Huawei unveils new phone with invisible speakers

Chinese phone maker Huawei has unveiled a new phone with invisible speakers, an in-screen fingerprint reader and a new type of memory card as it seeks to carve out more of the mobile market.

The company announced the Mate 20 Series, which includes the Mate 20, the high-spec Mate 20 Pro and the 7.2 inch Mate 20X, at an event in London, talking up the phones’ artificial intelligence capabilities, camera and fast charging.

Huawei chief Richard Yu described the Mate 20 Series as the most powerful and intelligent Mate ever.

Powered by what Huawei says is the first seven nanometre mobile artificial intelligence chipset, the Kirin 980, the phone is using its extra power to bringing its new AI capabilities to the camera, with AI composition that helps with video footage, and online shopping, by allowing shoppers to scan items to query online retailers with HiVision, real-time text translation and even getting the calorie content of food. It also has AI 4D predictive focus and AI high dynamic range (HDR) capabilities.

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The camera has been the focus of Huawei’s efforts for some time. The Mate 20 Series camera array is arranged into a four point design on the back of the phone, a design Mr Yu said was inspired by luxury sports car headlamps.

With a larger sensor, the Mate 20 Pro can grab more light to help improve your low light shots. The triple camera includes a 40 megapixel wide angle lens, a 20 megapixel ultra wide angle lens and eight megapixel 3x telephoto lens.

The Mate 20 Pro camera has been tweaked to deliver detailed landscape shots and macro shots as close at 2.5cm.

Artificial intelligence is also brought into video, with an AI Cinema mode that will adjust hue, saturation and brightness of video clips, with presets that will add a vintage look or background blur.

The AI will also pick out human subjects in the frame and desaturate colours around them to make them stand out.

The phone’s battery has also been improved, with the 4200mAh battery giving more than a day of intensive use, according to Huawei. The Mate 20X comes with a 5,000mAh battery.

The Mate 20 Series also supports 40 watt fast charging, and 15w quick wireless charging. It can also be used as a wireless battery pack for other devices, so you could charge your iPhone from a Mate 20 Pro.

65wei has also developed facial recognition to unlock your phone, providing another option for users who don’t want to use their fingerprints or passcode.

Of the new phones, only the Mate 20 Pro is planned for release in the Republic. Huawei will sell the 128GB version, which can be expanded with a nanometre memory card, a new type of removable storage created by Huawei that can fit on the underside of the phone’s sim tray.

The Mate 20 Pro will be available from November 8th for €1,049 sim-free, and will launch with Android Pie, the latest version of the software.