Tag: Huawei

Huawei is elevating its foldable lineup with the global debut of the Mate X6, the latest addition to its series of book-style foldable phones. As the sixth-generation model in a flagship lineup that began in 2019, the Mate X6 is brimming with cutting-edge features and a bold design that embodies innovation.

A Bold Design with Stellar Inspiration

Richard Yu, Chairman of Huawei Consumer Business Group, described the Mate X6 as “a breakthrough technology from the inside to out.” True to his words, the phone delivers a fresh and immersive experience, blending unique design elements with advanced functionality.

Staying true to the cosmic themes that define the Mate X series, the Mate X6 features a “Space-Age Orbit” camera layout inspired by planetary orbits, symbolizing infinite possibilities. Available in Nebula Gray, Nebula Red, and Black, the phone combines style with durability. The Nebula Gray, crafted using Vegan Fiber and Micro-Nano 3D Topography, offers a unique texture and a radiant finish. Meanwhile, Kunlun Glass and an aviation-grade aluminum frame ensure it’s robust enough to handle daily wear and tear.

Immersive Screens and Multitasking Excellence

The Mate X6 delivers an impressive visual experience. Its 6.45-inch OLED external screen boasts a crisp 2440×1080 resolution, while the 7.93-inch OLED internal display unfolds to a stunning 2440×2240 resolution. Huawei X-True™ Display technology enhances the visuals with vibrant colors and sharp clarity, making it ideal for watching movies, gaming, or multitasking.

But the Mate X6 isn’t just about bigger screens—it’s about smarter functionality. The Live Multi-task feature allows users to run three apps simultaneously, streamlining work, communication, and entertainment. To handle demanding tasks like gaming and video calls, the phone integrates a 30% larger heat dissipation area, ultra-high thermal conductivity graphene, and separated heat sources, ensuring efficient cooling and reliable performance.

For a playful touch, Huawei has also introduced creative lock screen themes like Emoji Crush and Air Hoop, adding a bit of fun every time you unlock the device.

Revolutionary Camera System for Foldables

Huawei redefines smartphone photography with its Ultra Aperture XMAGE Camera System.

The 50 MP main camera features 10 adjustable apertures, enabling precise control over lighting for a variety of settings. This is complemented by a 40 MP ultra-wide-angle lens and a 48 MP telephoto lens with 4x optical zoom, offering the versatility to capture everything from expansive landscapes to intricate macro details.

The Moving Picture mode enhances creative potential with features like multiple exposures and long exposures, enabling users to craft truly stunning photos with ease.

The Huawei Mate X6 combines innovative design, immersive displays, and a revolutionary camera system to set a new benchmark for foldable smartphones. Whether you’re looking for a device that seamlessly blends style and functionality or one that redefines what a phone camera can do, the Mate X6 delivers on every front.

Huawei Technologies said that from 2025, all of its smartphones and tablets to be launched in 2025 will run on HarmonyOS Next, the latest iteration of Huawei’s self-developed mobile platform that no longer supports Android apps.

Announced at a live-streamed event on Nov 26, the new devices and software add to Huawei’s campaign to reclaim China’s premium tier from Apple and build an ecosystem without the involvement of major US tech providers.

The company’s new flagship phone, the Mate 70,  launched on Tuesday and shipping on December 4, will debut HarmonyOS Next, the iteration of its operating system that does away with remnants of Android in favour of entirely indigenous tech.However, users who wish to can still choose the older, Android-based HarmonyOS 4.3, according to Richard Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group.

Rich Bishop, CEO of AppInChina, which distributes international software in China, said Huawei’s plan to roll out HarmonyOS Next on all of its new devices next year will face “challenges” given the limited number of compatible apps currently available.

“If users can’t access one app they use regularly, then this will likely put them off buying a Next device.”Bishop said, “Users will also face huge challenges when traveling abroad, as the vast majority of apps they need to use will not be available on Next.”

HarmonyOS Next will still need another two to three months to improve its user experience, but the plan is to use it on upcoming gadgets, said Mr Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group.

Huawei’s rotating chairman Xu Zhijun said last week that HarmonyOS Next still needs two to three months to improve its user experience, but plans to apply it to upcoming devices. As of October 22, HarmonyOS Next has more than 15,000 native apps and services, and the company expects the operating system to achieve 100,000 apps and reach “maturity” in the next six months to a year.

Shenzhen-based Huawei is expected to use its latest in-house Kirin chip for the new product line, though its performance increase may be less significant than Qualcomm and MediaTek’s top-end offerings, according to a note by Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Charles Shum and Sean Chen.

The roll-out is a key part of Huawei’s relentless attempt to break free from years of US sanctions.

Despite Washington’s blacklisting and technical challenges, Huawei managed to grow sales over the past seven quarters, with the help of an expanding smartphone business.Its shipments recorded four consecutive quarters of at least double-digit growth in China as at September, according to research firm IDC.

China’s Huawei said on Saturday it is targeting 100,000 applications for its Harmony operating system in coming months as it seeks widespread help to achieve self-reliance.

The tech giant has more than 15,000 applications based on Harmony that can meet consumers’ basic needs, but the ecosystem requires more personalised and boutique apps, Huawei Chairman Xu Zhijun told a conference on Saturday.

Huawei unveiled Harmony in August 2019, after U.S. sanctions cut off support for Google’s (GOOGL.O). The Shenzhen-based company, which sells products ranging from smartphones to laptops, later developed an open-source version of the Harmony system.

Due to the US sanctions, “Huawei has been forced to accelerate developing its own operating system,” Xu said. Although much progress has been made, “for any operation system, no matter how advanced it is, it would be of no value if no one uses it.”

Xu expressed hope that developers could work hard to enrich app offerings and called on government agencies, state companies and social organisations to use Harmony as their operating system at work.

He asked consumers to be tolerant of the system’s immaturity, saying, “The more people use it, the more quickly it will become mature.”

Huawei is holding a big event on November 26 to introduce the Mate 70 lineup and the Mate X6 foldable smartphone. Today, we learned that the company is also launching FreeBuds Pro 4, the first TWS earbuds with HarmonyOS Next.

The reveal came through a Weibo post featuring a single image of the FreeBuds Pro 4. The buds are quite similar visually to the FreeBuds Pro 3 but with a finer edge of the stem. It will also have Huawei Sound, which appears to be a rebrand of Huawei Histen audio features.

The most noticeable changes include grille patterns on the sides and back of the earbuds, likely added for aesthetics. The teaser also has the buds in a sleek black-metallic finish, paired with a gold Huawei Sound logo and a bold gold rim encircling the back cover stick.

Tese earbuds having a dedicated operating system means they will feature extended integration in the HarmonyOS Next environment, which should include the new Mate smartphones, Pura 70 devices in China, and the Pocket 2 clamshell foldable.

Huawei is set to launch the FreeBuds Pro 4 on November 26th at the company’s Mate Brand Festival. The event will also introduce other new products, including the Mate 70 smartphone series.

A look at the predecessor

While we are short on specs on FreeBuds Pro 4, let’s look at the specs of its predecessor. 

The FreeBuds Pro 3 features advanced active noise cancellation (ANC) 3.0 and the Kirin A2 chip, which uses Polar code technology for impressive 1.5Mbps lossless audio transmission. 

It also delivers improved sound quality, noise reduction, and battery life. With QuietCall 2.0, these earbuds excel at minimizing background noise during calls. In terms of battery life, the FreeBuds Pro 3 offers up to 7 hours of playback on a single charge, extending to 30 hou2rs with the charging case.

The FreeBuds Pro 4 will likely build on these features and may also introduce new AI features. After all, 2024 has been a year of AI.

Huawei has announced its latest operating system (OS) in China which has been developed independently of Android. Dubbed HarmonyOS Next, it does not leverage Google’s Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code, which is adopted by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for developing Android skins for their devices. Instead, it is built on the Hongmeng kernel and system architecture, as per the company. HarmonyOS Next brings new home and lock screen customisation options, features powered by artificial intelligence (AI), and faster animations and app launch speeds.

HarmonyOS Next is set to power the current and future generations of Huawei devices in China for now, though a global release was confirmed previously. It will work across a broad range of devices ranging from smartphones to wearables, smart home devices and car cockpits.

HarmonyOS Next Features

Huawei’s new OS brings new ways to customise the home and lock screens. It borrows certain design elements from Harmony OS – the company’s Android skin. This includes app arrangements, widgets, a notification bar and the control centre. It features a new physical light engine which is claimed to make the interaction smoother and has a new wallpaper feature which recognises the object in the image and suggests a suitable composition.

A major component of HarmonyOS Next is the inclusion of AI, embedded in its core, from the kernel system to apps. It leverages an AI agent dubbed Celia, built on the company’s proprietary Pangu large language model (LLM). The agent can also take advantage of third-party cloud-based AI models to provide enhanced services. Thus, the OS is capable of providing personalised content and smart services based on different scenarios. It also features a built-in system-level AI assistant that has high-level understanding and interaction capabilities. Its capabilities include on-screen content awareness, contextual understanding, document analysis and summarisation, and a Circle-to-Search-like functionality.

Huawei says HarmonyOS Next has over 15,000 apps and more will arrive soon. It is also claimed to result in 30 percent better system-wide fluency and an increase of up to 1.5GB in system memory. Leveraging the new star shield security architecture, the OS has nuclear-level system-wide security, as per the company.