The Pura series developed by the Shenzhen-headquartered company has advanced cameras and is known for its sleek design, while the Mate series emphasises performance and business features.
The Pro and Ultra versions of the Pura 70 were available on Thursday, while the Plus and base versions will begin sales on April 22.
One customer, Lucas Zhuang, tested the network speed of the Pura 70 and said it was at the level of 5G.
“We didn’t know what chip the Pura 70 has inside.
“There may be some shortage at various channels but supply will be much better compared to when the Mate 60 was launched.
The Pura 70 series has four variants: the 70, the 70 Plus, the 70 Pro and the 70 Ultra.
The starting price for the Pura 70 series is 5,499 yuan ($760.06).
CHIP CHALLENGE The launch of the Mate 60 Pro last August led to a spike in Huawei’s smartphone sales.
HONG KONG/SHENZHEN/SHANGHAI, April 18 (Reuters) – Chinese technology giant Huawei began selling two models on Thursday of its much awaited, high-end Pura 70 smartphone series, which many analysts believe will come with an advanced chip made in China, similar to its Mate 60 device.
The Mate series places more of an emphasis on performance and business features, while the Pura series, created by the Shenzhen-headquartered company, boasts cutting-edge cameras and a sleek design.
The introduction of Huawei’s Mate 60 series last year was heralded by Chinese state media as a victory over U. S. imposed penalties on the company because the phones have a cutting-edge chip manufactured in China whose processing capacity is only a few generations behind that of chips used by Apple (AAPL) and other major Western tech companies. O) Google (GOOGL) and a new tab are opened. O)Opens a fresh tab.
Huawei also intends to release a Mate 70 smartphone this year, acting chairman Eric Xu announced at a forum in Shenzhen on Wednesday.
While the Plus and base models of the Pura 70 will go on sale on April 22, the Pro and Ultra versions were accessible on Thursday. Within minutes of the start of sales, the phones were sold out at Huawei’s official website, and hundreds of ardent supporters waited in line at Huawei locations in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.
Lucas Zhuang, a client, claimed that the Pura 70’s network speed was 5G rapid. Washington has prohibited the licensing of 5G chips to China; however, in many cases, Huawei’s Mate 60 phones were already capable of achieving 5G speed, even though the company did not label them as such.
“We were unaware of the internal chip of the Pura 70. After standing in line at Huawei’s flagship store in Shanghai, Zhuang, who already owns the Mate 60, told Reuters, “We’ll only find out after buying it.”.
However, we think that dot. Its chip will undoubtedly satisfy people’s requirements. ****.
Senior analyst Ivan Lam of research firm Counterpoint predicted that Huawei will ship roughly 60 million units this year, with the Pura 70 series serving as a major driver. 33 million smartphones were sold by Huawei in the previous year.
“While there might be some shortages in some areas, overall supply will be far better than it was at the time of the Mate 60 launch. There won’t be a protracted shortage, he stated.
Four models make up the Pura 70 series: the 70, the 70 Plus, the 70 Pro, and the 70 Ultra. 5.499 yuan ($760.06) is the starting price for the Pura 70 series.
CHIP TROUBLE.
Huawei’s smartphone sales surged last August after the Mate 60 Pro’s release. Huawei’s unit sales increased by 64% year over year in the first half of 2024, according to Counterpoint. In China, Apple’s iPhone sales decreased by 24% in the same time frame.
According to reports, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) (0981) in China produced Huawei’s Kirin 9000S chip. HK)New Tab opens a new tab even though U. S. export controls designed to reduce Beijing’s capacity to produce chips.
Following the release of the Pura 70, numerous internet critics broadcast live on Chinese social media as they disassembled the phone, drawing thousands of Huawei enthusiasts in. These reviewers claim that the smartphone has the Kirin 9010 chip, which seems to be a minor improvement over the Kirin 9000s found in the Mate 60 Pro.
Many reviews also mentioned that the phone did not heat up as fast as the Mate 60.
Despite Washington’s continuous efforts to destroy China’s capacity to produce cutting-edge semiconductors, Huawei’s new chips were viewed as a symbol of the country’s technological comeback.
Earlier this year, the Biden administration started looking into the chip, and last month they claimed that SMIC may have broken U.S. s. stating that it was still assessing the circumstances and export regulations.
Apart from focusing on the chip producers in China, the U.S. s. has placed trade restrictions on Huawei since 2018, alleging that the company poses a threat to national security with its products—a claim that Huawei disputes.
Speaking more about the upcoming Mate 70 smartphones on Tuesday, Xu stated that the intention is for them to run a “pure” version of HarmonyOS, which was created in 2019 following U. s. sanctions prevented Huawei from accessing U. s. systems like Android developed by Google.
According to him, Huawei intends to sever HarmonyOS’s dependency on the Android application ecosystem in order to make HarmonyOS independent and competitive with Apple’s iOS and Android.
$1 is equal to 7.2350 Chinese Yuan.
Additional reporting from Liam Mo in Beijing; editing from Jacqueline Wong, Stephen Coates, Jamie Freed, Sonali Paul, and Barbara Lewis; reporting from Josh Ye in Hong Kong, David Kirton in Shenzhen, and Brenda Goh in Shanghai.
Our Guidelines: The Principles of Thomson Reuters Trust. Launches a new tab.
As the head of Reuters’ Shanghai bureau, Brenda Goh is in charge of corporate coverage in China. After beginning her career with Reuters as a trainee in London in 2010, Brenda has covered stories from more than a dozen nations.
