Huawei’s foldable is thinner, lighter, and has more battery than Samsung’s

[silversurfer]

Content source

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/03/huaweis-foldable-is-thinner-lighter-and-has-more-battery-than-samsung/

Huawei is still making phones, even if the US-China trade war puts most of the stalwart Android component vendors in a complicated relationship with the Chinese tech company. Huawei's new phones are the flagship Huawei P60 Pro slab phone and a flagship foldable, the Huawei Mate X3.

The trade war makes these phones unique in the world of Android. First, it has a Qualcomm chip, but Huawei isn't allowed to use the latest technology from Qualcomm, so the chip in both of these phones is the "Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 4G Mobile Platform." Besides being last year's chip, this is a special, Huawei-only version of the chip that is branded as "4G." It has had the 5G bands stripped out of it—both mmWave and sub 6 GHz.

The other oddity is the lack of Google Play apps internationally. Huawei isn't allowed to ship the Google apps due to the export ban. While that's normal in China (where Google Play isn't available), internationally it means the phone is missing standard Google apps like YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, the Google Assistant, Docs, Search, Photos, and other apps that make Android a competitive consumer OS. Instead of the Google ecosystem, you'll be getting the OS with Huawei Mobile Services, which includes the Huawei AppGallery, Huawei Petal Maps, the Huawei Assistant (which appears just to be a search tool and some widgets, not a voice assistant), Huawei Pay, and Huawei apps for books, music, and video.

In China, the P60 Pro costs 4,988 CNY ($725), and the Mate X3 is 12,999 CNY ($1,891). International prices and launch dates will be announced in May.

Huawei’s foldable is thinner, lighter, and has more battery than Samsung’s

Huawei can't use 5G, Gorilla Glass, or Google apps, but it's managing.

arstechnica.com

 

[Paul.R]

Imagine Huawei without ban...

 

[upnorth]

Imagine Huawei without ban...

From a pure technical point of view, amazing and previous over the years easy competed with all other top vendors either one liked it or not. Today, it's not a brand/vendor Europeans is/will be eager to get their hands on simply because the lack of support for Google Play store and other basic features. I also doubt too many stores/re-seller will actually make even this latest versions available. Not in Scandinavia anyway.

 

[Paul.R]

Also Huawei's own devices not being able to use 5G is one of the biggest ironies in recent tech history. We'll see how China's technology market evolves relative to the US, if we don't bring up Taiwan.