Huawei is about to hold what will likely be a bittersweet event to introduce the Mate 40 series. While it’s poised to be one of the company’s most powerful phones to date, it will also be the company’s last phone with a high-end Kirin chipset for the foreseeable future due to the US trade ban. This is, in a sense, a swan song for Huawei’s mobile business as you know it today.
There’s plenty to expect from the Mate 40, though, and that moment of reckoning makes the virtual presentation all the more exciting. You may well be watching a key moment in the company’s history. Here’s how to watch the Huawei Mate 40 event livestream where you live.
When does the Huawei Mate 40 event start?
Huawei will begin the event at 2PM CEST, or 8AM ET, on October 22. Here’s when you can expect to watch in your part of the world.
- San Francisco: 5AM
- Chicago: 7AM
- New York: 8AM
- London: 1PM
- Berlin: 2PM
- Moscow: 3PM
- Mumbai: 5:30PM
- Beijing: 8PM
- Sydney: 11PM
How to watch the Huawei Mate 40 event
Huawei is thankfully livestreaming the event on its YouTube channel, and we’ve embedded the feed below to make it easy to watch.
What are we actually expecting?
To no one’s surprise, Huawei is expected to focus on the Mate 40 family’s cameras at the event, just as it has with the Mate 30 and its predecessors. Rumors suggest the Mate 40 Pro will still have three rear cameras that might include a 50MP main sensor, a 20MP wide-angle cam and a 12MP zoom lens. You’d also get laser autofocus and a color temperature sensor, while a 13MP selfie camera and depth sensor may sit at the front in a hole punch array rather than the Mate 30’s notch. There’s even talk of a Mate 40 RS with five cameras and a possible “freeform” lens.
The Mate 40 Pro might also have a slightly larger 6.7-inch OLED display, but might have a less aggressive “waterfall” edge.
See also: Huawei P40 Pro Plus review
And yes, the processor will play a large part in the story. A high-end, eight-core Kirin chip (named the Kirin 1000 or Kirin 9000, depending on who you ask) will reportedly help it stay competitive with the latest rival flagships. You might get 8GB or 12GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. If this is the last high-end Huawei phone, it shouldn’t be a slouch.
Just don’t expect Huawei’s software situation to change. AppGallery has improved over time, but you still won’t find Google apps or many of the third-party titles you’ve seen in the Play Store. The US trade ban is once again to blame, but that could still make the Mate 40 a tougher sell outside of Huawei’s native China. A potential 2021 release wouldn’t help, either.
We’ll provide thorough coverage of Huawei’s Mate 40 launch event, so be sure to check back with us for the official details.
