Huawei Mate 30 Pro spotted in public sporting a waterfall display
Last week, we showed you a photo of what allegedly is the Huawei Mate 30 Pro. Heavily disguised inside a case built specifically to shield its design from prying eyes (like ours), it appears as though Huawei's top technological achievement for this year has once again been photographed. Posted on Weibo (via IndiaShopps), the Mate 30 Pro and its "waterfall screen" was captured again on camera, this time on the subway. With the 88 degree fold on both sides of the expected 6.7-inch AMOLED display, the side bezels cannot be seen when the display is viewed straight-on from the front. The screen will have a wide notch compared to the small waterdrop notch used on the P30 Pro. The notch will sport sensors necessary for the phone's improved facial recognition system.
The rear camera setup is hidden from view by the case, but we do expect to see a circular camera module on the back. On the left side of the back of the case, you can see a vertical cutout for sensors. Meanwhile, inside the circle, there could be a pair of 40MP cameras. One will reportedly employ the same 1/1.55-inch sensor found on the back of the Huawei P30 Pro using the RYYB (Red, Yellow, Yellow, Blue) pixel arrangement instead of the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) setup typically found on smartphone cameras. The second 40MP camera might use a 1/1.7-inch sensor and this could be employed on an ultra-wide-angle snapper with a 120-degree field of view. The third camera on the back might be an 8MP sensor featuring a 5x optical zoom. Yesterday, a tweet disseminated by tipster Ice Universe revealed a new case render for the Mate 30 Pro that includes a circular cutout for the camera module. It's interesting that as Huawei makes the change from the square camera module found on last year's Mate 20 Pro to a circular one, both Apple and Google plan on debuting a square housing for their upcoming handsets.
Will the Huawei Mate 30 line feature Android or HarmonyOS?
The Huawei Mate 30 Pro will be powered by the Kirin 990 SoC, a new 7nm chipset that has yet to be unveiled by HiSilicon. The latter is Huawei's in-house chip designer (the component is actually manufactured by TSMC) and uses designs licensed from ARM Holdings. The latter is a British company that stopped doing business with Huawei after the manufacturer was placed on the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List in the middle of May. That's because ARM uses some U.S. technology. However, licenses obtained by Huawei prior to its placement on the list are still valid.
A heavily disguised Huawei Mate 30 Pro rides the subway
The big question surrounding the Huawei Mate 30 Pro is whether the device will have Android or HarmonyOS installed. Unveiled earlier this month, HarmonyOS is Huawei's own operating system with a perfect name. It works in harmony with a number of devices including smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, cars, and computers. Google was one of the first U.S. companies to announce that it was cutting ties with Huawei, but the Chinese manufacturer had supposedly been developing an Android replacement for years. The manufacturer, considered a national security threat in the U.S., had anticipated getting cut off from the Google Play services version of the operating system. Back in 2015, there was speculation that Huawei was creating a Kirin OS.
The circular camera module on the Mate 30 Pro is hidden by the case
So when will we see the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro introduced? Just a few days ago, Huawei's president of software services, Wang Chenglu, allegedly leaked the date of September 19th for the unveiling event. Last year's Mate 20 Pro was announced on October 16th and while not offered officially in the U.S., the model helped Huawei ship 206 million handsets globally last year. That was good enough for third place behind Samsung and Apple. The Mate 30 Pro was expected to help Huawei surpass Samsung at the top of the list by this year's fourth quarter, but the U.S. ban could prevent that from taking place. For the first half of 2019, the company delivered 118 million units.
Case render for the Huawei Mate 30 Pro shows a circular cutout on the back
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