Huawei’s Mate 40 launch is reportedly still on schedule for this year
The Huawei Mate 40 is still on schedule for 2020 despite new US sanctions, and its coming with a brand new chip.
The Weibo user – whose name translates to ‘Mobile chip expert’ (via Playfuldroid) – claims Huawei is on track to release the Mate 40 in October. According to the leak, around 8 million Mate 40 phones will be shipped in the fourth quarter, despite the US imposing new sanctions against the Chinese tech giant in May.
President Trump announced his decision to extend the ban on US companies dealing with Huawei back on May 13. The executive order prevents the Chinese phone maker from installing any Google Mobile Services – including Google Maps and YouTube – on its phones until May 2021.
Related: Everything you need to know about the Huawei Android ban
The Weibo leakster also confirmed the handsets will be kitted out with a 5nm Kirin processor. This isn’t the first we’ve heard of the Mate 40 being powered by a 5nm chip, with the initial rumours starting just weeks after Huawei unveiled the Mate 30 Pro.
Some of the best processors fitted in flagship phones are currently built on a 7nm process, and they include Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855, Samsung’s Exynos 9825, Apple’s A13 Bionic and HiSilicon’s Kirin 990. Shrinking the process down to 5nm should deliver greater efficiency, offering savings in battery life while also improving smartphone’s overall performance.
- Huawei Mate 30 review
The 5nm chipset – codenamed ‘Baltimore’ – is rumoured to be called the Kirin 1000. According to the report by Playfuldroid, the successor to the Kirin 990 5G will come equipped with Cortex-A78 CPU cores. The Kirin 990 5G was first showcased on the Mate 30 series, so we are expecting the Kirin 1000 to be announced alongside that phone’s successor.
This is all rumour and speculation for now, so we’ll have to wait until the Mate 40 (reportedly) launches later this year to see if it pans out.