Huawei today hosted a virutal launch in Barcelona, Spain following the cancellation of MWC 2020, during which it announced a series of new 5G products and strategy. I joined from an event in central London, hosted by Huawei to see what these new products were.
HUAWEI Mate Xs
First up we had the latest evolution of its foldable devices – the HUAWEI Mate Xs. It looks and feels very much like the original Mate X which was launched in Barcelona last year with the same 6.6-inch front display, 6.4-inch rear display which then unfolds into an 8-inch screen.
A couple of upgrades have been made however, including an improved mechanical hinge and 5G connectivity. The improved mechanical hinge includes new parts made of zirconium-based liquid metal which provides extra robustness and durability. The new Kirin 990 5G embedded chip in the Mate Xs delivers a superior 5G user experience that is faster, more complete and efficient.
The quad camera setup, comprised of a 40MP super-sensing camera, a 16MP ultra wide angle camera, an 8MP telephoto camera and a 3D depth sensing camera makes a return on the Xs too. This powerful Leica camera system takes full advantage of the foldable form factor, playing the role of both the front and rear cameras to support a wide range of photographic use cases.
Running on EMUI10, the Huawei device supports a smarter and more powerful experience across apps. The foldable display enables new productivity experiences with features such as multi-window and app multiplier. Huawei are actively encouraging developers to join in its effort to develop the foldable app ecosystem and explore its potential in delivering an all-round better experience to consumers.
More on this device coming soon!
HUAWEI WiFi AX3
Let’s keep this one short and simple as it’s probably the least exciting announcement that Huawei made, at least for the everyday techie. As part of Huawei’s Seamless AI Life strategy they announced their new WiFi AX3 router.
Leveraging the synergy between its proprietary chipset and software optimisations, Huawei has developed WiFi 6+ based on the new WiFi 6 standard. WiFi 6+ devices support 2.4GHz and 5GHz dual-band dual-concurrent (DBDC) data transfer and Huawei’s exclusive dynamic narrowband technology for vastly improved WiFi speeds and signal coverage.
The HUAWEI WiFi AX3 Series is equipped with the Gigahome 650 chipset, which allows it to support DBDC operations at speeds up to 3000Mbps. When used in conjunction with a Huawei device that also supports WiFi 6+.
Huawei also launched the HUAWEI 5G CPE Pro 2, a new WiFi 6+CPE that is 30% more compact than its predecessor. Other notable upgrades include the support for up to 11 5G bands and Huawei’s exclusive super uplink technology, which greatly improves upload speed and latency.
HUAWEI MatePad Pro 5G
The HUAWEI MatePad 5G features a 10.8-inch HD display with support for their cinema-grade DCI-P3 colour gamut. At 90% its has the world’s highest tablet screen-to-body ratio. Embedded within the lightweight tablet, the Kirin 990 5G SoC supports 5G connectivity while delivering high performance and power efficiency.
The tablet runs EMUI10 and can be connected to other Huawei smartphones through multi-screen collaboration, a Huawei share feature. Once the connection is established, users can navigate and control both devices on the tablets display.
Multi-screen collaboration also enables a whole host of other features such as drag-and-drop file transfers between the smartphone and tablet, peripheral sharing which allows users to type on the smartphone using the tablet’s keyboard and screen, play music saved on the smartphone with the tablets speakers and more.
App multiplier splits one app instance into two windows, delivering a dual-view experience that makes the most out of the landscape orientation.
HUAWEI App Gallery
Huawei’s own app store was launched back in 2011, and is now one of the top three global app marketplaces. Aside from your normal apps, the AppGallery also offers Quick Apps, a new category of apps made for devices in the 5G era. Quick Apps require no installation and use minimal system memory. Users can just click on these apps to enjoy the smooth interaction and beautiful interfaces as though they were traditional apps. At present, there are over 1,700 Quick Apps available on the HUAWEI AppGallery.
So there we have it! A whole array of new products launched, some more exciting than other. Of course the Mate Xs continues to attract the biggest reaction and with good reason. Huawei are really making moves in the foldable device scene, and the HUAWEI Mate Xs doesn’t disappoint.
Stay tuned as we’ll soon be seeing the P40 Pro launched at an event in Paris later in March.