The Chinese tech giant's post-Google era looks promising

In 2019, Huawei disrupted the mobile phone industry with the P30 Pro, which boasted a powerful Leica Quad Camera System, SuperZoom lens with 50x zoom, and high-performing low light camera.

This year, Huawei has outdone itself against all odds in a post-Google era for the brand. After launching the Huawei Mate Xs just last month, the Chinese mobile giant revealed the highly-anticipated P40 series along with a series of smart gadgets in a live stream yesterday.

The ban on Huawei implemented by the United States government meant that Huawei had taken to developing everything in-house, from the operating system and app store to its very own voice assistant, which will be launched in the Huawei P40 phones. It is also evidently building up its own ecosystem, announcing its latest Watch GT2e smartwatch, new models for its Gentle Monster Eyewear collaboration, and Sound X, a wireless speaker that was first unveiled last month.

Here’s what you need to know about Huawei’s upcoming launches:

Tatler Asia
Above Huawei P40 Pro+ (Image: Huawei)

1. Huawei P40 Series

The P30 series last year only offered two models—P30 and the P30 Pro—but for this new series, Huawei is releasing P40, P40 Pro, and P40 Pro+. One of the key highlights of the series is its high-performance photography. It boasts the Huawei Ultra Vision Sensor—Huawei’s largest CMOS sensor to date—and the Ultra Vision Leica camera system, which is available in triple-camera, quad-camera and penta-camera configurations in the three models respectively, delivering outstanding low light performance, depth of field and high quality zoomed shots.

Both P40 Pro and P40 Pro+ feature a 32-megapixel AF (autofocus) Camera and IR (infra-red) Depth Camera in the front, as well as a 50 mega-pixel Ultra Vision Camera, 3D Depth Sensing Camera and a 40-megapixel ultra-wide-angle Cine Camera that can capture footage in 7680fps Ultra Slow-Motion on its rear. What sets them apart is that while P40 offers a 12-megapixel SuperSensing Telephoto Camera, P40 Pro+ is equipped with an 8-megapixel Telephoto Camera and an additional 8-megapixel SuperZoom Camera—which supports up to 10x true optical zoom and 100x digital zoom.

The P40 series’ camera system is further improved with Huawei’s AI software Golden Snap, which can choose the best frames from a moving picture, remove passerby, and remove unwanted reflections in your photos.

Huawei also announced Celia—its answer to the Google Assistant—which performs the tasks of a virtual assistant and is also equipped with smart features like “face to face translate” as well as live image search functions in tandem with Huawei’s AI Lens. It will be available with the P40 series in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Chile, Mexico, and Colombia first.

Tatler Asia
Above Huawei Watch GT2e (Image: Huawei)

2. Huawei Watch GT2e

The latest addition to the Huawei Watch GT2 series is the GT2e. Designed to support a healthy and active lifestyle, the smartwatch features blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) via infrared for the first time in the series, as well as precise heart rate monitoring, abnormal heart rate reminders, pressure level monitoring and sleep monitoring. Users can also benefit from the 100 workout modes , which range from traditional sports like running and swimming to trendier forms of exercise such as parkour or skateboarding.

The design of the watch takes on a sportier look with a sandblasted stainless steel body and fluororubber fitness straps, available in four colourways of Graphite Black, Lava Red, Mint Green and Icy White.

Fitted with Kirin A1—Huawei’s first self-developed wearable chip—the GT2e also boasts high performance with low power consumption, lasting for up to two weeks from a charge.

Tatler Asia
Above Huawei Sound X (Image: Huawei)

3. Huawei Sound X

We previously reported on Sound X, Huawei’s collaboration with French luxury audio specialist Devialet. A wireless speaker packed with a 60w dual subwoofer with 360-degree surround sound, Sound X utilises Devialet’s signature “Push-Push” configuration to deliver powerful bass while cancelling vibrations.

In the latest press conference, Huawei shared that the speakers play audio via wifi, building on the tech giant’s self-developed EMUI 10.1 Multi-Device Control Panel that works similarly to Apple’s Airplay. Huawei smartphone users have the added option to tap their phone’s NFC area against the Sound X to seamlessly connect to the speaker.

There are no new announcements regarding the speaker’s smart integration features—which are currently only available in China—but with the development of Huawei’s multilingual voice assistant Celia, perhaps this could be something we can look forward to in the future.

Tatler Asia
Above (Image: Huawei)
Tatler Asia
Above (Image: Huawei)

4. Gentle Monster Eyewear

In collaboration with South Korean cult eyewear brand Gentle Monster, Huawei launched a debut collection of smart optical glasses and sunglasses last year. The smart eyewear allows users to double tap on the temple of the glasses to answer and end calls or play and pause music with dual speakers and microphones enhanced by AI speech noise-reduction technology. This year, the tech giant and eyewear brand are launching two new and improved designs for spring/summer 2020: Smart HER 01 and Smart MYMA 01.

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