Huawei will launch a gaming smartphone in 2018

After ASUS showed the world what a proper, balls-to-the-wall gaming smartphone could look like — and the generally positive reception it received — it looks like Huawei’s eager to grab their own slice of this fresh new pie. Today, the company — who is also the third largest smartphone maker in the world — revealed to us that they will be launching their very own gaming smartphone later this year.

This information comes straight from Huawei Consumer Group President of Marketing and Sales Service, Jim Xu, who also added that this smartphone will make its appearance sometime in the second half of 2018. Given the fact that we’re already in the second half of 2018, this date could be tomorrow.

But we doubt it will be tomorrow.

In any case, details surrounding this mystery gaming smartphone remain scarce as Xu did not reveal much besides the fact that it will have a “big screen”. He did, however, acknowledge the fact that gaming is a growing segment.

He’s not wrong, of course. It’s not hard to see why people like playing games on their mobile phones. Previously it was all about the convenience of it all, and how easily you could pick up your device, play a game, and then put it down. You didn’t have to invest a significant amount of time into a mobile game the way you did for something on a console or PC. You do it on the train on the way home from work.

Plus, practically everyone has a smartphone now, so it’s not this extra thing that you need to invest time, effort and money into like you would on a PC or console.

And then, there’s the fact that mobile games are getting so good. Titles like PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends, Fortnite, AOV, and Free Fire all have great graphics and engaging gameplay that doesn’t just appeal to casual gamers, but even the hardcore.

However, these new high-end games, they require a powerful GPU to run properly, something Huawei’s own HiSilicone Kirin SoCs haven’t been particularly brilliant in. Unless the company’s next Kirin 980 significantly improves on this, Huawei might be better off using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors and their highly capable Adreno GPUs.

That said, Huawei has developed a GPU Turbo technology that will roll out to selected honor devices first sometime this month. Apparently, this can increase graphics efficiency by 60% and reduce SoC energy usage by 30%.

But maybe we’re getting too far ahead of ourselves, assuming that this gaming smartphone from Huawei will be a flagship-grade device. After all, Xu didn’t drop any details on whether this will be a device of the ASUS ROG Phone‘s calibre or if it is more like ASUS’ mid-range “Limitless Gaming” ZenFone Max Pro. We’d like to believe it’s another high-end flagship so the ROG Phone has some competition, but who really knows.

What do you guys think? Would you want a Huawei gaming smartphone? Let me know in the comments below.