Autumn is traditionally Huawei's Mate season, but not this year: the Mate 50 will be made, however it will come late than in the past
After bringing to market with great difficulty the Huawei P50 line, the Shenzhen company is already focused on the next goal, namely to do the same with the Huawei Mate 50 range. Again, this won't be easy, due to the difficulties with the U.S. dating back to 2019.
The Huawei Mate 50 range is coming, and it will do so with a chip that may leave you surprised at first. The consequences of the U.S. trade ban on Huawei are pretty well known to everyone by now, and are behind the company's noticeable slowdown in smartphone production. The inability to use Google's apps and services has weighed heavily on Huawei's chances of selling smartphones in the West with the same numbers as in its golden years, but the company's proprietary operating system HarmonyOS and its ecosystem looks like it could give the company a big hand in climbing back up the slope.
Huawei's problems
HarmonyOS was in development even before the problems with the US, but when the company realized that it would have to give up Android and Google's apps for a long time it accelerated the development considerably. Now HarmonyOS is already a reality in China, and the fact that the new EMUI 12 particularly resembles it makes us imagine that Huawei is doing some "dress rehearsals" in view of a short-term launch of HarmonyOS also in our parts.
So if on one hand the consequences of the US ban on software are solvable, on the other hand those related to the hardware are less so, with Huawei that, in fact, can only use chips that are not compatible with 5G networks. A very important handicap compared to the competition especially in the current historical moment, in which 5G lives a phase of great expansion.
On Mate 50 incredible chip but "castrated"
On Mate 50, according to rumors, Huawei would have decided to use the next flagship chip from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 898 that will be presented probably in December. The problem, however, is always the same: in order not to break US restrictions, Huawei can use it as long as the 5G modem is not there or is disabled, just like it happened with the Snapdragon 888 used on the Huawei P50. As a result, the Huawei Mate 50s will have Qualcomm's highest performing chip for 2022 but lacking 5G connectivity.
Among other rumors coming about the Huawei Mate 50s are the presence of an LTPO type OLED display that, among others, the iPhone 13 Pro also employ. This technology mainly provides two advantages over a "classic" OLED: it consumes less, and allows for a variable refresh rate. It is therefore possible that the Huawei Mate 50, like the iPhone 13 Pro, have a 120 Hz display that under certain conditions of use can get to very low frequencies to save battery.
Huawei Mate 50, when they arrive
To say when the Huawei Mate 50 can arrive is not a simple matter: for the company to launch a model at this time is complicated for all the reasons mentioned above, so no launch of the Mate in the fall as happened in the past. In all likelihood you will have to wait for early 2022, maybe March.