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Huawei Mate 30 series: Impressive new tricks, no Google apps

Gelo Gonzales

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Huawei Mate 30 series: Impressive new tricks, no Google apps
The new Huawei flagships have great new hardware and features, but the event officially confirms that they won't come with Google apps

MANILA, Philippines – Huawei unveiled their new flagship Mate 30 phones on Thursday, September 19, at an event in Munich, Germany, livestreamed worldwide. 

The phones drew some legitimate applause from the live audience, with the crowd cheering a couple of new features and not just politely clapping, as can sometimes be seen at these flagship launches regardless of brand. 

Here are some of those features:

  • the ability for the screen to auto-rotate and show the correct orientation by looking at the position of your eyes
  • an ultra slow-mo video recording capability shooting at more than 7000 frames per second, which is several times higher than the usual 960 frames per second slow-mo recording
  • an ultra-curved screen
  • the ability to scroll up or down with hand gestures
  • the absence of physical volume and camera shutter buttons, with the edge of the screen able to register the actions associated with those buttons

These were some of the moments that the audience genuinely cheered for. 

Huawei also claimed to have faster and better 5G capabilities than its primary competition at the moment, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G. The announcements also came with the expected set of performance and camera improvements, highlighted by the new Kirin 990 chipset, better close-up shots, and improved low light photography. 

CHOICES. The Mate 30 Pro's colors and material choices are shown at the Mate 30 event, Thursday, September 19. Screenshot from Huawei/YouTube

The Mate 30 will retail for 799 euros. The Pro will retail for 1,099 euros, while a 5G version of the Pro will go for 1,199 euros. A high-end version, the RS, will retail for 2,095 euros. 

Huawei also announced the Watch GT 2 smartwatch, and the Vision 4K TV, and presented the FreeBuds 3 true-wireless earphones, originally announced at the IFA 2019 conference in August.

HUAWEI PRODUCTS. Screenshot from Huawei/YouTube

As for the Google issues? Huawei discussed it briefly at the very end of the one-and-a-half-hour presentation, saying that in lieu of Google Mobile Services, the Mate 30 phones will be using its very own Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). 

Currently, there are 45,000 apps operating under HMS, Huawei said. The company mentioned briefly that there are currently one million global developers for HMS, and they are actively supporting the ecosystem to grow it. Some of these initiatives include an incentive program for developers, and a $1-billion investment fund for marketing, development support, and user growth. 

The Mate 30 phones will ship with the EMUI 10 user interface, which is based on Android 10, but as mentioned, will not be shipping with Google apps. Instead, users will use the Huawei App Gallery to download apps. 

The absence of these Google apps was all but expected, but the event announcements made it official. No details yet on Philippine pricing and availability. – Rappler.com

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Gelo Gonzales

Gelo Gonzales is Rappler’s technology editor. He covers consumer electronics, social media, emerging tech, and video games.