Huawei Mate 40 Release Date, News, and Rumors

The Huawei Mate flagship of the year usually builds up quite a bit of excitement and anticipation from tech fans. This year will not be different as the company is gearing up to release the successor 2019’s Mate 30. Considering Huawei’s consistent naming strategy, it’s likely that the flagship this year will be known as the Mate 40. The company is also expected to launch a Pro version of the flagship, just like it did with the predecessors.

While there’s not a lot of information available on the Mate 40 right now, there are some hints at the direction that the company is headed in, especially when we see recent announcements like the P40. So what features could the Mate 40 come with? Let’s take a look.

Huawei Mate 40 Release Date, News, and Rumors

Huawei Mate 40 News

A report from late April talked about the possibility of the Mate 40 using a freeform camera lens which would reduce distortion while also being relatively slimmer.

Much like 2019, the Mate 40 will likely be released within September or October this year.

Huawei Mate 40 Release Date

Going by previous Huawei announcements, the Mate 40 will likely be shown off in September with a launch expected in October. However, the timeline may change based on the company’s plans for the flagship. But despite this, we recommend marking your calendars to September 2020. The company will likely announce the Pro variant alongside the standard Mate 40.

Huawei Mate 40 Rumors

Size & Design

Although Huawei provides large displays, the size is somewhat minimal thanks to the insistence on cutting down unnecessary bezel space. This is precisely why the company goes with hole-punch cameras on the front instead of having a separate bezel for it. The Mate 30 was extremely slim at just 8.4mm, and we can expect similar dimensions from the Mate 40 as well.

While I’ve not particularly been a big fan of the glass back panel from recent Huawei flagships, it seems like the trend will continue with the Mate 40 as well. The phone will likely be based on a robust aluminum frame.

Display

Huawei’s display tech is pretty decent overall as we’ve seen over the years. Taking the Mate 40 as well as the P40 Pro as the metric, we can ascertain that the company will use a display panel touching at least 6.7 or 6.8 inches. It will certainly be an OLED panel, and may also introduce a 120 Hz refresh rate to counter Samsung’s Galaxy S20, which is among the few phones to have that feature.

Camera

This is an area where the Mate 40 could see an upgrade as compared to its predecessor. It’s likely that Huawei will use the same camera arrangement as the P40 Pro, consisting of four rear cameras including 50MP (wide), 40MP (ultrawide), 12MP (periscope telephoto), and a 3D depth sensor. Huawei’s camera performance has been pretty top notch so far, so we may see some software additions as well.

As for the front camera, Huawei will likely stick to the tried and tested dual selfie camera system with one of the sensors also helping with biometric authentication as well as depth effects for selfies. Since several manufacturers are focusing on under-display selfie cameras, Huawei just may surprise us with a one-of-a-kind front camera.

Other features

While Huawei has offered up to 8GB of RAM in its most recent devices, the Mate 40 will likely see the jump to 12GB. In terms of storage, the phone could have up to 512GB of internal storage, while Huawei will also probably offer a microSD card slot. Much like the Mate 30, the phone should support the UFS 3.0 storage standard.

In the CPU department, there’s talk that the Mate 40 will borrow from the P40 Pro and use the HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G chipset, which also brings along 5G capabilities to the smartphone.

There’s talk of the company going with its own HarmonyOS in lieu of Google’s Android operating system. However, the Mate 40 is likely to run on a forked version of Android, as HarmonyOS may not be ready for a mass rollout quite yet. We also hope to see Google services being reinstated into Huawei’s Mate 40, although it’s very likely that it won’t be.

Huawei’s App Gallery has only gotten better after it was introduced as a replacement for the Google Play Store and is likely to get a bigger boost later this year.

While the Mate 30 was only resistant to splashes and dust, it is very likely that the Mate 40 will use IP68 certified tech instead that can allow submersion underwater while also making it usable in the rain.

Battery and charging abilities have always been Huawei’s great strength as we saw with the Mate 30. One of the features that could well be included with the Mate 40 is fast reverse wireless charging. While the Mate 30 supported reverse wireless charging, Huawei took things to the next level with the recently unveiled P40 Pro by offering fast reverse wireless charging at 27W. This feature will most likely be included with the Mate 40, which should be another feather in its cap.

Another feature that I’m looking forward to on this device is the 3.5mm headphone jack. While the Mate 30 came with a headphone jack, the P40 Pro from earlier this year doesn’t have one. So it’s somewhat likely that Huawei is finally ditching the headphone jack this year, and that’s not particularly great news.

5G on the Mate 40

While most manufacturers are only now considering making an entry into the 5G segment, Huawei has launched a 5G phone much before many companies. Keeping this in mind, 5G is almost a given on the device, although it’s likely that Huawei will limit this to the Pro version.

Huawei Mate 40 Price

While one thought that the lack of Google Play Services would bring down the price of Huawei phones, that’s not necessarily been the case. Keeping this in mind, it’s likely that the Mate 40 will cost exactly as much as its predecessor. The price may go even higher with 5G on board. In the markets where the phone will eventually be sold, customers can expect to spend somewhere over $1,000 depending on the variant they choose. The pricing for the Mate 40 Pro is expected to go even higher, particularly with 5G on board.