Is the new Mate 60 Pro a 5G comeback for Huawei?

Company mum on smartphone's specs as reviews say it uses advanced in-house chips

CHENG TING-FANG and LAULY LI, Nikkei staff writers

August 31, 2023 11:50 JST

TAIPEI -- Details on Huawei's latest phone are trickling out after the Chinese company quietly released its flagship Mate 60 Pro domestically this week with little comment and no fanfare.

Local tech reviews suggest the phone is Huawei's first 5G handset with its own chips since U.S. sanctions cut off the Chinese tech champion from critical chip supplies and production partners.

According to teardown videos posted by Chinese media, the new phone comes with a self-developed Kirin mobile chipset and can support 5G connectivity and satellite phone calls. Huawei also developed its own Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and power management chips for the device, according to the teardown videos.

The company has not commented on these reviews and declined to provide any details on the phone's specifications when approached by Nikkei Asia.

A smartphone with a self-developed 5G chipset would mark a significant milestone for Huawei as it battles a long U.S. crackdown. The company has been on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Entity List, which restricts its access to American technologies, since May 2019. U.S. chip developer Qualcomm was able to obtain export licenses from the government to supply 4G mobile chips to Huawei, but could not provide the more advanced 5G mobile chips.

Unlike in the past, when Huawei would host big press events for the launch of its latest flagship smartphones, the newest Mate 60 Pro went on sale quietly in China.

If the phone is actually being mass-produced, it would mark a major victory for China's semiconductor industry, too, as it battles a sweeping U.S. clampdown.

Huawei and China's top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., which is also on the Entity List, are working together to bring back 5G mobile chips for the Chinese company, Nikkei Asia reported last month. Nikkei Asia also first reported that Huawei is stealthily rebuilding its chip supply chain across multiple Chinese cities, including by venturing into chip production and packaging with several partners.

Huawei said it kicked off the Huawei Mate 60 Pro Pioneer Program on Tuesday. The Chinese company told Nikkei Asia that "some consumers can buy and experience the most powerful Mate model ever at an earlier date." It said its Mate 60 Series comes with a brand-new design and features comprehensive improvements in communications, reliability and durability, imagery and intelligent experience.

"This is our most powerful Mate model ever," Huawei told Nikkei Asia, but it declined to detail the specifications, including the core chips and whether the new phones have 5G connectivity.

U.S. export controls have hit Huawei's smartphone business hard, dragging it down from once the world's biggest -- surpassing Samsung and Apple by shipments in the second quarter of 2020 -- to below the top five handset makers.

Mark Li, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, said it is unclear who is producing the 5G chips Huawei is reportedly using but they are believed to be "made in China." According to available teardown videos and benchmarks, its performance matches midrange smartphones and "exceeds expectations," Li said in a research note.