The "most powerful" Mate phone that Yu Chengdong mentioned looks like this.

Text | Tian Zhe

Editor | Su Jianxun

"Mate has always been imitated but never surpassed. Copying will lead to no future. Only Mate can surpass Mate!"

After a chorus of "Blooming Life", Yu Chengdong stepped onto the stage and defined Huawei's latest model of this year, the Mate70 phone, with one sentence. He described the Mate70 series as the most powerful Mate phone in history.

On the afternoon of November 26, Huawei held the Mate Brand Gala in Shenzhen. At the event, Huawei showcased new flagship phones, the Mate70 series, the Mate X6, the wireless headphones FreeBuds Pro 4, the MatePad Pro 13.2-inch, and other new products.

Huawei Mate70

The Mate70 released this time continues Huawei's high-end route, and a total of four models are launched: the Mate70 standard version, the Mate70 Pro, the Mate70 Pro+, and the Mate70 RS.

Among them, the Mate70 standard version and Pro version offer three configurations: 12GB + 256GB, 12GB + 512GB, and 12GB + 1TB. The starting prices of the two versions are 5,499 yuan and 6,499 yuan respectively; the Pro+ version offers two versions: 16GB + 512GB and 16GB + 1TB, with a starting price of 8,499 yuan; the starting price of the RS version is 3,000 yuan more than that of the Pro+, reaching 11,999 yuan.

The Mate X has two versions: the standard version and the collector's edition, with starting prices of 12,999 yuan and 14,999 yuan respectively, similar to the prices of the previous generation models.

In the field of smart phones, Huawei is regaining its peak status. Through the flagship phone strategy, Huawei's market share in the domestic smart phone market has climbed from 10% in 2021 to 18% in the third quarter of this year, temporarily ranking as the second largest mobile phone manufacturer in China. And the release of the Mate70, which is the first to be equipped with the "Pure Blood Hongmeng" HarmonyOS NEXT system, may once again drive the growth of Huawei's smart phone sales.

The market enthusiasm has been revealed in advance. On November 18, Huawei's online and offline stores opened reservations for the three Mate70 phones, and the reservation volume exceeded one million in three hours. Up to the time of publication, the reservation volume has exceeded 3.34 million.

Huawei also does not hide its emphasis on the Mate70. In the opening song of the conference, the lyrics "Now I no longer hesitate, I want a blooming life" seem to have revealed Huawei's ambition in the smart phone market.

Mate70 Combined with Native Hongmeng, New Experiences in AI and Color

As Huawei Terminal's most important flagship product of the year, the Mate70 series phones are naturally the most eye-catching products at the conference. Yu Chengdong used several adjectives such as the most powerful, the most intelligent, and the most brilliant to emphasize the product features of the Mate70 series.

The birth of the "most powerful" Mate phone is partly due to its carrying of the HarmonyOS NEXT system. Compared with previous versions, the base of the HarmonyOS NEXT system completely abandons some AOSP open source code, with a fluency improvement of more than 30% and a battery life extension of nearly an hour.

When applied to the Mate70 with a 5700mAh battery, the overall battery life of the device is increased by 24%, and the performance is improved by more than 40%.

In addition, after integrating software and hardware, and the two sides of the device and the cloud, Huawei has given more imagination space to AI applications.

The Mate70 supports the AI Motion Trajectory function. Through the multi-exposure of the camera, the motion trajectory of the same object can be presented in the photo, thereby shooting interesting images; if long exposure is used, the character trailing effect of Wong Kar-wai's film style can be achieved, making the central character in the photo more prominent.

AI Motion Trajectory

If users want to change the portrait photo, they can change the clothing and background of the character through generative AI.

AI Time and Space Crossing

In addition, it also has a new AI Air Delivery function. Users can use the gesture of grasping and releasing to send files and videos to different Hongmeng ecological devices.

AI Air Delivery

In terms of privacy and security, the Mate70 has also been further enhanced.

Currently, HarmonyOS NEXT has the ability to prohibit applications from reading unreasonable permissions and has a secure access mechanism for high-frequency scenarios, thereby enhancing the permission management within the system. Combined with the Mate70, it further improves the security of the owner when using it.

It is reported that the Mate70 has the ability to identify the owner's identity. If someone else looks at the phone screen, the Mate70 will automatically hide the phone screen and notification information, and instead synchronize the notification message to wearable devices such as watches to avoid privacy leakage.

Another obvious upgrade is in the imaging system. Yu Chengdong spent a full ten minutes introducing the Red Maple Primary Color Imaging that is applied for the first time, claiming that it can "restore the real color".

It is learned that in addition to carrying the main camera, wide-angle, and macro cameras, the Huawei Mate70 also adds a 1.5 million multispectral channel camera, which can obtain more abundant environmental spectral information. Combined with other lenses, the color restoration accuracy is improved by 120%.

Source: Huawei Official

Intelligent Emergence has learned from industry insiders that The imaging system of Huawei Mate70 adopts the spectral imaging chip that is mass-produced and applied for the first time in the industry.

Zhao Xiayang, COO of Qiushi Spectrum, which is dedicated to the design of spectral chips, told Intelligent Emergence that the combination of spectral technology and the existing cameras of mobile phones can optimize the color of photos, making the tones more real and beautiful. In addition, After the spectral technology is deeply combined with AI, the mobile phone can also realize functions such as skin texture recognition and food status detection through taking photos.

This means that after combining the spectral imaging chip, Huawei mobile phones will have a broader space for improvement in imaging and AI applications.

New Body Structure, Mate X6 with Stronger Communication Capability

If the Mate digital series phones are defined as the integrators of Huawei's cutting-edge technologies, then the Mate X series phones are Huawei's attempts to explore new forms of mobile phones.

Huawei first released the Mate X series phones in 2019. So far, it has launched seven folding screen products, covering small folding, double folding, and triple folding forms. Among them, the Mate XT is the world's first commercial triple-folding mobile phone. Although the starting price is 19,999 yuan, it is still in short supply in the market.

The early layout and diversified products have enabled Huawei to maintain a leading market share in the global folding screen phone market. Public information shows that in the first quarter of 2024, Huawei won the first place in the global folding screen phone market sales for the first time, but in the third quarter, Huawei temporarily ranked after Samsung and Lenovo.

Therefore, the Mate X6 released this time shoulders the hope of Huawei to regain the first place in the folding screen phone market sales.

According to Yu Chengdong, the Mate X6 adopts the Xuanwu body structure design, changing the traditional folding screen phone's concentration of components in the same part. The Mate X6 disperses the components in the body, increasing the space utilization rate of the body sub-frame by 32% to accommodate more components.

The result is that the communication capability of the Huawei Mate X6 is enhanced. It is reported that the Mate X6 distributes the WIFI antenna and the cellular antenna on both sides of the phone, and the antenna length can be increased by 81%, making the comprehensive signal strength increase by 60%.

The collector's edition of the Huawei Mate X6 adds low-orbit satellite communication. Combined with the existing medium-orbit and high-orbit satellites, the X6 collector's edition becomes the world's first mass-market smart phone that supports three-network satellite communication, with lower information transmission delay and wider coverage.

Currently, in the low-orbit satellite Internet system test, it is expected to start public testing in the second half of 2025.

The durability is a problem that folding screen phones are criticized for due to the repeated folding of the screen causing deformation. To improve durability, the Mate X6 uses a carbon fiber inner screen support layer with an anti-deformation capacity of 380GPa and a material stiffness of 65%. After the screen glass is upgraded, its drop resistance is increased by 25 times.

Yu Chengdong said that due to the high cost, no other manufacturer is currently mass-producing its screen glass.

Next Year, Huawei's New Devices Will Support Native Hongmeng

The AI functions of the Mate series phones released this time mostly require the support of the HarmonyOS NEXT system, which means that Huawei needs to accelerate the construction of the Hongmeng application ecosystem to support the use of more new functions.

In October this year, Huawei released the HarmonyOS NEXT system, which has broken through the core technology of the operating system and has become the third-largest mobile operating system in the world.

At that time, 15,000 Hongmeng native applications and meta-services have been launched on the HarmonyOS NEXT. And recently, according to Xu Zhijun, the rotating chairman of Huawei, the mature sign that the Hongmeng ecosystem meets the needs of consumers is that the number of applications reaches 100,000, which is also the goal of the Hongmeng ecosystem in the next year.

At this event, Yu Chengdong said that it is expected that in two or three months, the Hongmeng native application experience will be more mature and perfect. Starting from 2025, Huawei's released mobile phones and tablet devices will support the native Hongmeng system (Hongmeng 5.0).

Perhaps considering that the current Hongmeng ecosystem is still not perfect, Yu Chengdong also called on more developers to join the Hongmeng ecosystem development at the scene. At the same time, users can choose Hongmeng 5.0 and the existing Hongmeng 4.3 system. Currently, both the Mate70 and Mate X6 phones can support an upgrade to Hongmeng 5.0.

Intelligent Emergence has learned that Huawei has launched a rewards program for Hongmeng native application developers, encouraging enterprises and individual developers to join the Hongmeng ecosystem development through cash rewards, exclusive traffic support, and commemorative medals.

Counterpoint senior analyst Mengmeng Zhang said that compared with 2023, Huawei's mobile phone sales in the first three quarters of this year increased by 51% year-on-year, and more than 90% of the sales came from the Chinese market.

For Huawei, the release of the native Hongmeng has relieved a major burden, allowing more energy to be invested in self-developed chips. After Huawei has both self-developed chips and an operating system, Huawei's smart phone market share may further expand.