Huawei launches Mate 70 flagship phones, while fear of US chip curbs loom

Huawei Technologies unveiled its flagship Mate 70 smartphone models and highlighted its new operating system, HarmonyOS NEXT.

The Mate 70 line up will start from 5,499 yuan (about $759), while the Mate 70 Pro will begin at 6,499 yuan. Mate 70 Pro+ will start with a price tag of 8,499 yuan. Apple’s (AAPL) base iPhone 16 model starts from 5,999 yuan in China.

Last week, the company began taking pre-orders for the Mate 70 series.

Huawei said Tiantong satellite calls support the new satellite paging function in the Mate 70. In addition, the AI-capable phone will showcase the first major rollout of the Chinese company’s HarmonyOS NEXT operating system.

AI calls can translate in real time, repair voice, and intelligently generate summaries, while there is also an AI smart control button, among other the AI features in the phone.

HarmonyOS NEXT is the Android-free version of the Chinese tech giant’s operating system, which was being tested this year. The move marks a departure from Android code as the company seeks to end reliance on U.S. technology, Reuters reported.

Last week, the company said that it had secured over 15,000 applications for its HarmonyOS ecosystem, with plans to expand to 100,000 apps in the coming months, the report added.

The launch comes amid concerns that the U.S. could announce new export curbs which could add up to 200 Chinese chip companies to a trade blacklist as soon as this week, curbing their access to U.S. suppliers, Reuters had reported on Saturday.

In September, Huawei received over 3M pre-orders for its triple-folding smartphone Mate XT on its Vmall website. The company had held an event to launch the phone and other new products just hours after Apple (AAPL) unveiled its latest line of iPhones, the iPhone 16 series, on Sept. 9.

Mate 70 is the successor to the Mate 60 series, which Huawei quietly launched in August last year, surprising many. The chip inside the reportedly 5G capable phone had ignited concerns in the U.S. and raised questions about how it was possible, without the company being able to access critical technologies.

Huawei was once in competition with Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (OTCPK:SSNLF) to be the world’s biggest handset maker until U.S. restrictions, starting in 2019, began to curb its access to chip manufacturing tools needed to produce its most advanced models.

In April, Huawei unveiled its Pura 70 series, which features the Kirin 9010 chip, a follow-up to the Kirin 9000s reportedly made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International (OTCQX:SIUIF) for the Mate 60 Pro.