Huawei launches Mate 70 smartphone as new US chip curbs loom

SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies unveiled its Mate 70 smartphone series on Tuesday, marking a significant step in its premium smartphone comeback while showcasing its own operating system in a clean break away from U.S. technology.

 

The phone marks the "the most powerful Mate phone ever", Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, said at an event in the company’s hometown of Shenzhen.

 

The Mate 70 is the first mainstream smartphone to include a satellite paging system, has an improved processor and runs on Huawei’s own HarmonyOS Next operating system, which together boost performance by 40% compared to previous models, Yu said.

 

The launch comes as the U.S. is expected to announce new export controls that could add up to 200 Chinese chip companies to a trade blacklist as soon as this week, restricting their access to U.S. suppliers, Reuters reported on Saturday.

 

Huawei does not typically discuss its chip advancements at product launch events, with improvements usually discovered by teardown firms later.

 

The Mate 70 series is the first major commercial rollout of the HarmonyOS NEXT, a significant step in Huawei’s push for software independence since U.S. curbs cut off its access to Google services in 2019.

 

While Huawei’s earlier versions of Harmony OS maintained Android compatibility, the HarmonyOS NEXT, which began public testing this year, represents a complete break from Android.

 

Last week, Huawei said it had secured more than 15,000 applications for its HarmonyOS ecosystem, with plans to expand to 100,000 apps in the coming months.

 

The patriotic sentiment surrounding Huawei’s technological breakthrough has helped fuel its market recovery and intensified competition with other players, including iPhone maker Apple, in China - the world’s largest smartphone market. 

 

Huawei was ranked as China’s No.2 smartphone vendor in the third quarter of 2024, with deliveries exceeding 10 million units for the fourth straight quarter, according to research firm Canalys. This is a significant rebound from the second quarter of 2022 when it shipped just 4.1 million units.

 

The Mate 70 is the successor to the Mate 60 series released in August last year, widely seen as marking Huawei’s comeback to high-end smartphones.

 

Teardown analyses revealed both the Mate 60 and the Pura 70 series - launched in April - feature advanced chips manufactured by China’s SMIC, underscoring the country’s growing semiconductor capabilities despite Western export controls.

 

(Reporting by David Kirton in Shenzhen, Liam Mo in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Himani Sarkar)