Chinese tech giant Huawei looks set to launch its Mate 60 series later this year, potentially with a brand new chipset inside.
Despite the familiar downsides to Huawei handsets, the Mate 50 series still managed to impress, with some top tier photography chops to boast about.
Here’s all we know so far about the Huawei Mate 60 series.
When will the Huawei Mate 60 series be released?
We don’t have a confirmed date from the company at the time of writing, but rumours have started appeared which suggest we may see the new phones in September 2023.
A Chinese tech tipster called Wisdom Pichaku (don’t they have the best names?) recently posted about a special edition of the Mate 50, with the teaser that potential might want to hold fire as the Mate 60 series would debut in September.
This makes sense, as the Mate 50 series models were released in September 2022, albeit only in China. Of the three (Mate 50, Mate 50 Pro and Mate 50 Pro RS Porsche Edition) only the Huawei Mate 50 Pro made it to the west a few months later. We don’t know if that will be a different case this time, but it does seem likely.
What’s certain is that none of them will make it to the US due to the ongoing trade dispute.
How much will the Huawei Mate 60 series cost?
Again, no word from Huawei yet, so we’ll need to look at the pricing of the previous generation for clues.
When they debuted in China, the Mate 50 series lined up like this:
- Huawei Mate 50 – ¥4999 (approx $695)
- Huawei Mate 50 Pro – ¥7799 (approx $1,085)
- Huawei Mate 50 RS Porsche edition – ¥12,999 (approx $1,800)
When the Pro finally made it to the UK and Europe it came with these prices tags attached:
- Huawei Mate 50 Pro – £1,199/€1,299 (approx $1,539)
With the world’s finances still struggling in the wake of the energy crisis and Covid, not to mention the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we’d be surprised if those figures come down by much. So, budget for the same prices as the Mate 50 series prices and hopefully you’ll get a nice surprise.
What features will we see in the Huawei Mate 60 series?
As you’ve probably surmised already, Huawei hasn’t made any announcements about the new models, so we don’t have any confirmed details in the specs we’ll see later this year. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been some interesting rumours surrounding the Mate 60 series though.
GSMArena recently reported on leaks out of China that Huawei is going to use a pill-shaped area to house the front-facing cameras, much like the Dynamic Island we’ve seen on the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. This marks a change from the notch that appeared on the Mate 50 Pro, although it’s unclear whether there will be any kind of software enhancements like the ones implemented by Apple.
It’s something of a return to form though, as the design was used on the Mate 40 series. If the company follows suit with the Mate 50 Pro, then the ‘Spirit Island’ (as GizmoChina is saying it’s called) will include a 13Mp ultra-wide angle f/2.4 and the ToF sensor for facial unlocking. There’s also a possibility of a second camera, although we don’t have any specifics about this yet.
While most flagship phones in 2023 will feature Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipsets, there are reports that Huawei may go another way. It seems that one model will come with the Snapdragon while another could be fitted with a bespoke chipset developed by Huawei. We have seen reports recently that the company has found a way to develop 5G capable phones again, which has been a huge issue since the US government banned suppliers from dealing with the Chinese manufacturers. This could be part of the new chipset design, meaning Huawei overcoming one of the two main drawbacks to their products (the other being no access to Google services and apps).
Huawei makes some of the best cameras you’ll find on phones, so interest is always high when new models are incoming. In the Mate 50 there’s a triple camera array consisting of a 50Mp f/1.4-f/4.0 main camera with OIS, 64Mp f/3.5 telephoto camera with OIS and 13Mp f/2.2 ultrawide camera. The main talking point was the variable aperture on the main camera that allowed a 10-step progression that moved between f/1.4 and f/4.0in.
This is very likely to appear in the Mate 60, although some rumours suggest Huawei will upgrade the technology to offer smooth transitions through the aperture settings rather than taking the stepped approach. While there have been no solid leaks about the composition of the camera array, a Twitter (are we still allowed to call it that?) post from @RODENT950 appears to show a new design for the camera module that places a band across the middle. Whether this is simply aesthetic or serves some other purpose remains a mystery. Hopefully, we won’t have long to wait before we find out.
In the meantime, check out our guide to the best Android phones and best phones coming in 2023 to see what alternatives are on offer.