After introducing its new Kirin 980 processor, Huawei has finally revealed the launch date and venue for its upcoming Huawei Mate 20 series. This is their large screen smartphone lineup and it will succeed the current Mate 10 series while carrying over the LEICA triple-camera setup from its current P20 Pro.
The Huawei Mate 20 will launch on 16 October 2018 and the event is taking place in London. No further details were mentioned but performance will definitely take centre stage especially when it comes to AI.
#ExperienceSmarter with the #Kirin980. Reach a #HigherIntelligence with the #HuaweiMate20 Series. Mark your calendars NOW… 16.10.18. pic.twitter.com/9KhTMj0BXH
— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) 31 August 2018
The new Kirin 980 chipset is the world’s first 7nm SoC and it will feature dual NPU (Neural Processing Unit). It utilises ARM’s Cortex-A76 cores and comes with a newer Mali-G76 GPU.
From the earlier leaks, the Mate 20 is expected to come with a notched display but it’s significantly smaller like an Essential Phone. Over at the rear, it appears that Huawei will be trying a new triple-camera placement with a 2×2 layout.
Just Huawei doing Huawei things. This looks a lot like the triple camera module for the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. Seen on the Huawei booth at #IFA2018. pic.twitter.com/qLlsuUm0ik
— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) August 31, 2018
Roland Quant had spotted what appears to be a testbed for the Kirin 980 SoC and the camera module appears to be similar to the leaked render above. In terms of optics, it is likely that the Mate 20 (Pro) will retain the same 40MP + 20MP + 8MP camera combination as the P20 Pro series.
Since Malaysia is a key focus for Huawei, you can expect the local launch to take place shortly after its global debut in London. The Huawei Mate 10 was launched on 16 October last year and it went on sale in Malaysia starting from 28 October 2017.
Are you looking forward to the next Huawei Mate series? Let us know in the comments below.