Newsletter
A new report claims that the launch of the Huawei Mate 70 series has been delayed. The company was expected to announce these devices in October. However, it seems that we will have to wait a little longer, and the reason would be HarmonyOS NEXT.
HarmonyOS NEXT is Huawei’s next big move in the mobile software segment. Unlike the current HarmonyOS, NEXT gets rid of APK support. This means that it is not compatible with Android apps, completely betting on its own software ecosystem.
Huawei Mate 70 series’ HarmonyOS NEXT needs more development time
The Huawei Mate 70 series is expected to bring the first devices with HarmonyOS NEXT pre-installed. However, it seems that this is exactly the reason for the possible delay in the launch. According to RODENT950 on X/Twitter and Digital Chat Station on Weibo, Harmony OS 5 (NEXT) “needs more development time.” So, Huawei would still have work to do to get the new OS ready.
According to the report, the brand’s new mobile flagships will arrive in mid-to-late Q4 of 2024. In any case, the launch expected for October already fell in that time range. Therefore, the Huawei Mate 70 series could have been delayed until November-December.
Until now, no news had emerged about potential problems in the development of HarmonyOS NEXT. However, it is already an important milestone to have developed a completely new OS in just a few years. The original HarmonyOS with AOSP core was born out of Huawei’s need to gradually disengage from North American technology after trade restrictions were set in 2019.
Huawei pushing forward its own software ecosystem
Currently, HarmonyOS NEXT is estimated to have 4,000 native apps. Huawei hopes to raise this figure to 500,000 in the coming years. Regarding the Mate 70 series, the leaks have revealed some important improvements in key sections. The devices are said to bring a solvent Kirin 9100 chip, a curved LTPO OLED display (1.5K), and an OmniVision OV50K main camera (1-inch) with variable aperture.
Lastly, Huawei seems to have suffered problems in manufacturing the new flagship Kirin chip. Initially, it was expected to use SMIC’s 5nm process. However, SMIC wafers were not up to par, resulting in low-yield rates, so the Kirin 9100 would resort to the 7nm process. That said, they would apply the N+3 variant for production, so the transistor density will be higher than that of other 7nm Kirin chips (like the 9010 of the Huawei Pura 70 series).