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Huawei Mate 20 could arrive w/ Android P, wireless charging, in-display fingerprint reader

Huawei is the second largest smartphone maker on the planet, and its flagship releases are always pretty exciting. Following the drama that came with the Mate 10, Huawei is prepping the launch of the Mate 20 family, and some leaked firmware is giving us a few details on the coming hardware…

Files shared with XDA-Developers reveal our first tidbits of information regarding the Huawei Mate 20 and its variants, including the Mate 20 Lite and Pro.

Focusing mainly on the standard Mate 20, this firmware reveals a lot of specifications. First and foremost, Huawei’s next generation in-house chipset, the Kirin 980, is on board here. While the Kirin 970 didn’t blow away the competition like its predecessor did, Huawei continues to do a great job with its own silicon. Apparently, this new chipset will be the first manufactured on a 7nm process. As per usual, this new SoC will likely improve performance and efficiency, and we’ll probably end up hearing more about it around IFA.

These leaked specifications also include a larger display, this time landing at 6.3-inches with an OLED panel. Last year Huawei only used an OLED display on the Mate 10 Pro, so it’s nice to see that being extended to other variants. Presumably, the bezels will be slightly slimmed down to make room. The base model of this device is also expected to have 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM.

Along with that, Huawei is making improvements to power. A huge 4,200mAh battery is apparently being included, topping Huawei’s previous flagship record of 4,000mAh. It’s rare to see so much power in a flagship device, but with Samsung potentially delivering 4,000mAh in the Note 9, it makes sense that Huawei would want to one-up the company. Further, the Mate 20 is expected to finally include wireless charging on the glass-backed Mate 20.

The Mate 20 Lite and Mate 20 Pro aren’t detailed much in this firmware, but it does hint at the Mate 20 Pro adopting an in-display fingerprint sensor. That’s not a first for Huawei, as the Mate RS offered that earlier this year, but it’s nice to see that landing on a more affordable, mainstream device.

Finally, this firmware leak seemingly confirms that these new devices are going to be launching with Android P out of the box with EMUI 9.0 on top. Despite the company’s heavy skin, Huawei does a great job with launching new devices with current software. Hopefully, the jump from EMUI 8.1 to 9.0 also means we’ll see some major changes in tow.

Of course, we’re still likely at least a couple of months away from any official word on the Huawei Mate 20 family, so stay tuned…


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