behind the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s 41 FPS result, but way ahead of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and its 26 FPS performance.

That's a pretty impressive result, enough to make the Mate 40 the most powerful Android device we've tested, even if it can't beat Apple's A14 chip in the iPhone 12 series. Do keep in mind that the Kirin 9000 is a generation ahead of the Snapdragon 865 we see in many Android flagships from this year, with Huawei's chip using a 5-nanometer process instead of 7 nm for the Snapdragon chipset. (The smaller process means more transistors and more power, to put it simply.) We'll have to see if the Mate 40 Pro can keep its lead when we start to see the expected Snapdragon 875 system-on-chip find its way into phones at the start of next year.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review: Software

The Huawei Mate 40 Pro features Huawei’s own EMUI 11 interface, with the open-source version of Android 11 running beneath it. Unfortunately, the Mate 40 Pro can’t use Google apps at all due to U.S. government restrictions barring companies from doing business with Huawei. The phone also can't access the Google Play Store to download other Android apps. 

If you own a larger Huawei device like a MateBook X Pro or a MatePad Pro, then you can make use of Huawei's robust Multi-screen Collaboration tools, letting you operate your phone from a PC or tablet. New for the Mate 40 range's launch is the ability to have multiple apps from your phone open in different windows on a MateBook laptop — a feature that looks supremely useful if you already own one device and like to use your phone a lot for work.

On the negative side, you do get an awful lot of pre-installed apps, plus some recommendation folders which contain a rotating array of other suggested apps for you to download. Tidying up the Mate 40 Pro's home screens will take some doing, particularly since without an app library, you can't remove an app without straight-up deleting it. 

Also, one thing that annoyed me particularly is that EMUI 11 doesn't have a dark mode scheduling function unlike basically all other operating systems. You can switch it on fairly easily yourself from the Quick Settings menu in the notification shade, but the fact it doesn't offer an automatic option seems like a big oversight, particularly since there have been complaints about this missing feature since EMUI 10 last year.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review: Air Gestures and Face Recognition

Beyond the apps, EMUI 11 hides some unique enhancements compared to other Android skins. For example, Huawei has continued its air gestures system, which debuted on the Mate 30. This time around, there are more gestures you can use, allowing you to wake the phone up; swipe screens up, down, left or right; and use a pressing gesture to answer phonecalls or play/pause media. All this is powered by the same sensor that also enables Face Recognition, which you can use to secure the phone alongside the Mate 40’s under-display fingerprint sensor.

Once you learn the ideal distance to perform the gestures from, they’re surprisingly reliable and easy to pull off. It's great if you're the kind of person who keeps their phone upright on a stand when not in use, or in certain situations like cooking when you want to access the phone but don't want to touch it with dirty hands. However the left and right navigation gestures are limited to certain apps, which may prove irritating depending on what you're doing.

I found face recognition to be reliable enough on the Mate 40, allowing me to not really use my thumbprint to unlock the Mate 40. No other Android maker offers properly secure facial recognition like this, after Google dropped Motion Sense from the Pixel 5. That means that the only rival left for Huawei in this area is Apple's Face ID. Face unlocking is equally fast on either phone, but the iPhone still unlocks at angles where the Mate 40 Pro can't detect you.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review: 5G

Thanks to the Kirin 9000 chip, the Mate 40 Pro has 5G built in. However, it's got sub6GHz compatibility only, since the Chinese market only has access to this flavor of 5G. Given that mmWave is primarily used in the U.S., where the Mate 40 isn’t available, that’s not much of a limitation. 

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review: Battery and charging

At 4,400 mAh, the Mate 40 Pro actually has a slightly smaller battery than the 4,500 mAh power pack in the Mate 30 Pro. However raw capacity doesn't tell the full story, and the Mate 40 Pro remains a long-lasting phone.

Even after performing tests, watching videos and downloading several apps over Wi-Fi over the course of an eight-hour evening's chill-out session, the Mate 40 still had two thirds of its capacity left. We've yet to perform a formal battery rundown test on the phone, but once we do we'll update this review with the results and how it compares to the competition.

Huawei has just managed to leapfrog the competition with the included 66W wired charger, beating the OnePlus 8T's 65W charger by one whole watt. The Mate 40 Pro can also wirelessly charge at up to 50W, the fastest we've seen on a phone so far, although without one of Huawei's proprietary chargers we were unable to try that out.

After 30 minutes of charging, a drained Mate 40 Pro made it to 84% the phone was completely filled by the 44-minute mark. The OnePlus 8T manages 93% full in 30 minutes, likely due to the dual battery system that allows it to charge two cells at a lower speed, rather than a single cell at a higher speed like the Huawei does.

Even if it isn't quite as fast as the best charging phone around, being able to charge this quickly is still enough to satisfy most users' needs. And at this speed, the Huawei still trashes the 25W standard charger that the Samsung Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Note 20 series come with. Meanwhile, Apple's newest 20W charger has to be bought separately for the iPhone 12 series.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review: Verdict

After extensive testing for this Huawei Mate 40 Pro review, there’s no doubt about the phone’s strongest features — the cameras, the performance, even parts of the software user experience. However if you asked me would I recommend the Mate 40 Pro, I'd regretfully say no.

The Mate 40 is an awesome big phone, but why pick this over an S20 Ultra, or a Note 20 Ultra, or a OnePlus 8 Pro? Samsung's phones also have excellent cameras, while OnePlus devices use an excellent version of Android that still has Google apps. Both of these brands' flagship phones offer similar performance for less money than you'd pay for the Huawei too.

It's taking Huawei some concerted effort, but the phone maker has  shown that it can still play in a highly competitive phones market even with a significant Google-shaped chink in its armor. If the U.S. government's trade ban lifts any time soon (and with a new administration on the way, it might), we'll have to reevaluate things. For now though, the Mate 40 Pro is a phone you should only buy after some careful consideration of the price, literal and figurative, you're paying for the phone's outstanding features.

Technology can either help your day flow or drive a wedge between you and productivity. Take your smartphone, for example; there are some things you just don’t need to be worrying about - low storage, miserable battery life, slow connections. 

But when everything comes together the way it does on the P40 Pro, you can breeze through from nine to five, experiencing a way of working that’s both liberating and logical. 

EMUI 10.1, Huawei’s software experience is tuned for intuitive multitasking and seamless security, with simplicity at its core.

But how is the P40 Pro's hardware and software hard-wired to help you get things done? From scanning documents with the 50MP Leica quad-camera system, to powering through downloads and uploads with the fastest 5G and WiFi data speeds around, it’s loaded with best-in-class features. 

6 a.m. and your alarm goes off. You wake up, open your eyes slowly - wince at the sunlight peeking through your curtains. The last thing you need is a glaring smartphone screen in your face as you fumble to silence your alarm. Luckily, the P40 Pro is a fumble-free way to start the day, thanks to Celia, your own personal voice assistant.

Simply say - “Celia, stop alarm” - and silence once again fills the room. 

What’s on the cards for today? Just ask Celia - “Celia, show me my calendar.” Your P40 Pro will give you a glance at your daily diary, telling you how many events you’ve got lined up, while displaying them on-screen. 

As you get into the groove of your day, Celia can turn up the tunes and set the mood for a perfect one - "Celia - play good vibes playlist" - start as you mean to go on. 

Paperless papers and a pocketable office

Whether at the office, over a coffee, or on your commute into work, morning papers have been an early bird staple for generations. The Huawei P40 Pro keeps the tradition alive with a twist - swipe right from your home screen, and you’ll enter a feed of paperless papers and so much more.

Huawei’s Today screen showcases current affairs powered by Microsoft News. Meanwhile, AI Tips deliver a snapshot of your day, from calendar entries right through insights as to how you use your phone.

Tuned to your tastes and always just a couple of swipes away, whether you need stock market, sport, or weather updates, not to mention shortcuts to handy features like your alarm clocks and display settings, you’ve got it with EMUI 10.1 and the Today screen.  

What about work? That’s where Huawei’s AppGallery comes in. Search for Microsoft Office for Mobile, and the whole Office suite - Excel, PowerPoint, and Word install in a flash.

You’ve heard about Google and Huawei's conscious uncoupling, but don't worry, you can still use Gmail, either through a web browser, or an email client like Huawei’s own Mail app which is pre-installed. Alternatively, with Microsoft Outlook, you can access your email accounts from a host of providers - from Microsoft's own Live service, through to Apple, Yahoo, and, of course, Google Mail. 

Without needing to fire up your laptop, your P40 Pro can quickly mark up Word documents, print files wirelessly, and send edits over Slack to colleagues in moments - simplicity perfected. It's even a creative studio with pro-grade editing tools including Adobe Lightroom, showcased to perfection on the sharp, ample 6.58-inch screen.

Multitasking and multi-screening 

You’re ready to take your work to the Twittersphere, fire up your Facebook ads, and invest in your company’s Instagram following. Time to tap on Petal Search - Find Apps, a new tool from Huawei, and a gateway to over a million applications. Smarter than your average app finder, it scours the web and multiple app sources, so you can quickly, easily install apps like Facebook Pages and Twitter, to name a few.

How do you use Petal Search - Find Apps? You can either open it like a traditional app, or create a search bar shortcut on your home screen. Next, all you have to do is type in exactly what you’re looking for. Want to ‘research’ the hottest shows out now? Netflix it is. Need to keep your task list in check? Search for Todoist. You can even sign documents in a pinch with Adobe Fill and Sign, and open PDFs with Acrobat - all available through Petal Search.

Going back to social media though, it’s time to test out Huawei’s sidebar. This smart feature makes multitasking across three apps simpler than it’s ever been. Swipe in from either side of the P40 Pro's curved screen to launch it, hold, then drag two apps into frame - Facebook Ads and Twitter, for example, and you’ll be working across them both in split-screen. 

Eagle eyes will spot, we mentioned multitasking across ‘three’ apps earlier. That’s because a tap of another app in the sidebar will open it as a floating window over the split-screen apps - productivity perfected in a pinch. 

Owners of Huawei MateBooks released in 2020 can also enjoy multi-screen multitasking like never before. Just tap the back of your P40 Pro against your MateBook’s Huawei Share badge, and your smartphone screen will cast to your laptop, appearing in a corner. 

The possibilities are endless - you can use your phone screen as a social ticker while you edit that all-important presentation on your MateBook, or drag and drop files between your phone UI's gallery or file explorer and your laptop. End-to-end integration that's incredibly handy, satisfying, and easy to use. 

Scan, send, print and go have some fun

The Huawei P40 Pro’s 50MP camera more than rises to the challenge when you need to scan a document, fast. 

Fire up the camera in a flash with a double tap of the volume down button, launch the document scanning mode, and turn a sheet of paper into a crystal clear image. Hit the share button, and whether you want to print it, send it to a colleague or beam it to your laptop or tablet using Huawei share, you can.

When the day is done, and your P40 Pro is ready to go from a document scanner to a dreamy quad-camera flagship entertainment hub again. To avoid the temptation of checking your work email, you can make the most of PrivateSpace, helping you carve out a healthy work-life balance. 

To activate PrivateSpace, in the P40 Pro's main settings menu, search for PrivateSpace. Here, you can create a second environment for work or play, totally different from your main space, with different apps, layouts, and defaults. Sounds great, but how do you switch between the two spaces you ask? Easy; just unlock your phone with a different finger - one for one space, and one for another.  

With 256GB as standard, the P40 Pro packs two phones worth of storage in one device, and using Petal Search - Find Apps, you can also load up your fun-time PrivateSpace with apps like Amazon Prime Video, Audible and BBC iPlayer, so you can kick back, unwind and recharge.

Speaking of recharging, the P40 Pro is a speed demon when it comes to powering up, taking you from 0-100% in under an hour, with 40W wired and wireless charging, and the speed doesn’t stop there. 

Thanks to Huawei's AI-powered Kirin 990 internals, lightning-fast 5G combines with WiFi 6 to make sure your downtime doesn’t fall victim to bouts of buffering and drawn out downloads.

Ultimately, think of the Huawei P40 Pro as two phones in one - it’s the ultimate when it comes to work, and perfect for unwinding and having some fun.

The Huawei P40 Pro is £899 (RRP) and available in the colours Silver Frost, Blush Gold and Black. It also comes with 50GB free cloud storage (for one year) and 6 months free Huawei Music. Visit the Huawei Store to buy or find out more.

If this leak is true, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra’s reign as the Emperor of the Android Universe is about to end. And I don’t care you have to go through a loophole to sideload Google’s apps and service: the Huawei P40 Pro looks like the most impressive Android phone.

Published by reputable leakster Ishan Agarwal, the images show “the world’s first quad curved display”. Here’s a detail of what he’s talking about:

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Apparently Huawei has managed to create an AMOLED panel that is not curved only on the left and right sides, as it is the norm with other smartphones, but on all sides. And no, it’s not just the glass that covers it but the actual panel.

And while it still has the ugly pill punch hole to house two sensors for facial authentication, this effect is pretty striking. The bezels disappear completely except for the ultra-thin chin, as you can see in this frontal shot:

The only thing that bothers me is the black corners. It looks like one of those old albums where you used sticky corners to hold the photos on place.

The most impressive thing, as usual with Huawei’s flagships, is precisely the photos you will be able to take with its new camera system. According to previous rumors, it should be really impressive and probably leave the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and every other Android phone in the dust, just like the Huawei P30 and the P20 did before it.

The new P40 Pro seems to have five sensors behind the usual lenses co-developed with Leica. Rumor is that these will hold a 52MP sensor for the main camera, a 40MP for the ultra-wide, a 10x optical telephoto, and a Time-of-Flight sensor, like the LiDAR that comes in the iPad Pro 2020. The fifth sensor is rumored to have a telephoto lenses with 3x zoom. 

The last one is meant to provide with an intermediate step as you go from 1x in the main sensor to 10x in the telephoto. The Ultra has a theoretical advantage there, as it has a motorized telephoto periscope system that offers continuous zooming — a miniature version of what a real telephoto lens will do on a standard camera.

We will have to see which fares better, though. It’s going to be a ferocious battle — one that Samsung seems to be losing just before it started, at least in the marketplace.

Google can’t get its app ecosystem one one the most popular phones in the world, thanks to the U,S. government ban of Huawei, and that’s a big problem that needs a fix for the Mountain View company. Now, it seems that Google is aggressively moving to lift the ban and that could get it back in the game when it comes to taking on the Samsung Galaxy S20.

This reported overture comes as Huawei is trying to get consumers to excited about its new phones, including the Huawei P40 Pro and Huawei Mate 30 Pro, as well as the new foldable Huawei Mate XS.

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The Fed’s Huawei ban forbid any U.S. company to transfer or make any business with the Chinese corporation, which effectively meant that — after the P30 Pro — no new Huawei phone or device of any type could use Google’s official Android release, apps, services, and Play Store.

According to the German financial paper Finanzen and Spanish business blog Marketing Directo (via BGR), Google is in talks with the White House to at least partially lift the ban so it can again supply Huawei with Google’s apps and the Play Store. The latter blog claims that Google has formally asked the White House to lift the ban to provide its services to Huawei but it hasn’t yet received a timeframe for an answer.

Google is painfully aware of how much it is risking if the Feds don’t allow to reestablish relationships with one of the biggest phone companies on the planet, which makes both Huawei- and Honor-branded devices. 

The risk for Google in losing Huawei

Huawei represents a huge chunk of the market all around the world. Every phone, tablet or device it sells without Google’s apps and services represents a lost stream revenue for the search giant and its satellite companies. If you add millions of these devices, you end with lots of money left on the table.

But perhaps most importantly, Google also risks diluting Android‘s power. Huawei is spending billions on a new ecosystem with its own Android-based operating system, its own and third-party tools and services, and its own online shop to replace the Play Store. Huawei calls it AppGallery and other Chinese manufacturers could jump onto that bandwagon, knowing that the U.S. government could put them on a black list at any time.

Of course, it’s yet to be seen if Huawei can pull the feat of fully replacing Google in its phones, but it’s not a crazy proposition. Not only is the company including its own free tools but there are plenty of non-Google equivalents to replace the Mountain View company’s apps and services. 

Will Huawei just walk away for good?

According to at least one Huawei exec, though, the company is not planning to get back to the Google fold after this. Yes, the fact that Huawei is saying this could be a tactic to increase the pressure, but it could also mean that this is actually working for them.

And for the Chinese company, not going back to pre-ban situation makes a lot of sense. Depending on Google — knowing that the U.S. government can take away their legal and economic safety rug from under its feet at any time — is a big risk. Huawei was caught off guard once and it seems hard to believe the Chinese company is going to put themselves in that position once again. 

So perhaps the damage is already done and, even if Google gets the Feds to reverse course and Huawei adds the Play Store again, the breakup will have a long term effect anyway.

And, in the long run, this breakup will also erase part of the power of Android, which is already fragmented enough just by its own versions. This is not what Google — or the entire world for that matter — needs.

The European Union is back to the rescue of consumers worldwide, as a new law may force smartphone manufacturers to make their batteries completely user-replaceable. 

According to the Dutch financial newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad (via XDA Developers), the EU “wants to force electronics manufacturers to facilitate easier battery replacements.” 

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While the EU can only enforce laws in its territory, the European market is so gigantic that the measure may have an impact around the world. Designing all phones to have replaceable batteries rather than offering multiple variations could be more cost effective to multinational companies like Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi or Oppo. The latter will not only be pricier to produce but also will double service costs.

There is a precedent on the EU changing the course of consumer electronics design: after past EU guidelines invited companies to adopt a single charging port standard for their smartphones, we saw a move to USB-C across all brands — except Apple. 

Tired of Apple‘s defiance, the EU parliament voted earlier this month to force all device manufacturers to use a single port standard to reduce waste. Despite Tim Cook's objections, the vote will result in a law specifying which port phone makers should use by this summer. Most likely, this means that we will have an iPhone 12 (or 13, if the law goes into effect too late) with a USB-C port instead of the Lightning port.

The hard battle for user replaceable batteries

The new law to enforce batteries that are easy to replace by users may face a more uphill battle. 

As Apple discovered first with the iPhone, it’s a lot better for the company to have a tightly closed phone that users can’t access. That leads to users depending on the manufacturer for repairs, forcing them to either buy extra warranty like AppleCare — which represents a big source of revenue for Apple — or use the company’s official repair services. 

And batteries frequently need replacement. As devices get older, the battery quickly loses its capacity to hold power. As a result, an iPhone will see its daily battery life greatly reduced. That’s why by year one, you may find yourself looking for your phone's power adapter in the middle of the day.

Some people choose to change the batteries. Most manufacturers force them to bring their phone to an official repair service to change the battery at a great cost. Then, many people feel that their phone is performing poorly, which prompt them to buy a new phone. 

Indeed, Apple got in serious trouble for lowering the performance of the processor as an iPhone's battery got older. The Cupertino company says that it throttles down the processor to “safeguard the battery." The most logical thought is that, by reducing the phone’s performance and making it sluggish, Apple pushes users to upgrade the full phone. 

The company certainly didn’t warn users about it or told them that by exchanging the battery, they will get the full speed back out of their phones. This caused a great uproar and Apple was forced to reduce the replacement cost on an iPhone battery from $79 to $29. Not only that, but the company had to add an option to disable the throttling and tell users about the battery’s health.

And still, that didn’t stop Apple from trying to scare users about using non-official batteries.

The same, albeit to a lesser extent, could be said about other big brand manufacturers like Samsung. Companies saw what Apple was doing and thought they could do the same in the name of alleged product safety and quality. Most phones used to have replaceable batteries — now most models require expert hands to get opened and serviced. 

If the EU forces manufacturers to get user-replaceable batteries back, they will be attacking one of the profit lines of Apple and all these multinationals. 

Cost and sustainability

That will cause lots of resistance despite the fact that most of these brands claim to be working towards sustainability efforts. 

Apple may argue that it make its devices so hard to service is because this allows for benefits like water and dust resistance, and thinner phones.

That is true. Like watches, if you want something water and dust proof, you really need to make them tight. But, phones are neither water nor dust proof. They are resistant. And many water- and dust-resistant watches that don’t have to descent to the Laurentian Abyss to have user replaceable batteries. The engineering challenge is there, but it’s doable.

Even putting aside the well being of the planet and the damage that consumer electronics waste generate, do we really need to spend hundreds of dollars every two years to get a new phone that does things marginally better than the previous generation? Do companies need to make things hard for people who don’t want the latest and best but just to have fast, functional phones that are usable through an entire day of work?

The answer to both of those questions is a resounding no. Let’s hope the EU actually passes this law and brings back user-replaceable batteries.

Google has issued a warning against downloading its apps (or any apps) outside the “safe” environment of the Play Store and installing them on newer Huawei phones. And of course they are right — to a point. 

The warning comes as part of a Google letter to users (via 9to5google) written by Google’s legal director for the Play Store Tristan Ostrowski. In it, he clarifies the Mountain View company’s position regarding the Huawei ban, which prohibits companies like Google to install its products on Huawei products.

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Huawei has been accused by the U.S. government of basically being a spy agent for the Chinese government. Huawei has been prohibited from selling its phones in the U.S. and U.S. companies have been ordered to not collaborate in any way with Huawei — except to support products shipped before the ban.

Google gives a stern warning that basically tells Huawei and all Android users that “thou shall not use apps from any other place but the Google Play Store or thou shall be smitten to smithereens”. 

What is sideloading?

First, let’s clarify what sideloading means for the uninitiated.

In broad terms, it means downloading an application install package (called APK) and opening it in your Android phone to install the app. 

Using this practice, any user can use any app, despite not having the permission to use the Play Store. If you want to install Gmail, you can go to a site, download the Gmail APK, install it, and use it.

However, if you download an APK online, you could be opening yourself to malware. 

Ironically, the Google Play store has hosted plenty of rogue applications on multiple occasions. And the Google Play Protect tool has been found to not protect its users very well.  

Can I trust anyone to sideload apps?

APKMirror is perhaps the most popular and trustable of all repository sites. It’s operated by the website Android Police. I have used them a few times and never encountered a problem. 

Here’s what the APK says in its FAQ about how they check that all app packages are safe:

“All APKMirror.com uploads are verified prior to publishing. 

We make sure that the cryptographic signatures for new versions of all previously published apps match the original ones, which means we know if uploaded APKs were signed by the real devs or someone pretending to be them. Note: APKMirror.com has been protected from the Janus vulnerability in Android from day one."

Again, you should always be careful but, if you have a Huawei phone and you want to sideload Google’s apps, this could be the way to go.

According to a new report, Apple, Samsung, Oppo and other manufacturers will very soon start using new gallium nitride technology developed that cuts the size of power adapters while keeping the same wattage.

This means that Apple may adopt the tech in its new iPhone 12, iPad 2020 or MacBook Pro 2020.

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As reported by Chinese IT publication Caifa News (via Gizchina), the new fast charging tech was developed by Xiaomi and it’s already in use in the new power adapter seen below, which comes with the company’s new Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro. 

Compare that to Apple’s current power 61W brick for the MacBook Pro, which is massive by comparison. 

The difference in size is obviously quite shocking. The Xiaomi 65W adapter comes with a USB-C port and it can charge its new flagship phone in just 45 minutes.

This also means that chargers that are not as powerful will get reduced to almost half their size, which will result in incredibly tiny devices. Just take a look at your current iPhone charger and imagine it cut in half.

Tiny size, big power, adaptable output

The tiny size is the result of replacing current silicon-based technology with gallium nitride (GaN). The usage of GaN tech can reportedly reduce the size of existing solutions by 48%. It uses two integrated circuits made of that metal alloy, the Nanomicro NV6115 and NV6117.

Aside from its ridiculous tiny size, another benefit of this new technology is that it senses the needs of whatever you connect to them, sending just the right amount of power that the devices demands. This means that Apple will be able to ship a single adapter that could feed anything from an AirPods case to the latest MacBook Pro 16-inch.

Apparently these chargers are already available for about $21 in China, but we will probably see them coming to the rest of the world soon).

Huawei, Xiaomi and key semiconductor manufacturers are keeping workers on the line despite contagion risks, according to reports out of China.

Reuters reports that “some Chinese technology firms” continue producing goods despite the government order to halt production. The idea is that work at factories is helping spread of the virus, so stopping the assembly lines will help slow down the microscopic critters.

The most important one is Huawei, which said today that it has resumed production of everything, from big industrial equipment to build 5G networks to appliances and phones. According to the company, which incidentally built the 5G communications at the new coronavirus special hospital in Wuhan — “operations are running normally“ thanks to a special permit to avoid the production ban issued by the Chinese authorities. 

Semiconductor companies keep churning out chips of all kinds, from memory to CPUs. Among them, Yangtze Memory Technologies — which is based in Wuhan proper — and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation. The former says that “production and operations at YMTC are proceeding normally and in an orderly manner,” noticing that it has implemented some ‘isolation and partition‘ measures to keep employees “safe”.

Affecting the supply line and even marketing

However, despite this special dispensation, the supply chain is still being affected by the virus.

Reputed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has pointed out that Apple will see its production cut by 10% because of the virus outbreak. Last week, veteran industry analyst Patrick Moorhead said that coronavirus threatens iPhone 9 production and the entire electronics industry: “I can't imagine a scenario where the supply chain isn't disrupted.”

The Wuhan area is not only one of the biggest producers of iron and steel — it’s considered a ”crucial hub in the middle of China”, with the Yangtze river going across it, three railway stations and an airport. To give you an idea of its importance, 230 of the Fortune 500 companies have investments in this area. The Chinese government ban is also affecting other cities beyond Wuhan, as Reuters reports. And it seems it’s not getting any better, as the contagion and reported deaths keep spreading through continental China.

The virus is also affecting the Chinese companies‘ marketing operations. Beyond Apple and other companies closing shops across China, companies like Xiaomi and Blackshark — a manufacturer of specialized gaming phones — have cancelled their live press release events for the Xiaomi Mi 10 and the Blackshark 3. Instead, they will move these events into cyberspace following fears of the virus. But they will keep making the phones and selling them, of course.

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This may be the next king of the phone photography hill in all its metal and glass flesh glory: the Huawei P40 Pro. 

The phone appears to have a curved-edge screen with a dual-camera punch hole placed on the left top corner.

And yes, it’s still banned but the Chinese company still dominates the camera field with its cellphones no matter how many embargos Trump can stick on them. Huawei’s latest flagship — the Mate 30 Pro — is still classified as the best camera phone tied with the Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro Premium Edition (which, incidentally, has the same 108MP camera sensor as the incoming top-of-the-line Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra). 

It’s a position that Huawei has dominated for the last few years. We even qualified the Huawei P30 Pro as a “photography revolution”. So, if history serves us for anything else than for the History Channel to make documentaries about Nazis and WW2 — we can assume that the Huawei P40 Pro will be another leap in mobile photography.

One potential clue: look at this back, posted on Twitter and spotted by Gizmochina.

Yes, I know, you can’t see the cameras at all because they are covered by a special case that hides them completely. But the case gives something away: it’s going to be something huge. Look at the size of those covers! That camera package hunchback looks insane.

How many cameras is the P40 going to pack. Nobody knows for sure yet. The company pioneered the use of multiple sensors and artificial intelligence to come up with a unique photo quality that has since been replicated by the likes of Samsung and Apple. 

GSMArena believes that the Huawei P40 Pro will be built on a 52-megapixel image sensor made by Sony. The new sensor — with a rather large 1/1.33” size — will feature ”Quad Bayer” technology — meaning that it will be able to group pixels to greatly boost optical sensitivity in groups of 16 when there’s no light.

The blog also claims that the P40 will count with a new 10x true optical zoom camera, not a 5x optical upscaled to 10x with AI. GSMArena believes that Huawei “will be using a dual prism design (current periscope cams have only one prism). This is likely needed to fit the module in the phone despite the very long focal length.”

It also points out that Huawei has “trademarked various terms such as Quad Curve Overflow (probably the quad-curved screen), Ultra Vision Camera and Ultra Vision Sensor, plus 5G AR.” So clearly, photography will be again the main drive of this phone.

Too bad we can’t (easily) install Google apps on it.

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The last 12 months haven’t been good ones for Huawei. Thanks to the US government’s blacklist, the Chinese phone giant can no longer use Google Mobile Services, disabling some of the most defining software elements from Huawei’s handsets. 

But Huawei’s trying to start the new year on a high note, producing one last phone that arrives with Google services included.

The Huawei Nova 5T costs £400 (roughly $530), and because the phone launched in China before the U.S. blacklist went into force, it’s still permitted to use Google Mobile Services. As a result, the Nova 5T behaves just like any other Android phone, meaning this isn’t a Huawei device you should skip over.

When you do look at the Nova 5T, though, you will notice that its middle-of-the-road approach sometimes lets the phone down — particularly when it comes to the 5T’s display, photo output and many of its preloaded apps. Additionally, the Nova 5T isn’t on sale in the US, meaning rivals like the $399 Google Pixel 3a and $479 Pixel 3a XL look all the more appealing.

The Nova 5T faces tough competition, but if you want the Huawei ecosystem or a generally good hardware experience on a phone at a reasonable price, this is a pretty good option.

Huawei Nova 5T review cheat sheet

• You can’t buy the Nova 5T in the US, but UK users can get a quality-feeling and -looking product for £400.
• The 6.2-inch LCD display is the right mix of size and compactness, but isn’t super colorful or bright.
• The main 48MP camera and the wide 16MP camera take good and bright photos. The macro lens and the phone’s night mode don’t match up however.
• 6GB RAM plus a Kirin 980 processor gives you just enough performance power for any need you may have.
• You can have any Google app you like, thanks to the US ban bypass, but you will find lots of Huawei’s own apps the first time you open the phone up.
• Unless you’re a smartphone power user, 3,750 mAH of battery capacity plus 22.5W fast charging will make sure you don’t lack for battery life.

Huawei Nova 5T price and availability

In the UK, the Nova 5T is available in a single version with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, which will cost you £399. For color, you get a choice of black, Midsummer Purple or Crush Blue. 

The Nova 5T is already on sale in the UK, where you can buy it from stores such as EE (where you get a free pair of Huawei Freelace wireless headphones as a sweetener), Carphone Warehouse, O2, or Vodafone.

If you’re in the US, you’ll have to import the Nova 5T if you want this Huawei model. Make sure that you check your mobile carrier is compatible with the handset you’re buying if you do this, but to be honest you’re probably better off looking at another device, especially given the number of high-quality, low-cost unlocked Android phones there are these days.

Huawei Nova 5T design

If you’ve seen the front of the Honor 20 Pro, you’ve basically seen the front of the Nova 5T. These phones are identical, from the thick bottom bezel to the punch-hole selfie camera in the top left corner of the display. This makes more sense on the Honor 20 Pro, since it replicates the Honor View 20’s punch-hole display, whereas the Nova looks like no other phone baring the Huawei badge. It’s unlikely that Huawei’s going to change its mind about front designs for the P40 or Mate 40 later this year, which will leave the Nova 5T as the odd one out in its lineup.

It’s another story on the back, where you’ll notice a few differences between the Nova and its Honor counterpart. The Nova 5T has its flash built into the main three-camera module in the top left corner, whereas the 20 Pro places it underneath the macro lens to the side of the main camera bump. There’s also a small illustration representing the four cameras on the Nova, as well as the Huawei logo placed sideways along the left edge of the phone, as is Huawei’s tradition.

Holding the phone, you’ll notice that despite its 6.2-inch screen, the Nova 5T’s tall and skinny frame makes it comfortable to use with one hand, with your thumb or middle finger resting in the power button/fingerprint scanner cutout. I know several people who are unwilling to trade in older phones because they don’t like the size of modern devices, but the Nova 5T may convince them that larger displays don’t have to mean less ergonomic phones.

The 5T’s color options cover the bases well. The black color, which you can see in the images in this review, has a simple shine, making it the most subtle of the color choices. The Crush Blue looks similar but is a little more colorful for people who find the black version too boring, while the Midsummer Purple goes all out with a brand new Nova logo at the bottom of the phone, with the letters of this logo in a slightly different shade of purple inlayed in a pattern up and down the back.

Huawei says that it’s aiming at a younger potential customer base than usual with the Nova, and these two brighter colorways are clear evidence of that choice. It’s not a huge variety of colors, but you’ll be at least satisfied with the options whether you want a phone that does or doesn’t draw attention to itself.

Huawei Nova 5T display

Just like the Honor 20 series, the Nova features an LCD 6.26-inch FHD+ punch-hole display. That means a near-full screen viewing experience, but you lose out on the better colors of an OLED display.

On the plus side, I was happy using the Huawei Nova 5T outdoors in the harsh English winter sun, and never had to think about touching the brightness slider.

Comparing it with a pair of OLED phones by watching the cartoony but informative YouTube educational challenge Kurzgesagt, the Nova 5T beats the display of the Google Pixel 3a, which is notably dim for this type of display, though Huawei’s phone doesn’t match the OLED of the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro for brightness or color.

Huawei Nova 5T cameras 

On the back of the Nova, you’ll find four cameras — the main 48MP sensor in the middle of the main bump, with the 16MP wide sensor above, the 2MP depth assist sensor below and the 2MP macro sensor on its own to the right.

The 48MP sensor makes use of pixel-binning, or "light fusion" in Huawei’s own terminology, to make 12MP images that deal better with low-light conditions or just a dreary day in the UK, which I faced when I took the Nova out for some camera testing.

This bridge is far brighter in the Nova’s image than it is in the Google Pixel 3a’s, but the brightness costs color saturation, which makes the picture taken by the Pixel 3a preferable in a key area for some photographers.

Swapping the two phones to their respective night modes and heading out after dark shows one of the Nova’s photographic weaknesses. This image of the barbican (front gate) of the local castle decorated for Christmas is much blurrier on the Nova, plus the bricks have turned a funny shade of yellow and the sky is not as dark as it should be. It’s OK, but Google has the better low-light mode in Night Sight, even on its cheapest handset.

I used the wide lenses on the Mi 9T Pro and the Nova 5T to take a picture of this indoor shopping arcade and Huawei’s obsession with brightness pays off here. Although the area is well lit with skylights and electric lighting, you can make out details a lot deeper into the Huawei image. It also helps that the Nova has a slightly higher resolution than the Xiaomi (16MP to 13MP), but this is a situation where Huawei’s particular flavor of software processing shines.

When you go into the Nova’s camera app, you’ll see at the bottom the more common buttons that swap between standard, wide and telephoto camera modes. The Nova 5T doesn’t have a telephoto sensor, but rather uses its 48MP main sensor to zoom in digitally. It’s a good half-measure, since 48MP is one of the largest sensor sizes you can buy on a phone at the moment, and zooming in on such a large image won’t instantly ruin the photo quality. But it’s not the same as a proper optical zoom lens.

In this 2x zoom comparison shot of a clock tower with the Mi 9T Pro (which does have a 2x optical zoom camera) you can see the 5T loses definition on the edges of objects like the hands of the clock, casting the bricks in an inaccurate yellow hue. That’s despite the fact that the Xiaomi’s zoom camera is 8MP, and as a result produced a much smaller image than the Nova. Huawei often has the best hardware in its class, but in this example, Xiaomi has it beaten and has a better image to show off as a result.

The Nova 5T's macro sensor is something you’ll appreciate if you like to take close-ups. The phone did a pretty good job capturing the foam on the top of my coffee, but it took me several attempts to get this shot. That's because I could easily block the light from the image just by holding the phone in a slightly different position over the cup. Without enough light hitting the tiny 2MP sensor, the white and brown foam turned a hideous gray color.

Still, you can get a lot of use out of the macro lens if you have much more consistent sunlight or some artificial light with which to work.

Finally, on the front of the Nova 5T, we have the 32MP selfie camera. It’s a very high resolution because of the target audience (young people just love their selfies after all), and it comes with AI beautification features (which in the interests of honest tech journalism I switched off for this comparison), as well as a bokeh-style portrait mode.

We see more major color differences when comparing selfies with the Nova to the Pixel 3a. The fact that the 32MP front sensor of the Nova is on paper hugely superior to the 8MP sensor of the Pixel is not as important to the way the two images make the same subject look very different. Google has made the cold winter’s day and my pale skin look like it’s a sunny day and I’ve got a very uncharacteristic tan. The Nova’s image is far more honest, which combined with the higher resolution means that I’ve got to give it the nod here despite the fact that I’d be far more tempted to upload the Pixel’s image on my Instagram.

If you’re using one of the two large rear cameras of the Nova 5T and don’t mind some extra brightness, you’ll get a class-leading image. The 5T’s digital zoom makes a valiant effort, but can’t match up to optical zoom on other phones, while its night mode isn’t quite as good as what the Pixel 3a offers. The 5T’s macro lens is far too finicky for quick and easy photography while its selfie camera will divide opinions.

Huawei Nova 5T performance

The Nova 5T is equipped with the Kirin 980 CPU, Huawei’s top CPU from 2018 (The Kirin 990, found in the Mate 30 series, has since taken its place.) Along with that CPU, you get 6GB RAM and a Mali-G76 GPU, which gives the Nova well above average performance, but nothing earth-shattering.

Comparing the Nova 5T to its competition on synthetic benchmark app Geekbench 5, the results show the Nova thoroughly beating the Pixel 3a’s lower-tier Snapdragon 670 CPU and 4GB RAM combo with a multicore score of 2,392 to 1,327. The Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro uses a Snapdragon 855 CPU, a direct rival to the Kirin 980, and also 6GB RAM, which makes its similar but slightly better benchmark score of 2,457 unsurprising.

Moving over to graphics tests, I used 3DMark’s Slingshot Extreme OpenGL benchmark and managed a score of 4,040. This blazes past the Pixel 3a’s 1,602, but falls well short of the Mi 9T Pro, which managed 5,098 with its Adreno 640 GPU.

For some real-life testing, I booted up the fun and high fidelity Asphalt 9: Legends. As I played, the Nova 5T didn’t struggle to keep up with the fast moving high resolution vehicles on screen, and stayed fairly cool to the touch too. It wasn’t the best quality I’ve ever seen the game played at, but it’s not bad looking by any measure.

Huawei Nova 5T software and OS

Like other Huawei phones, the Nova 5T runs on EMUI 9, the Huawei flavored version of Android 9, which remains a good operating system. The Android 10-powered EMUI 10 will arrive on the Nova 5T this month.

With EMUI, you get Huawei ID and the accompanying ecosystem of apps like the Huawei App Gallery (not much good for users outside China) and its own crop of basic apps like music player, web browser, email, file browser, notes, calendar and health tracking. These all are fine, but some only work at their best if you sign up for a Huawei ID and use more Huawei products like the Watch GT 2 smartwatch or the FreeBuds 3. It’s the typical story with so-called “bloatware” — if you’re a brand fanatic, you’ll like it, otherwise you’ll just see them as taking up precious home screen space and quickly stuff them all in a folder and never use them again (and no, you can’t delete them).

The Nova 5T is a little unique within Huawei’s recent lineup as it can still use Google Mobile Services, thanks to its launch in China before the full US government ban hit. That means you can use any Google Play Store app you like without any hindrance, which wouldn’t be a feature worth mentioning on any other Android phone, but Huawei finds itself in a unique position these days.

Nova 5T fingerprint scanner

The Nova 5T doesn’t use a sub-display optical fingerprint scanner that’s becoming more popular on Android phones. Instead, you get a capacitive sensor like the Samsung Galaxy S10e. This sounds a little old-fashioned, but in an inspired move, the Nova 5T has placed this sensor on the phone’s lock button and located it where you’d expect on a modern phone — midway up the right edge of the 5T. So rather than having to press the unlock button and then adjust your grip to place your finger on the sensor area at the bottom of the phone, you can just pick up the phone as you normally would and have it unlocked by the time you’re in a position to use it. This is much better than Samsung's decision to place its lock button near the top of the S10e's right edge, which means you still have to shift your hand to use it.

Huawei estimates it only takes 0.3 seconds for the phone to unlock, which is fast enough as it is. But during my testing I found that Huawei’s approach is still far more reliable than any optical fingerprint scanner I’ve tried, sometimes unlocking with even a very slight touch of the sensor. I’d love to see this feature on other phones at this price, but assuming that Huawei doesn’t give away its design secrets, this remains one of the best quality of life features on the Nova 5T.

Huawei Nova 5T battery Life and charging

The Nova 5T uses a 3,750 mAh battery, which is a little smaller than the 4,000 mAh average of phones released this year. But considering the LCD display and average performance figures, this smaller size isn’t a big deal for battery life, as the phone will comfortably pass a normal work day, with internet browsing, social media checking and video watching, away from a power source. 

In the box you have a 22.5W fast charging plug, which promises 50% of a full charge within 30 minutes. After trying this for myself, I actually managed 44% in half an hour. Even though it charges a little slower than expected, this is still enough power for an effective top-up during the day.

Bottom line

For a phone of its price, the Huawei Nova 5T met our expectations and sometimes exceeded them. It’s attractive, feels modern to use despite some older components, and is smartly engineered, particularly the outer shell with its narrow chassis and fingerprint scanner/unlock button combination. And because it still has Google Apps and the Play Store available, it’s a phone suitable for anyone, not just Huawei diehards who are willing to get the company’s products at any cost.

There are meaningful distinctions between the Nova 5T and its rivals. You get more features, power and a straight-up larger phone for your money with the Nova 5T than you would buying a Pixel 3a or Pixel 3a XL, but having a purer Android experience and more flattering photo processing with Google’s phone are important advantages.

The Mi 9T Pro is a closer comparison point. The extra size and weight of the Xiaomi in exchange for a larger display and pop-up camera is worth it, I’d argue, and you also enjoy features such as an OLED display, optical zoom camera and larger battery. 

Overall though, I can’t find many problems with the Nova 5T — just different priorities compared to its rivals. Buy this phone if you’re looking for some premium quality and a well rounded set of features at a mid-range price, but look to Google or Xiaomi if you have more specific needs.

Qualcomm has announced its next generation CPU, which will power most non-Apple flagships in 2020. But who will be the first to adopt the Snapdragon 865?

We know few technical details about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, but we do know that there is a race to see who will be the first manufacturer to use the chip in a product. And of course, it probably will come from China. The Chinese manufacturers are keen on beating the competition in bringing new technology to market, even if they release phones within days from each other.

Here's every Snapdragon 865 phone we know about so far. 

Xiaomi

The popular Chinese brand Xiaomi announced that it was going to be “one of the first” phones to feature the 865 yesterday. In fact, the company is likely to include it in more than one model, as it is planning to release 10 models with 5G capability built-in in 2020 (some of these may be mid-range models based on the new 5G-enabled Snapdragon 765, though).

Xiaomi co-founder Bin Lin said that its first 865-based model will be the Xiaomi Mi 10, which means that the Mi 10 Pro will have it too.

Oppo

Oppo has also announced that it will release a Snapdragon 865 flagship phone in the first quarter of 2020. According to the company’s president of global sales Alen Wu, there will be a new flagship that hasn’t been named yet. 

Like previous Oppo flagships, the core functionality of these phones will be photography. The company claims that the 865 will enable new, more powerful camera functionality, which aligns with Qualcomm’s claims that the 865 will support 200MP sensors and AI speeds that will enable new photography and video tricks for night mode and real time combination of different camera sensors into one superior synthetic image.

Meizu

The Chinese manufacturer — known for its bold designs — is not claiming they will be one of the first to bring Snapdragon 865 to the masses but the very first with the Meizu 17.

That doesn’t align with the dates that it has provided because, according to Gizmochina, Meizu says that its upcoming Meizu 17 will come out in Spring 2020. That will effectively put them on the edge of Q2 2020.

Samsung

The Korean company uses its own Exynos processors for the international version of the Samsung Galaxy but, for the US, it uses the Snapdragon family. 

It’s very likely that the Samsung Galaxy S11 will use the Snapdragon 865. We can’t imagine them releasing the inferior 855+ when they will have to compete with the updated 2020 iPhone 12. 

Samsung may beat all the Chinese manufacturers to the punch, as it usually releases its flagships at the beginning of the year, around February.

Huawei

The banned Chinese company has its own chipset family — the Kirin — and doesn’t use Snapdragon, so don’t expect anything from them.

All we know about the Snapdragon 865

The new chipset will come with a 5G modem, as expected. It can also handle some really crazy functionality, including a 200-megapixel camera and support for smooth 8K 30fps video recording (some 855+ phones support 8K 30fps in experimental mode, but it gets choppy if you move the camera fast). 

Qualcomm’s senior VP and general manager Alex Katouzian said that the company expects the new chip to boost gaming performance by 25% compared to the latest chip, the 855+. The chip will also include a new fifth generation AI engine that can process 15 trillion operations per second, which doubles the company’s previous record. According to Katozuian, this will enable more photography tricks and real-time translation.

Finally, the chipset’s 5G model will enable connectivity up to 7.5Gbps, which is quite faster than what the current 5G networks can provide. According to our own tests, the fastest speed we have recorded is Verizon’s 1.07Gbps.

We don’t know a lot more about the technical features of the 865 at this time. The rest of the details will be coming this week from the chip foundry’s developer conference.

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 revealed: Everything we know
• Most anticipated phones of 2020
• The best smartphones available now

It's hard to deny that Apple's AirPods are icons among true wireless earbuds. The distinctive and often-imitated white stems protrude from the ears of listeners around the world, although these buds are not without flaws. For example, they have only a few in-line controls, and by default they have only a wired charging case, something Apple has just fixed with the AirPods Pro, albeit in return for significantly more money.

Huawei has also just introduced its latest true wireless upgrade in the form of the FreeBuds 3. These bring together many of your favorite headphone features, plus a few of their own strange innovations, in an unusual but good-looking and well-priced open-fit package. They sit between Apple's two sets of true wireless earbuds in terms of spec, but below both in price, and are tailored toward Android users in the way that AirPods are to iOS users.

It's a pity that these work their best only with specific Huawei phones, require an Android-only app to unlock their true potential and won't be on sale in the U.S., because they prove to be a strong Android-focussed competitor to the AirPod range.

• Fake AirPods Tested: Best and Worst Alternatives Under $50

FreeBuds 3 price and availability

The FreeBuds 3 are on sale in the U.K. from Nov. 14 at Amazon UK, Carphone Warehouse, O2, John Lewis and Argos in the U.K. and will cost £169.99 (roughly $220 when directly converted). That's £30 cheaper (but $20 more) than the equivalent Apple product, the AirPods 2 with wireless charging case, and £80/$29 cheaper than the newly revealed AirPod Pros, which share other features with the FreeBuds, such as noise cancellation and more in-line controls. When you buy the FreeBuds, you can also claim a free Huawei 15W wireless charger until Dec. 31 2019.

Huawei is still not selling its devices in the U.S., meaning the only way U.S. readers can buy the FreeBuds will be via auction sites or international shipping of the buds themselves.

Design: Hewn from a familiar source

The FreeBuds are a handsome pair of earbuds, coming in either a glossy Ceramic White (as my review units did) or Carbon Black. Yes, they do look similar to AirPods, but you can still tell the two products apart fairly easily. The FreeBuds' casing is angular, eschewing Apple-like curves in favor of trimming away all excess material, which fits with Huawei's usual sharp-edged design language. Other than the plastic, there's a shiny metal tip at the bottom of each stem that leads to the microphones and black mesh covering the speaker hole on the inner side, plus some black semitransparent plastic where the on-ear-detection sensor lives. It's a more conspicuous presentation than what you see on the standard AirPods or the Pros, and while none of it is revolutionary design work, it does look good.

Hidden within the frame of each bud, there is a 14mm dynamic driver and bass tube, a voice and a bone-conducting microphone, and the brains of the operation, Huawei's Kirin A1 chip. Similar to Apple's H1 chip, Huawei's new processor, which is designed for wearables, aims to provide your ears with stable, responsive and accurate sound.

The included wireless charging case (a feature that will cost you extra with 1st- and 2nd-generation AirPods) is another simple plastic design in the matching colors of the earbuds. There's a shiny, silver Huawei logo on the back, which helps disguise the metal hinge mechanism. However, it does kind of look like a manufacturing mistake, since it makes far more sense to have your logo on the front of the case.

The case's circular shape means it's quite wide and tall (60.9mm diameter x 21.8mm depth, or 2.4-inch diameter x 0.85-inch depth). It's a lot taller and a hair thicker than the AirPods Pro case — 45.2 x 60.6 x 21.7mm (1.78 x 2.39 x 0.85 inches) — and also quite a bit wider and taller than the wireless AirPods case — 53.5 x 44.3 x 21.3mm (2.11 x 1.74 x 0.84 inches). I don't think it's a significant difference, though, since the FreeBuds' case will still fit comfortably in a jeans pocket, but the noticeably chunkier profile at least made me feel like the buds within were safer during a sudden drop than the AirPods would be.

The FreeBuds 3 are IPX4 sweat- and water-resistant, just like the AirPods Pro, making FreeBuds safe for workouts and rainy days, but don't try taking them for a swim. Jabra's Elite 65t and Elite Active 65t have IP55 and IP56 ratings, respectively, so go for these if you want something more robust.

FreeBuds 3 fit: Open but secure

Unfortunately for me when using the FreeBuds 3, I don't like open-fit earbuds as a rule. My ears have always preferred gel-tipped buds that snugly fit within your ear rather than the kind that sit at the entrance of your ear and are held in by your tragus, as the FreeBuds are. 

When I first tried the AirPods (2nd gen), I was delighted to find that they were extremely comfortable from the moment I placed them in my ears. However, the FreeBuds' slightly larger size meant it took a little adjustment to find the most comfortable position for them, and even then, I was still very aware of their presence as I wore them. I got used to them after a short while, and they never felt insecure in my ears, even when I wore them while running. In the end, I was able to ignore them as well as I could the AirBuds, so I imagine if you're less picky about your earbuds' fit style, you'll get along well with the FreeBuds.

The Huawei buds (measuring 1.6 x 0.8 x 0.7 inches or 41.5 x 20.4 x 17.8mm) are almost identical in size to the AirPods (1.6 x 0.7 x 0.7 inches or 40.5  x 18.0 x 16.5mm) but are a tiny bit larger in every dimension. As for weight, again, the FreeBuds are a little larger, each bud weighing 4.5 grams (0.16 ounces) against the AirPods' 4 grams (0.14 ounces) and with the case weighing 48 grams (1.8 ounces) against Apple's 40 grams (1.4 ounces). These differences are easy to spot on a spec sheet, but in real life, you won't notice the difference when you're using the Huawei buds.

FreeBuds 3 setup

Pairing the FreeBuds to either an iOS or Android device works in the usual way. With the earbuds in the case, you hold down the small button on the exterior of the case with the lid open, and eventually you'll see the FreeBuds 3 pop up in your Bluetooth menu.

To get a fuller FreeBuds experience, you need the AI Life app, available only on Android (sorry, iPhone users). This has, until now, been used as a management app for Huawei's routers, but it now supports the FreeBuds and the upcoming Huawei Eyewear smart glasses with extra features and tools. With this app, the setup of the FreeBuds is almost as simple as getting AirPods working on an Apple device. Simply turn on the case with the side button and open it up. Within seconds, you'll get a pop-up that you can use to quickly pair the buds, bypassing the Bluetooth menu entirely.

FreeBuds features

But the true potential of these buds is reserved for existing Huawei users. Exclusive to EMUI 10 devices is the FreeBuds' super-low-latency feature, achieved via an "isochronous dual channel" connection. It basically means that both buds receive only their own left/right signal, rather than the usual solutions of both buds receiving both signals or one receiving both and then sending one on to the other. Huawei's method is meant to save power and make for a less laggy experience. 

You can get EMUI 10, Huawei's take on Android 10, as standard on the Mate 30 series and on P30-, Mate 20- and P20-series devices in the coming months. Given the difficulties surrounding buying Huawei's devices, particularly in the U.S., this means you can't make the most of the FreeBuds without significant extra effort.

Another Huawei-device exclusive is easy swapping between devices. If you sign in to your phone with Huawei ID and do the same with another Huawei device, like a Watch GT 2, your FreeBuds will pair with the watch when you leave home without the phone and will reconnect with your phone once you're back. You can manually manage multiple device connections through AI Life easily, though, thanks to the Reconnect button, which bypasses the Bluetooth menu if you've paired the buds previously.

Other than easy pairing, AI Life also offers you handy information. That includes the individual battery life of each bud and the case, the ability to customize what the double-tap shortcuts on the buds do, and the ability to change the noise-cancelling settings.

Turning on the FreeBuds and listening to something takes barely any time. Huawei's claim that the company's earbuds can connect to one of its own phones in 2.5 seconds checks out, and it was only a few tenths of a second slower when I tried with the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro phone I use daily. My MacBook Pro connected just as quickly, so you don't have to worry about cross-brand compatibility, even on a different genre of device. Essentially, it means the FreeBuds offer near-instantaneous pairing with whatever you want to connect them to.

FreeBuds 3 controls

The only control method on the FreeBuds 3 themselves is to double tap either the left or right earbud. In AI Life, you can choose what this can do on either bud, the options being pausing or skipping tracks, waking a voice assistant, or turning the noise cancelling on or off. While it's still limited, at least you have some flexibility in what in-line controls you want to have access to without reaching for your device.

It's a little fiddly to get the right kind of double tap at first, but this is something you master after a few tries. It's not as easy as using dedicated buttons, as larger rivals do, but this option keeps the design clean while giving you your choice of two controls rather than a fixed scheme like what Apple provides. It's a compromise that I think works quite well once you are used to the system.

FreeBuds 3 noise cancellation 

Having noise cancelling in open-fit earbuds is a world first, and Huawei's done its utmost to fit together two design choices that common sense would call irreconcilable.

The effect isn't the sound-proof cocoon that you get with full sized headphones or larger earbuds; about the best you can manage here is cutting out distant road noise or a conversation across a room. This noise cancellation creates just enough insulation from the outside world that you can still hear the quieter parts of songs that may otherwise have been lost. That's not good enough for deep concentration sessions, but it is good for enjoying your music at near-full quality even in a noisy environment.

• Best noise-cancelling headphones 2019

Interestingly, the setting itself is adjustable, via a dial in the AI Life app that changes the sensitivity of the external microphones and quality of the "anti-noise" the buds produce, so you can adapt to whatever environment you are in. I found that adjusting this dial each time I moved to a new location was worth doing, because it made a noticeable difference. But you still won't manage to properly cut yourself off from the world, no matter how hard you try.

As a test, I compared the FreeBuds against the Jabra Elite 65t earbuds, which claim to have "wind noise protection" and "ambient noise reduction" rather than noise cancellation but use tighter-fitting ear gels rather than an open-fit design. I took them both on a 5-minute walk along the street outside TG's London office while listening to synthwave artist Carpenter Brut's "Le Perv." The bottom line was that while I liked the sound of the FreeBuds more than that of the Elite 65t buds, due to the FreeBuds' larger sound, the noise-cancelling effect on the Jabras was more pronounced. Although the synth drums and buzzing bass were weaker on the Elite 65t buds, they managed to cut out wind noise and the engines of passing cars effectively. Meanwhile, the FreeBuds, even though I did my best to adjust the noise-cancelling settings to the environment, still let in people's conversations, as well as all the other surrounding sounds. 

An important note for Apple fans: If you use the FreeBuds 3 with an iPhone, then you won't have access to any of this, since you can't download AI Life on an Apple phone. You may want to look elsewhere if you're keen on noise cancelling.

FreeBuds 3 audio

You get great sound out of the FreeBuds. Speech comes out very well, as do treble and middle tones, while the bass is weak, typical of this size of earbud. The tips of the buds, which Huawei claims are inspired by the shape of a dolphin's vocal cavity, channel the sound very directly into your ears, so there's next to zero sound leakage, even when you've got the volume way up.

When I listened to a podcast (BBC Sounds’ “Kermode and Mayo's Film Review”) on the FreeBuds, the voices were clear even at low levels and noticeably brighter than on the more-neutral AirPods 2nd gen. Those required a slightly higher volume setting to get to the level I wanted.

As for music, which I first tested with a "Best of Tame Impala" playlist, the FreeBuds dealt well with Kevin Parker's falsetto vocals, but you do miss out on some of the bass, as is common with smaller earbuds. The AirPods were far more effective on the drumbeats, with the rest of the mix settling in fairly evenly. But without the tighter seal or noise cancelling, the band's songs were vulnerable to being drowned out by exterior noise.

• The Best AirPods Accessories of 2019

When I swapped out the indie rock for some orchestral ambience in the form of the soundtrack for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, it was a similar story, only played out over a larger group of instruments. The violins, woodwind and brass did well on both sets of earbuds, but the thundering timpanis and droning cellos and double basses came out better on the AirPods, except when there was significant background noise that the FreeBuds could cancel out.

Rounding out the test with some emotional showstoppers from Anaïs Mitchell's musical "Hadestown," the AirPods did excellently with the close-harmony singing and quieter moments in the songs. But when the full band kicks in, with the whole company joining, the FreeBuds let you appreciate the melody on the guitars and violins better, even if it comes at the expense of the lower-sounding instruments and even some of the singers.

If you're picking a favorite on just this part of the test and nothing else, then you're better off with the AirPods for all-around quality. The FreeBuds are better if you want to concentrate on smaller parts of the mix, be that voice or lead instruments, and if the noise cancelling happens to be useful in the time and place you're listening.

FreeBuds 3 battery life and Bluetooth

Huawei promises 4 hours of battery life in the buds themselves and 20 in total with the charging case. That's 1 hour and 4 hours less than the respective stats for the AirPods, (both the standard gen 2s and the Pros), but it was still enough to last through a couple of days' usage while I was at work without having to think about charging. 

Where Huawei claims an advantage is charging speed. The FreeBuds's case achieves a 70% charge when you plug the case in for 30 minutes or 30% when wirelessly charged for the same period, which are both meant to be twice as fast as what the AirPods wireless charging case can manage, wired or wirelessly. However, Apple does not make any official equivalent claims about the AirPods' case's charging speeds. You can wirelessly charge the FreeBuds with a charging mat or off the back of a reverse wireless-charging phone, such as Huawei's own P30 Pro or the Mate 30 Pro. I tested the latter and found that it could do exactly what Huawei promised.

You'll want to take a USB-C cable with you if you're going to be away from base for anything longer than two days. But you won't need to keep one in your bag for everyday use, especially if you've got some wireless-charging-capable gadgets to deliver a rapid top-up when you need it.

The connection to your phone, even if it's a non-Huawei device like the one I used for the majority of my testing, is near-impeccably solid, connecting quickly and staying connected. Whenever I wear my Elite 65t buds out to my local supermarket, the security barriers cause the buds to drop audio for a few seconds after I've walked through the entrance, presumably due to some radio interference. The FreeBuds 3 have no such issue, thanks to their secure Bluetooth 5.1 connection.

The only issue I noticed is that the FreeBuds sometimes desynchronize when you start playing something, giving you a second or so of weird echoing between your ears until the issue sorts itself out. This is a minor problem that could theoretically be easily patched out, but it's still something to be aware of since it happened regularly.

Bottom line

The stylish and feature-rich FreeBuds 3 are a fine pair of earbuds, but like all Huawei phone products, they won't be going on sale in the U.S. That makes a wholehearted recommendation impossible.

The only reason you'd buy these as an Apple user is if you want earbuds that look like AirPods but that cost a little less. This is a bad idea, though, because Huawei locks features in an Android-exclusive app. The 2nd-generation AirPods may cost a little more, but they are still really good, and the AirPods Pro are a fantastic choice if your budget can stretch that far.

If you are using an Android phone, then the £170 price in exchange for great sound, design and variety of supporting features is quite a bargain. True, it'll work perfectly only if you've got a recent Huawei device, but even with a different manufacturer's phone with AI Life installed, you'll be very satisfied with the all-round effectiveness of the FreeBuds 3.

With the new Mate 30 Pro, Huawei looks to build on the success of last year's Mate 20 Pro phablet. The cameras, display and design have all undergone significant changes for the Mate 30 Pro, accompanied by new software features and hardware that round off the upgrade. 

But while the engineering may be innovative, there are good reasons to steer clear of this smartphone. First, Huawei's continuing problems with the U.S. government have given the Mate 30 the dubious honor of being barred from using Google apps. Second, as with recent Huawei phones, U.S. users will not be able to buy the Mate 30, although Huawei will likely sell the phone in the U.K. at a later date. 

These obstacles, plus a few smaller issues with the handset, are not unbeatable. But why bother when there are already fully functional Android phones that more readily available? You'll need to be truly in love with the Mate 30 Pro's hardware to pick this over a Galaxy Note 10 Plus or Google Pixel 4 XL.

Editors' Note: We are reviewing a Chinese 4G version of the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, which may differ from final 4G version or 5G version, both of which are expected to launch in Europe in the coming months.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro Review: Cheat sheet

• The Mate 30 Pro's cameras don't always give the prettiest images, but they're versatile if you know what you're doing.
• The Mate 30 Pro's display is colorful and accurate, but not super-bright compared with rival phones.
• Google apps won’t work on the Mate 30 Pro, which means you'll either have to stick with the phone's default apps, or find new ones in Huawei's App Gallery
• The Kirin 990 processor, 8GB RAM and Mali-G76 GPU deliver great performance for an Android phone, but not quite enough to beat Apple's latest iPhones.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro price and availability

Huawei hasn't revealed release dates or prices yet. While the Mate 30 series was never expected to come to the U.S., we’re still hoping for a U.K. release as part of the wider European release, rumored to be happening later in November.

At the Mate 30 Pro's launch event in September, Huawei said the phone would cost €1,099 for a handset with 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage. That converts to $1,210/£971, although prices often adjust for regional taxes and other factors. 

Huawei Mate 30 Pro Specs

Huawei Mate 30 Pro Design: Simple but stunning shapes

The Mate 30 Pro makes a great first impression. The overflowing Horizon Display means there are no bezels on the left or right side of the phone, which, when combined with the back, make a complete smooth curve around the phone's body. Less appealing are the rather thick bezels on the top and bottom of the display, and there's a sizable notch in the top center, but I still think the Mate 30 Pro is a very attractive phone.

Notches are becoming passé on some notable Android manufacturer's phones thanks to the addition of pop-up selfie cameras and punch-holes. But like Apple with the iPhone 11 series, Huawei's stuck with them, which has allowed the company to pack the front-camera array with some 3D-face-recognition technology to rival Apple's Face ID. The Mate 30 Pro's notch is smaller than the iPhone's, in part due to Huawei's removal of a top speaker for an sub-display assembly like the P30 Pro's. This cleans up the exterior, but at the expense of audio performance.

The traditional camera-inspired shape of the Mate 30 series' back isn't as gimmicky as it sounds. While the rear cameras are mounted in a circular bump, accented with a halo ring with the flash located in the top left corner just like an old-fashioned camera, I find it a smart design on its own merits. Even with the printed text making sure you don't forget the phone is made by Huawei and packs Leica lenses, the Mate 30's frame looks modern without being elaborately detailed, which is backed up by the color options.

There are four colors to pick from here: black, cosmic purple, emerald green (which additionally comes with a matte to gloss finish) and space silver, the color of my review unit. Since the camera bump is itself black, the black-bodied version lacks some of the contrast of the other three models, but all four color options look pretty good.

The silver model I tested looked as wonderful and shiny as you would hope when you take it out of the box, but it picks up smudges at an irritatingly fast pace, much like the Aurora Glow-colored Galaxy Note 10. If you pick this phone, and particularly this color option, I would recommend finding a clear case to store your Mate 30 Pro, such as the one Huawei itself sells, to avoid turning the back of the phone into a fingerprint art gallery.

The Mate 30 Pro's power button, colored in a contrasting metallic red on all models and located slightly less than halfway down the right side of the phone, has had to be pushed backward to make way for the horizon edges, so it won't sit in the center of your thumb or middle finger as it does on most phones. It's a peculiar feeling, as it means you have to hold the phone slightly tilted if you want to press the button — not something I'm comfortable doing with a $1,000 phone.

The volume control on the Mate 30 Pro no longer exists as a physical switch. The controls are now activated by a double tap on either edge of the top third of the display where the buttons used to be. Although controlling the volume takes a little getting used to, it's very convenient to be able to adjust audio from both sides of the phone, and it stops Huawei from having to add another oddly located button.

The Mate 30 Pro feels small for the amount of screen space you get. It's shorter and narrower than the Galaxy Note 10 Plus or the iPhone 11 Pro Max, while beating the iPhone on screen size. And although Huawei's phone is thicker than both of these other options, the Mate 30 Pro's curved display and back mean it still feels good to hold. It also weighs almost the same as the Note 10 Plus at 6.98 ounces, which I feel is the sensible limit for how heavy a phablet can be before you start noticing the extra mass.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro display: Stretching out forever

While featuring a slightly smaller display than the standard 6.62-inch Mate 30, the 6.53-inch OLED FHD+ panel on the Mate 30 Pro addresses the smaller screen size by extending the left and right sides of the display off the edges almost 90 degrees. This Horizon Display, as Huawei calls it, is quite astonishing to look at, even when you're just scrolling through the home pages.

When you're watching videos, you don't notice that the screen isn't completely flat at the top and bottom. While watching some YouTube videos detailing fancy Devil May Cry 5 combos, the dark environments of the game showed up brightly, and the numerous tiny particle effects were  exceptionally crisp, too.

One problem with the extreme curve appears when you are using the camera app. If you hold the display lower or higher than your normal sightline, the curve means you can't quite see where the edge of your photo is, so you can potentially cut things out of the shot. It's a minor problem, since you can always take another picture should you notice the error you've made, but it's something I imagine many potential users would run into and notice only when it was too late.

On the plus side, the edge of the Mate 30 Pro's display still registers your touches, unlike some similar displays. As mentioned above, it has eliminated the need for a volume key, but it can also be used to control an extra shutter button for the camera, or generally to swipe and tap through apps.

Regarding test results, the Mate 30 Pro's display, in its vivid color mode, manages 178.5% of the sRGB color gamut, which is far better than either the iPhone 11 Pro Max (118.6%) or the Note 10 Plus (124.6%), losing only to the OnePlus 7 Pro's 180%. The Mate 30 Pro's Delta-E score, which measures color accuracy  is 0.27, is roughly in line with the Note 10 Plus' 0.25 and the iPhone’s 0.28, but not as good as the 7 Pro's 0.18. (The smaller the number, the better the accuracy.) In the Mate 30 Pro's normal color profile, these results change, the display becoming less colorful (112.4% sRGB) but more accurate (0.21 Delta-E).

The Mate 30 Pro's total average brightness came out as 396 nits, which is shockingly dim, since the iPhone 11 Pro Max managed 761 nits, and the Note 10 Plus 686 nits on the same test. I didn't notice a problem when using the Mate 30 Pro either indoors or outdoors in bright light, but it's interesting to discover that this excellent screen does have a weakness.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro cameras: Niche applications

Armed with a 40MP wide sensor, a 40MP ultrawide Cine sensor, an 8MP 3x optical telephoto sensor and a time-of-flight sensor, the Mate 30 Pro is ready for any photographic situation you could want to throw at it. So to give it the most rigorous test we could, we put it up against the recently released iPhone 11 Pro Max to see which multilens phone did the best.

One of Huawei's favorite tricks to show off with its SuperSensing camera is how you can turn off all the lights in a room and still take decent pictures of whatever's there. The iPhone 11 Pro Max, which features Apple's new automatic Night Mode, produces a fairly true-to-life color out of this image of some wall art in pitch darkness, but the image is pretty noisy. The Mate 30 Pro's image, both in Night Mode (shown in all of these low-light comparisons) or in standard photo mode comes out a lot cleaner. That said, the colors in the Mate 30 Pro's images are not as good as what the iPhone produced, either coming out too warm in Night Mode or too cold in normal mode, compared to how I saw the scene with my own eyes.

Taking the two phones out into Manhattan  after dark, we see a similar problem with this shot of Bryant Park. Although it's nice to have the option to manually swap modes with the Mate 30 Pro, you end up with an image that's either a little too dark or that's far too bright. The iPhone hits a happy medium between the two extremes.

In Times Square, where there are lights everywhere, the gap between the phones is only slight. The Mate 30's Night Mode comes into its own here, helping the darker sidewalk pop just as much as the billboards. The iPhone 11 Pro Max's image is warmer, but I don't think either phone really stands out here. It seems that the Huawei thrives in extreme lighting conditions, while the Apple is tuned to work best with average amounts of light in a shot.

When it's daylight, we start to see the weakness of the Mate 30 Pro's sensors. Being able to capture lots of light is all well and good, but not when you start to approach overexposure. Both of the images below are perfectly acceptable shots, but the iPhone gets the colors across more effectively.

These portrait shots of TG's own Kate Kozuch tells a similar story. While both phones do a good job of blurring the background to create a bokeh effect, the Mate 30 Pro creates a far flatter looking image.

The two phones have slightly different ultrawide angle lenses, but they're still comparable. Here we see a reversal of the overexposure problem, with the iPhone creating the brighter image, but one that still looks good. The Mate 30 Pro's colors are richer, and the angle's slightly tighter. As a result, neither phone outperforms the other on this particular shot.

Comparing the two phones’ zoom abilities is tricky since they have different optical magnifications — 3x for the Mate 30 Pro, 2x for the iPhone 11. Therefore I tried both at 5x, requiring the two phones to use hybrid (simultaneous optical and digital) zoom, with a small flower as a subject.

The difference between the two is surprising. The iPhone has the Mate 30 Pro beat on megapixels (12 to 8), but even so, the noise, light level and detail are all far worse on the Mate 30 than I would have expected. The only praise I can give to the Mate 30 is how vivid the pink petals look, but it's not enough to take the point from the iPhone 11.

Turning to the selfie camera, I like how both photos turned out. I prefer the iPhone picture a little more since it looks more natural, but the Mate 30 Pro does the greatest justice to the beautiful day I took the phones out to take pictures with its additional brightness.

As a bonus test, I headed out with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus to see how another Android phablet would perform in a couple of key photo situations. The results were very close indeed.

In these mirrored selfie shots, I look a much healthier color in the Note 10's image than I do in the Mate 30's, even if that phone's higher resolution image does capture smaller details like my beard more effectively. It's the classic problem with selfies: Do I prefer the more accurate image or the more flattering one? There's not much in it, but I side with the Note 10 here.

In a standard main sensor shot of the park, we see the Note 10 manages to squeeze more color and detail out of the scene, which you can see at the borders of the shadows in the image and in the clothing of the people in the foreground. It's a matter of taste again rather than a strict judgment, but once more I think the Note 10 does a better job.

The Mate 30 Pro has a lot of tricks up its sleeve for photography, but hardware isn't everything. Apple and Samsung's processing software gives you much nicer photographs in general, even if in some specific settings Huawei's unique tuning gives it an edge. It's a toss-up between the Note 10 and the Mate 30 Pro for me, but if you're not an Android adherent, then the iPhone 11 Pro seems to be a better bet for consistent high-quality photo shooting; no wonder it's our pick for the best camera phone.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro performance: A top-of-the-line Android

Using the Kirin 990, which is Huawei's newest SoC, the Mate 30 series is going to set the pace for Huawei and Honor phones into 2020. The Mate 30 Pro pairs this with 8GB RAM, which is the most Huawei ever offers on its phones (excluding the 12GB RAM Porsche Design version of the Mate 30 Pro); even though some rivals, like the Galaxy Note 10 Plus, offer up to 12GB RAM as standard.

On Geekbench 5, the Mate 30 Pro scored 772 on the single core test and 2,881 on the multicore test. This is better than the Note 10 Plus (736 and 2,691), but worse than the iPhone 11 Pro Max (1,334 and 3,517), which is to be expected. Apple's CPUs are always miles ahead of any of the ones Android phones typically use.

We also performed some graphics tests, to see what the CPU plus the Mate 30 Pro's Mali-G76 GPU could manage in tandem. On 3DMark's Sling Shot Extreme (OpenGL ES 3.1), the Mate 30 managed a score of 5,679, a touch worse than the Note 10 Plus' 5,781, but still a respectable performance. On GFXBench 5's Aztec Ruins (High Tier) Vulkan test, the Huawei managed 1,055 frames, which is just slightly worse than the Samsung's 1,058 frames, but a lot worse than the iPhone's 1,657 frames.

The Mate 30 does have a stereo loudspeaker system, but the mismatching designs mean the volume is unbalanced, along with the EQ, which favors percussion and treble sounds. Watching the most recent trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order looks excellent on the display, but you lose out on the hum of lightsabers and the brass section of the orchestral soundtrack.

The same audio issues can be found when playing the racing game Asphalt 9: Legends. None of it sounds bad, but you know that the revving engines would sound better on other phone's loudspeakers. Happily, the fast-moving graphically intensive game does show off the GPU well. It processes the action excellently, and with only a small amount of additional heat coming from the top corner of the phone.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro software: Where's Google?

Thanks to the U.S.-China trade war, and the U.S. government's blacklisting of Huawei, Google had to withdraw its support from Huawei's devices. Although the Mate 30 series is still allowed to run the open-source Android operating system, it doesn't have any of the Android mainstays like Gmail or YouTube pre-installed, nor does it have the Play Store to let you download those apps yourself.

On the surface, the Mate 30 Pro, running on Android 10 via Huawei's EMUI 10 launcher, looks like any other Android phone on its home screens and settings menus. But with no Play Store, your source of apps will have to be Huawei's App Gallery storefront, which, at least on my Chinese pre-release handset, was not tuned for global users. After switching the App Gallery to the U.K. version, which requires a Huawei ID login, you'll still not recognize many of the apps available. Those you will spot are Chinese-tailored versions of browsers like Firefox and Opera, which work as normal except they feature a lot of Chinese text and are not optimized for Western internet mainstays like YouTube.

During our tests, we used a third-party website named LZPlay to download the Play Store onto the Mate 30 Pro. It allowed us to try out the phone with a familiar set of apps, but this is not a true solution to the problem for normal users. For one, the site has since been taken down, and given that LZPlay required you to give numerous permissions in order to install the files, it wouldn't be safe to use this on your own personal device.

Google has also shut down SafetyNet, its app authentication and security system, on the Mate 30, meaning that even if you download Google apps onto the Mate 30 Pro by other means, they still wouldn't work as they lack Google's signature to permit them to do so.

You could make do with the built-in Huawei browser, email client and so forth, while hoping that Huawei improves the App Gallery experience for users outside of China. But as it stands, the lack of Google apps can't be avoided, nor can the implications for the average potential buyer.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro Air Gestures: Hands-free control

Thanks to its tricked-out front-camera array, the Mate 30 Pro recognizes more than just the presence of your face. It can read the angle of your eyes, which means that device's auto-rotation follows both the phone's internal gyroscope and how you're positioned. You can lie on your side or get up while holding the phone and still have the screen oriented like you had it before; you can also turn the phone around while holding it flat and have it swap orientations. It's only a small annoyance when other phones swap or don't change at unwanted moments, but impressively, Huawei seems to have eliminated that problem. 

More notably, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro includes Air Gestures, which attempt to steal the Google Pixel 4's gesture-control thunder by letting you scroll up and down pages and take screenshots by moving and clenching your hand, respectively. They're fun to use, and fun to see how other people react to you using them, but I don't think they're that useful.

After initially struggling to getting the Mate 30 Pro's front-camera array to register the presence of my hand, I eventually got the hang of things and could easily scroll up and down pages. But even if you can move through menus and web pages without touching the phone, you can only scroll a single fixed distance at a single fixed speed with each motion, rather than having the freedom to alter both as you please when you use the touch screen. Longer pages became a tedious slog with this feature, so I stopped using it. I like the screenshot feature more, since it's a simpler operation that does feel marginally quicker than navigating to the appropriate button in the Quick Settings bar.

While a cool addition overall, Huawei's Air Gestures needs greater versatility before it becomes a killer feature for the phone. And even though the Pixel 4's own Motion Sense gestures aren't superb, they seem slightly more useful than what Huawei has so far.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro Security: Better face unlocking

To unlock the Mate 30 Pro, your two primary options are a sub-display fingerprint sensor, or face unlocking. I had no problems with either method, although having a fast and secure Face ID rival on an Android phone is a rare treat, since most facial recognition systems on Android are based only on image rather than the more secure infra-red dot projection. It takes about the same amount of time to open the Mate 30 Pro as an iPhone 11 (lift up the phone, wait a beat for your face to be recognized, swipe up on the screen), but the Pixel 4 is definitely faster thanks to its Motion Sense radar noticing your hand reaching for it and preparing its unlock.

The Mate 30 Pro's approach works from multiple angles and in various light conditions, and once you're registered, it only takes a swipe upward to get into your phone. That makes face unlock on the Mate 30 Pro just as quick as entering a PIN or using a fingerprint.

Speaking of which, the Mate 30 Pro's fingerprint reader is an optical model that we've seen on previous Huawei smartphones. It remains one of the faster unlocking examples that I've found on smartphones released this year, but with the face unlock ability I didn't need to use it much.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro battery: It lasts a while

Purely from the specs, we had high hopes for the Mate 30 Pro's battery performance. At 4,500mAh, the new phone's battery has 200mAh more than the Note 10 Plus, and over 500mAh more than the iPhone 11 Pro Max (at least according to unofficial teardowns). 

In our custom battery test, which involves browsing the internet over a 4G LTE data signal at 150 nits screen brightness until the phone switches off, the Mate 30 Pro made it to 12 hours and 44 minutes. That's nearly an hour longer than the iPhone 11 Pro Max's 11 hours and 54 minutes, and more than 1.5 hours longer than the Galaxy Note 10 Plus' 11 hours and 9 minutes, making the Huawei one of the longest-lasting phones we've tested, and certainly a top performer among premium phablets.

When it comes to charging, the 40W wired SuperCharge plug that comes in the box with the Mate 30 Pro certainly lives up to its name. It gets you to 37% battery capacity in 15 minutes, and 67% in 30 minutes, which is plenty for a day of moderate usage. The default 25W charger for the Note 10 Plus manages 26% and 47% at 15 and 30 minutes, respectively, while the 18W iPhone 11 Pro charger gets to 48% after 30 minutes.

You also get wireless charging with the Mate 30 Pro, up to 27W if you use one of Huawei's own charging pads. We tested this with one of the aforementioned official wireless chargers (which are also awaiting an official release date for the U.K.), and managed 24% after 15 minutes, and 44% after 30 minutes. Don't expect that kind of speed from a generic wireless charger, though.

Like Samsung's latest flagships, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro offers reverse wireless charging, in case you want to donate some power to someone with a dead phone or you need to top up your wireless accessories.

Bottom line

It's incredibly annoying to find a phone with excellent specs, tech and engineering brought down by circumstances beyond its control. Yet this is where the Mate 30 Pro finds itself — a stunning Android handset with potential that you can barely make the most of because you can't get the apps you want to use on it. 

There's also the matter of the Mate 30 Pro's cameras, which don't really distinguish themselves from the top camera phones. The Mate 30 Pro's strongest showings come in weird shooting situations, while it's bested by rival phones in the more standard-shot compositions we tested.

It's impressive that the Mate 30 Pro still managed to turn out OK despite the odds against it. Nonetheless, the availability issues, and the block on Google and Play Store usage, mean it's impossible to recommend this phone to any user willing to spend $1,000. An iPhone 11 Pro Max would be an excellent alternative, or perhaps a Note 10 Plus or a OnePlus 7 Pro if you want the best Android phone available. But if you demand top hardware no matter what else you have to give up, then you're the closest to a perfect match for the Mate 30 Pro.