The Mate 70 succeeds the Mate 60 series, which debuted in August of the previous year and was viewed as a pivotal moment for Huawei's resurgence in the high-end smartphone sector, competing directly with Apple after facing severe setbacks due to U.S. export restrictions.
This launch occurs amid expectations that the U.S. will soon implement new export controls, potentially adding up to 200 Chinese chip manufacturers to a trade blacklist, thereby limiting their access to American suppliers, as reported by Reuters on Saturday.
Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei's consumer business group, proclaimed the device as "the most powerful Mate phone ever" during a livestreamed event from the company's headquarters in Shenzhen. The starting price for the Mate 70 will be 5,499 yuan ($758), compared to the base iPhone 16 model, which retails for 5,999 yuan in China.
Yu also highlighted that the Mate 70 is the first mainstream smartphone to feature a satellite paging system, boasts an enhanced processor, and operates on Huawei's own HarmonyOS Next, collectively improving performance by 40% over previous iterations.
The Mate 70 series represents the inaugural major commercial launch of HarmonyOS NEXT, a crucial advancement in Huawei's quest for software autonomy following the U.S. restrictions that severed its access to Google services in 2019.
While earlier versions of HarmonyOS retained compatibility with Android, HarmonyOS NEXT, which began public testing this year, signifies a complete departure from Android. Last week, Huawei announced it had secured over 15,000 applications for its HarmonyOS ecosystem, with ambitions to expand to 100,000 apps in the near future.
ANALYZED CHIP DEVELOPMENT
Teardown analyses have indicated that both the Mate 60 and Pura 70 series, which were launched in April, are equipped with sophisticated chips produced by SMIC. This highlights the advancement of the country's semiconductor industry, even in the face of Western export restrictions.
However, Huawei has not officially confirmed this information. The company typically refrains from discussing its chip developments during product launch events, with such enhancements often revealed later by teardown analysis firms.
Certain versions of the Mate 70 are expected to incorporate Huawei’s Kirin 9100 chipset, manufactured by the leading Chinese contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC). However, production difficulties may limit these chips to higher-end models, according to an insider.
Huawei has not yet responded to inquiries regarding the chip.
The nationalistic pride associated with Huawei's technological advancements has contributed to its market resurgence and heightened competition with other brands, including Apple, in China, the largest smartphone market globally.
According to research firm Canalys, Huawei was ranked as China's second-largest smartphone vendor in the third quarter of 2024, with shipments surpassing 10 million units for the fourth consecutive quarter. This marks a notable recovery from the second quarter of 2022, when the company shipped only 4.1 million units.
Research firm Counterpoint anticipates that shipments of the Mate 70 series will exceed 10 million units.