Huawei’s 5G-enabled flagships are now available to purchase in China. We are, of course, talking about the Huawei Mate 30 5G and Mate 30 Pro 5G.
The Huawei Mate 30 5G is available for CNY4,999 ($705), while the Mate 30 Pro 5G costs CNY6,899 ($975) in Huawei’s homeland.
Do note that you can order one of these two phones starting today in China, but they won’t ship straight away. Huawei will start shipping orders on November 1.
5G Huawei Mate 30 & Mate 30 Pro are available in China only, for now
These two phones are available only in China, for now. Huawei did not really mention anything about offering them in other markets. That may or may not happen, as the US sanctions really messed up Huawei’s plans for other markets.
Now, just to be clear, these two phones are fueled by the Kirin 990 5G SoC. This variant of the Kirin 990 is a bit different than the basic Kirin 990 processor.
The Kirin 990 comes with a built-in 5G modem, but that modem is not enabled on regular variants of the chip. That is the main difference between the two variants. This chip is clocked at 2,86GHz on the two phones, in case you were wondering.
These two phones are available in standard colors for the Mate 30 series, Space Silver and Emerald Green. In addition to those, the Vegan Leather Orange and Vegan Leather Forest Green options are also available.
There is a difference in the materials used here. The standard color options are made out of metal and glass, while the ‘Vegan Leather’ variants come with a leather back.
US sanctions are complicating things for Huawei
The Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro standard variants are not yet available in Europe. The aforementioned US sanctions prevent Huawei from installing Google services on its device, which complicates things for the company.
Reviewers have been finding ways of getting those services on the Mate 30, but as a new way pops up, Google manages to block it in one way or the other.
Huawei is working on an alternative to Google services, but that could take a lot of time. Huawei’s executive admitted recently that the situation is far from ideal. She also admitted that it could take the company years to provide a proper solution.
Huawei’s solution would work in collaboration with its Harmony OS, which got announced recently. Harmony OS is still not ready for smartphones, though, so it remains to be seen what solution will Huawei come up with.