Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro to be unveiled on September 19th

Huawei took to its official Twitter account today to announce that it will unveil the Mate 30 series on September 19th. For PhoneArena readers, this is not a surprise; back on August 11th we told you that the company's president of software development, Wang Chenglu, had leaked that date to Hi-tech.mail. The Mate 30 Pro will be the manufacturer's most advanced non-foldable phone released this year, and under normal circumstances, demand for the line might have taken Huawei to the top of the smartphone industry in terms of shipments. But this has not been a normal year for the firm.

Back on May 16th, the U.S. Commerce Department put Huawei on its Entity List for security reasons. That prevents the company from accessing the U.S. supply chain it spent $11 billion on last year. While some exceptions are being made to allow Huawei to service existing customers, the manufacturer is shut off from purchasing memory chips from Micron and other components from Intel and Qualcomm. But what might hurt the company the most is its inability to license the Google Play services version of Android for new devices. Last week, Google told the media that the Mate 30 line will not be able to use the version of Android it licenses, nor will the phones be able to employ Google's core Android apps or include the Google Play Store.

While Huawei unveiled its own HarmonyOS last month, the company said that it will not use the new software on high-end devices. Huawei might have to turn to an open-source version of Android similar to the FireOS variant used by Amazon for its tablets. Amazon also used this forked version of Android for the Fire Phone, one of its biggest flops (if not the biggest). Even if Huawei decides to install an open-source version of Android on the Mate 30 phones, the models will still sell pretty well in China. The ban has ignited a wave of patriotism among Chinese consumers that led Huawei to claim 38.2% of the domestic market during the second quarter. That is more than double the 18.3% market share in China owned by runner-up Oppo from April through June. For the first half of 2019, which included 6 weeks on the Entity List, Huawei delivered 118 million handsets worldwide. Last year it shipped 206 million phones.

The Huawei Mate 30 Pro is believed to feature a 6.7-inch AMOLED curved edge display that will have a 90Hz refresh rate. That is 50% faster than the rate found on traditional smartphone displays and will lead to smoother animation for game players and buttery smooth scrolling. It also could reduce battery life which is one of the reasons why the Mate 30 Pro should ship with a 4500mAh capacity battery inside. Another feature that calls on the phone's battery is reverse wireless charging. This allows the handset's rear panel to be used as a wireless charging pad to power up certain accessories and compatible phones. The Mate 30 will reportedly be equipped with a 4200mAh battery.

Photos of the Mate 30 Pro show that it will have a waterfall display. This means that the sides of the screen are curved and drop down at nearly a 90-degree angle. Those looking straight at the phone's display won't be able to notice the thin side bezels on the device, and the Mate 30 Pro will sport a wide notch at the top of the screen. Powering both phones will be Huawei's homegrown Kirin 990 chipset. Designed by its HiSilicon unit, the SoC is manufactured by TSMC using its 7nm process and will include an integrated 5G modem chip and a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for AI tasks.

The Mate 30 line has moved to a circular camera module from the square found on the back of the Mate 20 Pro. This is a bit ironic since both Apple and Google are turning to square camera modules this year for their new handsets. Speaking about the rear cameras, four of them will be inside the circular module belonging to the Mate 30 Pro. We could see two 40MP snappers (one for primary use, the other for ultra-wide-angle shots offering a 120-degree field-of-view), an 8MP telephoto camera with a 5x optical zoom, and a Time of Flight (ToF) depth sensor to improve the bokeh effects on portraits.

Did you get it right? The countdown to #HuaweiMate30 starts now!
We're going full circle in Munich on 19.09.2019.
Join us live: https://t.co/9ugi5gG9ci#RethinkPossibilitiespic.twitter.com/etRYjrBVEC

— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) September 1, 2019