STORY: Huawei unveiled its Mate 70 smartphone series on Tuesday (November 26).
The Chinese tech giant also showed off its own operating system.
That’s a big step because as the firm looks to cleanly break away from U.S. technology.
The Mate 70 is the successor to the 60 series released in August last year.
It was widely seen as marking Huawei’s comeback to high-end smartphones in competition with Apple.
Its business was badly hit by U.S. export curbs before.
The launch comes as the U.S. is expected to announce new export controls.
Washington could add up to 200 Chinese chip companies to a trade blacklist as soon as this week, which would restrict their access to U.S. suppliers.
Huawei executive Richard Yu described the device as the ‘most powerful Mate phone ever’.
He said prices will start at $758 – cheaper than Apple’s base iPhone 16 model.
Yu also said the Mate 70 is the first mainstream smartphone to include a satellite paging system.
It also has an improved processor, and runs on Huawei’s own HarmonyOS NEXT operating system.
The Mate 70 series is the first major commercial rollout of HarmonyOS NEXT.
Its a major step in Huawei’s push for software independence since U.S. curbs cut off its access to Google services five years ago.
The patriotic sentiment around Huawei’s technological breakthrough has helped fuel its market recovery.
It has also intensified competition with other players, including iPhone maker Apple.
