While US restrictions are still making life miserable for Huawei, the company has decided to reduce the release of a pair of flagship models each year (the photography-centric P series and the technologically advanced Mate series) to produce a single model. lighthouse in a calendar. year. Huawei alternates with the flagship P 50 series released last year, leaving the flagship Mate 50 series to ship this year.
Huawei’s flagship 2022 lineup, the Mate 50, could launch on September 7
Huawei does not have enough inventory of its Kirin 9000S chip to cover all four models. Indeed, in 2020, the United States changed an export rule preventing foundries using American technology from shipping chips to Huawei. As a result, while the flagship Huawei P50 series used Qualcomm’s powerful Snapdragon 888 chipset, the component was modified to prevent it from being used with 5G networks.
If Huawei wants to be competitive in the smartphone market and attempt to recapture the glory days when it was on the verge of overtaking Samsung as the world’s top handset shipper, it will eventually have to offer 5G models. But the Mate 50 series will continue to only support 4G, which is quite ironic given that Huawei’s position as one of the world’s leading telecommunications equipment vendors means it has worked on more 5G networks than most companies in the field. Yet, it is unable to offer 5G support on its latest and greatest phones. What the Mate 50 series will offer is the latest version of Huawei’s Harmony OS, version 3.0.
Goodbye Leica, hello XMAGE
The Mate 50 will feature new features for the rear camera array and a video of a concept version of the Mate 50 based on past leaks and rumors reveals an iPhone-style notch on the display. The Mate 30 series from 2019 was the last of the Mate models to have a notch on the front screen.
The Mate 50 rear camera is branded XMAGE, which is the company’s name for new photography technologies it will use on its high-end phones. Previously, the company partnered with camera and lens maker Leica to supply the company with optics for its smartphone cameras. That partnership has come to an end, and Leica now supplies optics to fellow Chinese phone supplier Xiaomi.
Huawei will therefore be developing its own imaging and optical technologies under the XMAGE brand which will take pride of place on the rear camera of the Mate 50 if the phone resembles the concept of the video we embedded in the story.
Huawei is no longer the smartphone powerhouse it once was, but it still has the technological capabilities to innovate, which means we need to continue to keep an eye on the phones the company produces.