Gadgets
Huawei tweets that its Mate 40 smartphones will be launched on October 22nd.
Huawei tweeted that it will unveil its Mate 40 series on October 22, possibly the last of its phones to have Kirin chips — at least in the near future — due to continuing economic pressure from the US.
Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Unit, said at a conference on 7 August that this year could be the last generation of Huawei Kirin's high-end chips. The US accused Huawei of creating backdoors into network networks, allegedly to support Chinese government spy efforts. Huawei has denied the Trump administration's allegations of hacking.
But the Trump administration placed Huawei and 114 of its associates on its Agency List in May 2019, which meant that US companies were unable to offer technology to the company without clear permission from the US government.
It also indicated that Google was prohibited from doing business with Huawei, prohibiting Huawei from acquiring an Android license, and keeping Google applications away from Huawei smartphones.
In May, the US Department of Commerce released an amended export rule to block shipments of semiconductors to Huawei.
The export law prohibited foreign semiconductor manufacturers using American software and technologies from shipping their goods to Huawei unless they first received a license from the US. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest semiconductor maker, officially stopped orders for Huawei's HiSilicon unit in May following the latest US law.
There is no news yet about when the Mate 40 products will be delivered to consumers, but rumours say that Huawei will be releasing Mate 40 and Mate 40 Pro editions. The Mate 40 Pro is projected to have a 6.7-inch screen, with the Mate 40 coming in at 6.5 inch. Android Authority states that smartphones will be valued between €1,200 and €1,300 (or $1400 and $1500).
