Huawei vs. Apple in a Peak Showdown.

Finally, the Mate 70 series has been scheduled!

On the morning of November 18, Huawei's official Weibo account and Yu Chengdong's video account announced that Huawei will officially hold the "Huawei Mate Brand Ceremony" at 14:30 on November 26 to unveil the Huawei Mate 70. LeiTech will be at the scene to cover the event and produce reviews. Stay tuned for LeiTech's follow-up reports.

(Image source: Huawei)

As 2024 draws to a close, brands such as Apple, Xiaomi, Honor, OPPO, vivo, and others have successively launched their new generation of flagship phones, igniting a new round of competition. As a leader in domestic flagship phones, Huawei's Mate series has always been highly anticipated by consumers. Within minutes of the announcement, the Mate 70 series soared to the second spot on Weibo's trending topics, demonstrating the product's popularity.

(Image source: Weibo Screenshot)

At 12:08 pm on the same day, pre-orders for the Mate 70 series opened, and within just one hour, orders surpassed one million. Long lines formed at offline stores. Since the Kirin 980 era, every generation of Mate flagships has sparked a frenzy among consumers, so it was not surprising that the Mate 70 series surpassed one million pre-orders within an hour.

The King Returns

In the smartphone industry, to generate buzz for new products and increase brand popularity, major phone manufacturers often inadvertently "leak" information about their new flagships. By the time of the launch event, all specifications of the new phone may already be publicly known. However, Huawei, with a brand influence on par with Apple, does not need such tactics, so there has not been much accurate information leaked about the Mate 70 series. Fortunately, through in-depth research by the supply chain, domestic and international tech bloggers, industry insiders, and others, some reliable information about the Mate 70 series has been obtained.

The Mate 70 series is expected to launch in four versions: the standard edition, Pro version, Pro+ version, and the Mate 70 RS Ultimate Edition. Currently, the first three versions of the Mate 70 series are available for pre-order on Huawei's official store, with the highest storage configuration being 16GB+1TB.

(Image source: Huawei Official Store Screenshot)

It is reported that the Mate 70 will feature a 6.69-inch 1.5K straight screen, likely with a single punch-hole design and no 3D facial recognition. The three high-end versions, on the other hand, will come with a 6.88-inch 1.5K 120Hz quad-curved screen and support 3D facial recognition.

In terms of photography, the Mate 70 series will come standard with adjustable apertures. The standard edition features a 50-megapixel main camera with a 1/1.5-inch CMOS sensor and a 12-megapixel periscope telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom. The Mate 70 Pro, on the other hand, boasts a 50-megapixel 1/1.3-inch main camera, a periscope telephoto macro lens with a 1/2.5-inch CMOS sensor, and 3.5x optical zoom.

Additionally, all models in the Mate 70 series will come standard with wireless charging, with an expected charging power similar to the previous generation and a battery capacity increased to approximately 6000mAh. As for the processor, leaked information suggests that the Mate 70 series will be powered by the Kirin 9100, which may be based on a public version of the CPU and GPU architecture rather than a custom version. The super-core is the Cortex-X1 with a clock speed of 2.67GHz.

It is worth mentioning that @Dingjiao Digital has revealed that the Mate 70 series may adopt ultrasonic side fingerprint unlock across all models. Regarding the unlock method, LeiTech's team is divided into two camps: one supporting in-screen fingerprint unlock, which is fast, covers a large area, and is more premium with the support of ultrasonic fingerprint technology; the other believing that side fingerprint unlock is more ergonomic and faster.

I support side fingerprint unlock, as it is convenient and fast after enrolling my right thumb and left index or middle finger. The only issue with side fingerprint unlock is that when the phone is placed on a table, it needs to be picked up before unlocking. However, the 2D/3D facial recognition feature of the Mate 70 series can compensate for this limitation of side fingerprint unlock.

(Image source: Huawei)

On the hardware front, Huawei has equipped the Mate 70 series with everything it can offer, rivaling the iPhone 16 series and new Android flagships in terms of photography, screen quality, and charging technology.

On the software front, the highly anticipated pure-blooded HarmonyOS NEXT has been released and entered public beta testing, with over 15,000 native apps and services. However, compared to the millions of apps available on Android and iOS, the HarmonyOS ecosystem is still relatively underdeveloped. While HarmonyOS NEXT is generally sufficient for daily life and work, it may fall short for gaming needs.

HarmonyOS NEXT offers improved smoothness and stability, making it one of the core competitive advantages of the Mate 70 series. However, it may also deter some consumers from choosing the Mate 70 series. Perhaps Huawei will give users the freedom to choose between HarmonyOS 4 and HarmonyOS NEXT.

The Mate 70 series marks a new era for Huawei's smartphones in terms of both hardware and software. It is a well-rounded product in all aspects, and the introduction of the Kirin 9100 is expected to attract a large number of Huawei fans to upgrade their devices. However, facing new flagships from Apple, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Honor, and other brands, can the Mate 70 series still lead the domestic flagship market?

Blockbuster Lock-in

IDC statistics show that in the third quarter of 2024, the domestic market share for phones priced above 600 USD (approximately 4350 CNY) was 29.3%, an increase of 3.7 percentage points year-on-year, indicating increasing consumer acceptance of flagship phones.

According to Canalys, in the second quarter of this year, Apple still ranked first in the domestic market share for phones priced above 600 USD, but its year-on-year growth rate was -7%, suggesting that more consumers are switching from Apple to domestic flagship brands. Among domestic manufacturers, Huawei ranked second with a 30% market share and an impressive 82% year-on-year growth rate, far exceeding other brands.

These figures demonstrate Huawei's strong brand influence. The Huawei that once shared the flagship phone market with Apple has returned. However, from a consumer perspective, we still need to consider a phone's hardware and software capabilities when making a purchase.

In the highly competitive domestic smartphone market, the Mate 70 series may not have the most powerful hardware specifications, but it can meet users' daily needs. Beyond hardware specifications, a phone's performance also depends on software optimization. LeiTech has previously reviewed multiple mainstream Huawei flagship phones, all of which performed exceptionally well.

The Mate 70 series not only comes with the more powerful Kirin 9100 but also upgrades to the pure-blooded HarmonyOS NEXT. Huawei claims that HarmonyOS NEXT offers a 30% improvement in fluidity and a 56-minute increase in battery life compared to HarmonyOS 4. With the optimization of the Kirin 9100 and HarmonyOS NEXT, the Mate 70 series is as smooth as the iPhone 16 series or other Android flagships.

The system-level AI assistant "Xiaoyi Intelligence" is also a highlight of the Mate 70 series. After accessing the global entry, Xiaoyi Intelligence can process text, images, and other complex information, support functions such as money transfers and image search, and even help polish text when writing Weibo posts, enabling cross-application operations.

This year, major phone manufacturers have been racing towards AI, with companies like Apple and Honor proposing AI agent concepts. Huawei, which has already been deploying AI with its Pangu large model and collaborating with many partners to build "hundreds of models and thousands of applications" deployable on various platforms such as phones, tablets, PCs, and cars, has a strong foundation in AI technology in the smartphone industry.

With its comprehensively upgraded hardware, system, and AI capabilities, the Mate 70 series demonstrates sufficient competitiveness. Combined with Huawei's brand influence, the Mate 70 series is poised to be a bestseller. As the domestic smartphone industry prepares for a new round of competition towards the end of 2024, the two main players in the high-end market, Apple and Huawei, will face off in a peak showdown.

Sticking It to Apple

Apple typically launches its new phones in September. Due to the short launch window and strong demand, Apple usually does not participate in Double 11 promotions, and e-commerce platform coupons cannot be used to purchase Apple devices. Some platforms may issue limited iPhone coupons to attract traffic. However, this year, Apple's Tmall flagship store joined the Double 11 event, offering a 500 CNY coupon and up to 1100 CNY subsidies for trade-ins. Price reductions are often a measure to revive slumping sales, indicating that Apple has been forced to lower prices to boost sales.

The crisis for the iPhone comes from the resurgent Huawei and rising Android manufacturers. In the past, Android phones lagged behind the iPhone in overall experience, making it difficult for them to compete in the high-end market. Nowadays, with the joint efforts of supply chain companies like Qualcomm, MediaTek, Google, Sony, and Samsung, as well as phone manufacturers like Xiaomi, Honor, OPPO, and vivo, the experience of Android phones has improved significantly, especially in heavy-load gaming scenarios, where they far surpass the iPhone. The only remaining advantage of the iPhone may be its iOS ecosystem.

(Image source: LeiTech Production)

Huawei, which once fell to rock bottom due to supply chain issues and saw its phone sales drop to the "others" category, has made a comeback and dealt a critical blow to Apple. Around 2020, Huawei's flagship phone sales were already on par with Apple's. Although it went through a few years of difficulties, public recognition of Huawei's technological strength and brand has been on the rise. Currently, Huawei's phone sales have returned to the top three in China, with its flagship phone market share catching up with Apple's.

The iPhone 16 and Mate 70 series are about to enter a decisive moment. Relying on brand influence, hardware specifications, and product pricing, Huawei has the opportunity to gain more market share from the end of this year to the beginning of next, leading the domestic flagship phone market. Other Android manufacturers can take advantage of the battle between Apple and Huawei to capture market share through marketing and the upcoming Ultra versions of their phones.

As for Apple, the decline in domestic sales is increasingly apparent, and its AI technology does not have a significant advantage over domestic phone manufacturers' flagship models. The advantage of its iOS ecosystem is also diminishing. Whether to continue lowering prices to enhance product competitiveness has become a difficult decision for Apple.

Source: LeiTech