Rumour | Huawei plans to launch a new high-end Mate series smartphone next month

Huawei has two flagship series, the P and the Mate series. Typically refreshed yearly in Q1 and Q3 or Q4 respectively, the Mate series is not due until September at the earliest. However, rumour has it that Huawei is reviving the Mate S, a device that it last released in 2015. The new flagship Mate is due to arrive as early as next month, too.

 While Huawei has already released the P40 series, its yearly Mate series refresh is not due until mid-Q3 2020, or Q4 2020 at the latest. However, it seems that Huawei may be moving to releasing three flagship smartphones per year. Seemingly, Huawei wants to capitalise on the time between P and Mate series releases, primarily because so many of its competitors release their flagship handsets during this window.

Accordingly, Gizmochina claims that Huawei will revive the spirit of the MATE S, a device that it released in September 2015. The Mate S came out only two months before the MATE 8, although Huawei waited until early 2016 before it released the latter globally.

While Gizmochina states that Huawei could launch this device as early as next month in China, it offered no rumoured specification. Speculatively, the new Mate S could feature an upgraded Kirin chipset, seeing as the P40 and Mate 30 series both use the Kirin 990. However, with the Kirin 1020 not due to enter mass production until August, it is unlikely that we would see anything but a minor upgrade over the Kirin 990.