Photo claims to show Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro protective film

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Photo claims to show Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro protective film
Twitter tipster Ice Universe (@UniverseIce) has tweeted out a picture originally found on Weibo showing what is claimed to be the protective film that will be used on the Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro. The phones aren't expected to be introduced until October, but the Mate line usually features the company's most technologically advanced handsets for the year. The photo, if legit, gives us an idea of what to expect the size of the bezels will look like on the phones. In addition, the top of the image is blurred out indicating that it either contains something that could identify the source of the leak, or it hides a notch.

Recently the rear glass panel of the Huawei Mate 30 Pro allegedly was leaked revealing that the camera module will be round (think Motorola) compared to the square module that was used on last year's Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro. Ironically, just as Huawei is making the move to a circular housing for its rear cameras, it appears that both Apple and Google are turning to the square for the iPhone 11 and Pixel 4 handsets.

Will the Huawei Mare 30 line have Android pre-installed? Consult your Magic 8-ball


We expect the top-of-the-line Huawei Mate 30 Pro to carry a 6.71-inch curved AMOLED screen. There is speculation that the display will feature a 90Hz refresh rate just like the OnePlus 7 Pro. This makes scrolling and mobile gaming buttery smooth. The phone will be powered by the Kirin 985 SoC manufactured by TSMC using its 7nm+ process, and contain a battery with a 4000mAh capacity or more. The round camera module might contain a primary shooter in the neighborhood of 40MP, an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and a 20MP Ultra wide-angle camera. We could also see a Time of Flight (ToF) sensor that provides more accurate depth measurements for portraits.


As for the operating system that will be "running the show" as we used to say, well it is a bit confusing right now. Even Huawei doesn't know whether the recent truce in the U.S.-China trade war will allow it to license the Google Play services of Android. This is the version that includes Google's core apps, the Google Play Store and software updates. U.S. President Trump has said that U.S. companies can sell to Huawei again, but White House economic advisor Lawrence Kudlow said that Huawei is still on the Entity List and did not receive a "general amnesty." Google has yet to weigh in. Just in case, Huawei does have its HongmengOS that it was planning to use before the truce was announced. In addition, its App Gallery storefront can be employed as a replacement for the Google Play Store.

Before Huawei was banned from accessing its U.S. supply chain, it was expected to become the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world by next year. In 2018, it shipped 206 million handsets compared to the 292 million delivered by Samsung. For the first quarter of this year when Huawei had no restrictions, it shipped 59 million smartphones placing it second after scoring a 50.3% year-over-year gain. Last month, Huawei said that it has shipped 100 million phones so far this year; when the sanctions were in place the company said that it would lose 40% to 60% of its international business.

With this in mind, Huawei itself was expecting to ship 140 million to 160 million smartphones this year. The confusion surrounding Trump's comments last Saturday morning make it very hazardous to venture a guess about how well Huawei will do in 2019. This confusion needs to be cleared up ASAP (or stat in Doctor lingo). Right now Huawei is operating under very difficult conditions and the Trump administration needs to clarify the president's comments. Only then might we see Google make an announcement about giving the Chinese manufacturer a license to use the Google Play services of Android.

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