The Huawei Mate 30 Launch Event Live Blog (Starts at 8am ET/12:00 UTC)

07:43AM EDT - The busy fall period for smartphone launches continues. Today in Munich, Germany, Huawei is holding their launch event for their Mate 30 family of smartphones, the latest generation of flagship phones from the company. The underlying Kirin 990 SoC was already announced a couple of weeks back at IFA, and now we'll get to see the rest of what Huawei has in store for their next generation of smartphones.

07:44AM EDT - I'm here and sat in the second row. Scheduled to start in 15 minutes or so

07:47AM EDT - Some Mate 30 information seems to have been leaked, but nothing we can confirm. For the first time in a long time, we understand there have been zero pre-briefs on the device to the press. We haven't signed any NDA

07:48AM EDT - After the Keynote, there's a Richard Yu Q&A roundtable, and some hands on time with the devices

07:53AM EDT - The room has around a couple thousand people in it

07:54AM EDT - We already know what's in the heart of the new phones: Huawei's new Kirin 990 chipset, which was announced in Berlin a couple of weeks ago

07:54AM EDT - https://www.anandtech.com/show/14851/huawei-announces-kirin-990-and-kirin-990-5g-dual-soc-approach-integrated-5g-modem?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

07:55AM EDT - There are two versions of the Kirin 990: a 5G and a non-5G version

07:56AM EDT - The 5G version is slightly faster on the CPU, has double NPU resources, and is built on TSMC's 7+ EUV process. By comparison, the non-5G version uses TSMC 7nm (non EUV), but the die size is 10-20% smaller because it doesn't have a 5G modem and 1/2 an NPU

07:56AM EDT - We have been told that the non-5G chip is ready today, and the 5G versions will roll out through Q4 depending on regions

08:01AM EDT - THe keynote is scheduled for 90 minutes

08:01AM EDT - We do know a Porsche Design model is coming

08:02AM EDT - Here we go

08:03AM EDT - 'Rethink Possibilities'

08:03AM EDT - Richard Yu, CEO to the stage

08:03AM EDT - Still experiencing strong growth at Huawei

08:04AM EDT - +26% smartphone shipment over 2018 in H1 2019

08:04AM EDT - Revenue up 40%

08:04AM EDT - (so people are buying more high end devices, ASPs are going up)

08:04AM EDT - Growing brand recognition

08:05AM EDT - 16m Mate 20 sales, 17m P30 sales

08:05AM EDT - The Mate Series lead the innovation and technologies in smartphones

08:06AM EDT - Two years ago, Mate 10 introduced mobile AI processor

08:06AM EDT - Mate 20 X 5G, world first 5G dual mode smartphone

08:06AM EDT - We're still waiting on some hands on with the Mate 20 5G

08:07AM EDT - Shipping Foldable Mate X in CHina from October

08:07AM EDT - Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro

08:07AM EDT - Four cameras

08:07AM EDT - Leica partnership

08:08AM EDT - Every generation pushes the boundaries of design

08:08AM EDT - >Throwing shade at apple for copying a square camera bump

08:09AM EDT - Inspired camera design with camera professional halo ring implementation

08:09AM EDT - Shape and phone design is meant to be pure and unique

08:09AM EDT - Corner architecture

08:09AM EDT - Ergo shape for holding with 3D glass

08:10AM EDT - New horizon display

08:10AM EDT - 88 degree design (like TCL's waterfall display)

08:11AM EDT - 6.53 inch flexOLED display

08:11AM EDT - 2400x1176, DCI-P3, 18.4:9 ratio

08:11AM EDT - Cinematic color enhancement

08:11AM EDT - (Pixelworks?)

08:11AM EDT - The 'wide' aspect ratio is due to the edges of the phone being included

08:12AM EDT - Mate 30 is traditional 6.62-inch rigid OLED, 2340x1080, 19.5:9

08:12AM EDT - So it's the Pro with the waterfall screen

08:12AM EDT - As always, Huawei going for the upsell on the Pro

08:13AM EDT - 4200 mAh on Mate 30, 4500 mAh on Mate 30 Pro

08:13AM EDT - 196g on Mate 30, 198g on Mate 30 Pro

08:13AM EDT - 0mm side-to-side bezel on Mate 30 Pro

08:14AM EDT - Compact head and chin

08:14AM EDT - (Apple measurements are taken from pictures on the website)

08:14AM EDT - Smaller Notch on Pro to Mate 20 Pro

08:15AM EDT - 3D depth camera, gesture sensor, selfie camera, ambient light and proximity sensor

08:15AM EDT - in the nothc

08:15AM EDT - notch

08:16AM EDT - Sound comes from the screen, like P30 Pro

08:16AM EDT - No top speaker this means,

08:16AM EDT - No volume button, just double touch the side and slide a finger

08:16AM EDT - left or right handed

08:17AM EDT - Mate 30 Pro is IP68, Mate 30 is IP53

08:17AM EDT - Black, Space Silver, Cosmic Purple, Emerald Green

08:18AM EDT - Gloss to Matte Gradient on Emerald Green

08:18AM EDT - Not slippery due to gradient

08:18AM EDT - Also Porsche Design models

08:18AM EDT - Vegan Leather editions

08:18AM EDT - Skin friendly, durable, IP68

08:19AM EDT - Also available on MAte 30 ?

08:19AM EDT - Vegan Leather Orange, Vegan Leather Forest Green

08:19AM EDT - All colors on Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro

08:19AM EDT - Now for performance

08:20AM EDT - Kirin 990 5G

08:20AM EDT - AI perf numbers given on INT8

08:21AM EDT - OS optimizations

08:22AM EDT - 21 antennas, 14 of which for 5G

08:22AM EDT - Other devices have 6 or less 5G antennas

08:22AM EDT - 5G band support

08:22AM EDT - On China Mobile, test the speed

08:23AM EDT - ALmost 1 Gbps download on Samsung, 1.6 Gbps on Huawei

08:24AM EDT - 1.5

08:24AM EDT - Both SIM slots can support 5G (but not at the same time)

08:25AM EDT - Support Dual VoLTE

08:25AM EDT - Mate 30 5G, Mate 30 Pro 5G

08:27AM EDT - So there will be Kirin 990 4G versions and Kirin 990 5G versions of both MAte 30 and Mate 30 Pro

08:27AM EDT - The base models will not do 5G

08:27AM EDT - 40W wired charge

08:27AM EDT - 27W wireless charge

08:27AM EDT - On both Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro

08:28AM EDT - Huawei claims that its 27W wireless charging is better than other 30W solutions, because 30W is taken from input, not output

08:28AM EDT - New generation reverse wireless charge, 2nd gen is now 3x speed

08:29AM EDT - 40W supercharge power bank

08:30AM EDT - Now photography

08:31AM EDT - Mate 30 cameras - 16MP ultrawide, 40MP supersensing wife, 8MP telephoto

08:31AM EDT - ISO 204800, 3x optical zoom, 2.5cm macro, OIS on Telephoto, all get AIS

08:33AM EDT - 40MP RYYB 1/1.7-inch sensor

08:35AM EDT - Showing some photo examples

08:35AM EDT - Mate 30 Pro

08:35AM EDT - 40MP Ultrawide Cine, 40MP Sueprsensing Wide, 8MP Telephoto, 3D Depth Sensor

08:36AM EDT - ISO 409600, 3x Optical Zoom, Pro-Bokeh, Dual OIS + AIS

08:36AM EDT - 40MP Cine is 1/1.54-inch

08:37AM EDT - 3:2 for video recording

08:37AM EDT - larger pixels

08:37AM EDT - Night mode ultra wide angle optimizations

08:39AM EDT - Wide angle with HDR+

08:40AM EDT - More photo examples

08:40AM EDT - Videography

08:41AM EDT - 40MP cine camera does 4K60, up to ISO51200 and HDR+

08:41AM EDT - Ultra slow motion, 7680 fps

08:41AM EDT - (at what resolution)

08:41AM EDT - Real-time bokeh with NPU

08:41AM EDT - This is the Mate 30 Pro

08:45AM EDT - Some slowmo examples on stage

08:47AM EDT - You can tell the resolution is a good deal lower than professional photo equipment

08:47AM EDT - VIdeo bokeh

08:48AM EDT - next gen AIS

08:48AM EDT - AI Image Stability, already been on Huawei smartphones for 2 gens

08:49AM EDT - For what it's worth, it looked like you could record at least 5 seconds at 1960 fps

08:49AM EDT - 4K timelapse supports 12 hour recording

08:50AM EDT - Ultra low light wide angle night mode time lapse

08:51AM EDT - A video showing 'Tibet (China)'

08:51AM EDT - Huawei is pushing the Mate 30 Pro as a professional photography assistant

08:52AM EDT - Collaboration with OSMO Mobile 3. Huawei Photo app already imbeds Osmo Mobile 3 support

08:53AM EDT - Support for Profoto C1 and C1 plus

08:53AM EDT - OTA upgrade required

08:53AM EDT - Still no mention about Google Apps so far

08:55AM EDT - Now discussing the Huawei Next Image awards

08:55AM EDT - EMUI10

08:55AM EDT - Latest Android 10 support

08:55AM EDT - Always on display

08:56AM EDT - Morandi Color Scheme, Magazine style layouts

08:56AM EDT - I've seen some of EMUI 10. It adds a good amount of white space to feel 'clean'

08:58AM EDT - Dedicated Dark Mode for the entire UI

08:58AM EDT - Optimized contrast differentiation to be more comforatble in dark mode

08:59AM EDT - Dark Mode engine for all apps

09:00AM EDT - Gesture controls

09:00AM EDT - Requires >2 lux

09:00AM EDT - AI Auto Rotate

09:01AM EDT - Multi-Screen collaboration

09:02AM EDT - Requires Huawei Matebook

09:02AM EDT - Huawei M-PEN

09:03AM EDT - Connection to smart car

09:03AM EDT - Huawei HiCar

09:03AM EDT - Use phone as car key

09:04AM EDT - Demo with a volvo

09:04AM EDT - Now security and privacy

09:04AM EDT - Next-gen Fingerprint sensor (Goodix v3?)

09:05AM EDT - Biometric Data protected by HarmonyOS micro-kernel

09:05AM EDT - IMEI isolation

09:05AM EDT - Phone-to-Cloud end-to-end encryption

09:05AM EDT - Only shows notifications if a specific face is recognized

09:07AM EDT - Porsche Design

09:08AM EDT - Mate 30 RS

09:09AM EDT - It's a lifestyle product

09:11AM EDT - Reiterating all the Mate 30 Pro talking points

09:11AM EDT - Fancy leather

09:12AM EDT - The PD models aren't sold in all markets. It's for the high end customers who want an accessory to pair with their car

09:12AM EDT - Think China, Russia, and perhaps surprisingly, Nordics

09:12AM EDT - If I recall, the last PD model was 2200 USD equivalent

09:13AM EDT - These phones are for people who want a combined style with their car. It's not really for people looking for just the phone.

09:14AM EDT - Non-Vegan leather

09:14AM EDT - Red and black

09:15AM EDT - Rear leather strap accessory

09:15AM EDT - 12GB DRAM, 512 GB Storage, on Mate30 RS

09:15AM EDT - One spec, as with previous years

09:16AM EDT - No mention if there's a 5G version, but they're showing Kirin 990 5G on a video

09:18AM EDT - Also Huawei Watch GT2

09:19AM EDT - Kirin A1 chipset inside

09:20AM EDT - 2GB storage

09:20AM EDT - Supports MP3 and LC-AAC

09:21AM EDT - 2 weeks battery life

09:21AM EDT - Supports 15 sports modes, two new, including elliptical

09:22AM EDT - Underwater Heart Rate monitoring. 50m water resistant

09:22AM EDT - All-day stress monitoring

09:24AM EDT - Almost at the end now, waiting for prices on the smartphones

09:26AM EDT - Huawei Vision TV. Looks like the Honor Vision TV

09:27AM EDT - 4K 120 Hz supported on 75-inch

09:28AM EDT - Works with Huawei Share

09:29AM EDT - Acts as an IoT control center through HiLink

09:30AM EDT - Honghu smart AI chip inside

09:30AM EDT - 100% NTSC QLED

09:31AM EDT - AI Fitness with skeletel detection

09:31AM EDT - Now pricing

09:32AM EDT - Mate 30, 8GB/128GB is 799 EUro

09:32AM EDT - Mate 30 Pro, 1099 Euro with 8GB / 256GB

09:34AM EDT - MAte 30 Pro 5G is 1199 for 8GB/256GB

09:34AM EDT - Mate30 RS is 2095 Euro for 12/512

09:34AM EDT - Huawei mobile services with Huawei App Gallery

09:34AM EDT - 45000+ apps with Huawei Mobile Services

09:35AM EDT - $1b development fund for Huawei Mobile Services apps

09:36AM EDT - Looks like no Google Apps

09:36AM EDT - THat's a wrap. Time for hands on and interviews.

09:36AM EDT - .