Huawei unveils 5G Mate 40 flagship smartphones as chip supply constraints loom

The new Mate 40, Mate 40 Pro and Mate 40 Pro+ smartphones are powered by Huawei’s own Kirin 9000 series system-on-a-chip
Pre-orders for the Mate 40 line starts on the mainland and selected markets on October 23, with prices from US$1,065

Huawei

Celia Chenin Shenzhen

Published: 10:46pm, 22 Oct 2020

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Huawei Technologies has introduced its latest 5G flagship smartphone line, the Mate 40 series, indicating China’s largest tech company is pushing ahead despite the impact of US trade sanctions on the supply of chips for its biggest business.

“Each year, the Huawei Mate series brings the most exciting technology together into one stunning package,” said Richard Yu Chengdong, chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business group, at the start of the online product launch held on Thursday.

Huawei’s new smartphones – the Mate 40, Mate 40 Pro and Mate 40 Pro+ – run the company’s own Kirin 9000 series system-on-a-chip (SOC), which it described as “capable of handling intensive computations and multitasking operations”. It said the world’s first 5-nanometre 5G SOC is packed with more than 15.3 billion transistors and increased power efficiency to handle on-device artificial intelligence.

Yu, however, later reiterated that Huawei was still operating “in a very difficult time” because of the recent US sanctions, which could potentially cut off the firm’s supply of advanced chips.

Richard Yu Chengdong, chief executive of Huawei Technologies’ consumer business group, presides over an enterprise that has dominated China’s smartphone industry. Photo: Bloomberg

Washington requires foreign chip suppliers that use US technology to apply for a licence to sell chips to Shenzhen-based Huawei over security concerns. It essentially chokes off the company’s ability to acquire any off-the-shelf chips developed or produced using US technology.

“Huawei in the last 30 years had the best reputation for cybersecurity and privacy protection,” Yu said. “For Huawei, no matter how hard the times are, our commitment is to continuously innovate.”

Pre-orders for the Mate 40, Mate 40 Pro and the Mate 40 Pro+ will start on the mainland and other selected markets on October 23, according to a Huawei spokesman on Thursday. The Mate 40, with a 6.5-inch display and 128-gigabyte capacity, is priced at 4,999 yuan (US$744). The 256GB Mate 40 Pro with a 6.76-inch display will sell for 6,499 yuan. The top-of-the-line Mate 40 Pro+, also with a 6.76-inch display and 256GB capacity, will cost 8,999 yuan.

Both the Mate Pro and Mate Pro+ offer smart gesture control for hands-free wake-up and navigation of the phone. But the Mate Pro+ has a dual-telephoto camera system that enables 20x hybrid zoom and 100x digital zoom.

“Demand for the Mate 40 series is expected to be strong in China,” said Jia Mo, an analyst at tech research firm Canalys. “Amid the US sanctions, component constraints may limit the total quantity of new Kirin-powered smartphones Huawei can produce.”

The launch of the Mate 40 Pro and other models in the series shows Huawei’s resilience under US sanctions. Photo: Handout

Beyond showing Huawei’s resilience under US sanctions, the company’s latest 5G handset launch reflects a major effort to keep its devices relevant to consumers, months after it surpassed Samsung Electronics for the first time in global smartphone shipments.

Yu said in August that the US sanctions will make it difficult for Huawei to ship smartphones with its high-end Kirin chips after this year. Huawei’s consumer business group, the company’s biggest operating segment, generated US$36.5 billion in revenue in the first half of this year.

In China, the world’s largest smartphone market, Apple could be poised to seize a bigger share of domestic demand for 5G devices with its new iPhone 12 Pro line. China is predicted to account for 35 to 45 per cent of the global demand for the iPhone 12 Pro, according to TF Securities International analyst Kuo Ming-chi, on the back of the country’s growing 5G infrastructure and as consumers turn to other vendors amid Huawei’s chip supply issues.

Beijing-based Xiaomi Corp, the world’s fourth-biggest smartphone vendor, is already positioning itself to replace Huawei as the leading smartphone supplier in Europe.

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“If the Mate 40 ends up being anything like recent Huawei phones, the camera is probably going to be one of the biggest draws,” said Bryan Ma, vice-president of devices research at market research firm IDC.

The camera system on the Mate 40 Series has been co-engineered with Germany’s Leica Camera, according to Huawei. The Dual Cine Cameras and Dual Ultra Wide Cameras on the Mate 40 Pro and Mate 40 Pro+ allow users to take wide-angle videos and images from both the front- and rear-facing cameras, the company said. It also indicated that the Ultra Vision Selfie Camera on the Mate 40 series supports 4K capture.

Amid the US sanctions, component constraints may limit the total quantity of new Kirin-powered smartphones Huawei can produce

Jia Mo, analyst at Canalys

IDC’s Ma, however, said “a great camera alone can’t sell the product if it’s too difficult to get Google services”.

Huawei is preparing to switch from Google’s widely-used Android operating system to its own Harmony OS, in a pivotal move to keep its smartphones competitive amid trade sanctions that have blocked its access to US-origin hardware, software and services.

The Shenzhen-based company was added to the US government’s Entity List in May last year. That barred Google from providing technical support for Huawei’s new Android smartphones and from providing Google Mobile Services, the bundle of developer services upon which most Android apps are based.

“Other Chinese vendors, like Xiaomi in particular, are eagerly eyeing the vacuum in the market that Huawei’s absence has created, particularly in markets like Europe,” IDC’s Ma said.

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Still, concerns remain about how Huawei will deal with US sanctions that had the company scrambling to stockpile chips.

“Our stock of chips for our enterprises business is adequate, but the company is still looking for ways to address the chipset problems for smartphones as Huawei consumes hundreds of millions of smartphone chip sets every year,” said rotating chairman Guo Ping last month at Huawei Connect 2020, the company’s annual event for the global information and communications technology industry.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world’s largest contract chip maker and a major supplier to Huawei, has declined to comment on speculation that it has applied to the US government for a licence to continue selling chips to the Chinese telecoms giant. Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek confirmed in August that it has applied with the US for a licence to continue supplying chips to Huawei after new US sanctions took effect on September 15.

Chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp has asked for a licence to continue supplying Huawei, but US moves to impose restrictions on the Shanghai-based company complicate that situation.

Huawei likely has chip inventory that will last through the first quarter of next year, according to Nicole Peng, vice-president of mobility research at Canalys.

“During this time, Huawei needs to find out what it can produce without US tech components,” Peng said. “It also needs to evaluate if these devices are competitive enough ... Huawei has enough research and development capabilities to focus on building its ecosystem, mobile operating system and even OS for Internet of Things devices.”

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