Why is Huawei's new smartphone generating so much buzz?
Huawei Technologies has triggered an international guessing game over what is inside it.
The company, which has been heavily targeted by U.S. government restrictions, began selling its latest Mate 60 Pro for 6,999 yuan ($964) online on Tuesday, raising eyebrows over its decision not to do any prior advertising and prompting widespread speculation over whether it could be 5G capable.
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WHY DOES IT MATTER?
From 2019, the U.S. cut Huawei's access to chipmaking tools essential for producing the most advanced handset models, with the company only able to sell limited batches of 5G models using stockpiled chips.
The U.S. and some European countries have called Huawei a security risk, which the company denies.
The restrictions devastated the business of a company that once competed with Apple and Samsung to be the world's biggest handset maker, with its consumer business peaking at 483 billion yuan in 2020 before plunging almost by half a year later.
But Huawei has repeatedly said it is fighting back and research firms told Reuters in July they believed it was plotting a return to the 5G smartphone industry by the end of this year, using its own advances in semiconductor design tools along with chipmaking from China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co (SMIC).
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