Does a video really show New Yorkers loving the Mate 60 Pro or is it CCP propaganda?

Since you're not going to find Huawei handsets on the shelves of your U.S. carrier's retail stores, and considering that iPhone 15 mania is getting close to reaching its peak in the States with this Friday's release of the new phones, China Daily thought it would be interesting to see what New Yorkers thought of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro. The latter has kicked off a wave of nationalism in China as Huawei's new flagship is its first 5G phone since 2020's Mate 40 line thanks to a 7nm Kirin 9000S SoC.

Since 2020, Huawei has been banned from obtaining  cutting-edge silicon from foundries that use U.S. tech, and China's largest foundry, SMIC, wasn't supposed to have the chops to build 7nm smartphone quality chipsets. While phone enthusiasts are happy to see Huawei become competitive again, U.S. government officials and lawmakers want to investigate how the Kirin 9000S was built by SMIC in light of the restrictive U.S. export rules. On September 25th, Huawei will hold a new product launch and there is hope that the company will release more information about the 5G Kirin 9000S chipset.

The Mate 60 Pro sports a 6.82-inch LTPO OLED display with a 1260 x 2720 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. The second generation of Huawei's impressive Kunlun glass protects the screen and the phone comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB of storage. The camera array includes a 50MP primary with f/1.4-f/4.0 variable aperture, a 12MP ultra-wide camera, and a 48MP telephoto camera. A 5000mAh battery keeps the lights on and supports 88W charging. Harmony 4.0 is pre-installed. The Mate 60 Pro also makes satellite calls.

China Daily showed what appears to be random New Yorkers an unboxing video of the Mate 60 Pro and captured their reactions. One said, "It looks really impressive; it looks like very advanced technology." He went on to praise the video capabilities of the phone and said that since the world is so connected, there is no need for the U.S. to place sanctions on Huawei. A woman told China Daily that the Mate 60 Pro "looks very pretty" and she said that the improvements in the camera system are something she would look into more to see "if it would hold up to an Apple phone."

"I didn't actually try it hands-on," said another New Yorker walking the streets of the city, "but it looks good." And believe it or not, China Daily actually found a woman in New York who owns Huawei gear. "I have had a smartphone from Huawei. I currently have a tablet and both of them are, actually I love. I would purchase a new one if I could, but it's been discontinued, and I do like it. I would happily buy another Huawei phone once I tested it out."

She added that the sanctions against Huawei aren't good because it is not good to have an industry dominated by one brand. She says, "It's not just all Apple. It's not just all Samsung." And if some of these comments sound like they might have been written by Huawei's public relations team, we should point out that China Daily is an English language paper owned by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party which might explain why it released the video it did.

This isn't to say that the Mate 60 Pro isn't an impressive phone, or that many New Yorkers wouldn't find it a device that they would be interested in buying. But in this case, we need to consider the source which happens to be the publicity department of the CCP. Are the comments that come out of the mouths of these New Yorkers their real thoughts about the Mate 60 Pro or is it all propaganda?