The Huawei Mate 60 series is the latest ultra-premium flagship lineup from the Chinese manufacturer. Despite the fact that Huawei hasn't had the easiest couple of years, the company has continued to release innovative and, at times, quite exciting products to the market.
The most current example is the Huawei Mate 50 Pro, an amazing camera phone that not only challenged the tech titans of the day—your iPhones and Galaxy—but, according to many experts, even managed to beat them in certain categories (camera department, for example). Today we're going to talk about its successor, the Huawei Mate 60 series, officially unveiled on August 30th in China.
Huawei has been following a steady tick-tock release cycle through the years, with the P-series occupying the spring announcement/launch window and the Mate series overlapping with Apple's iPhone event in the autumn. Despite the fact that Huawei phones are effectively banned in the United States and have a difficult time reaching other parts of the world outside of their home country of China, the company appears to be following the same announcement schedule.
Device family
Announcement
Market release
Huawei Mate 20 series
October 16, 2018
October 31, 2018
Huawei Mate 30 series
September 19, 2019
September 26, 2019
Huawei Mate 40 series
October 22, 2020
November 1, 2020
Huawei Mate 50 series
September 6, 2022
September 28, 2022
Huawei Mate 60 series
August 29, 2023
September 17, 2023 (China only)
Huawei officially announced the Mate 60 and Mate 60 Pro on August 29, 2023. This move was a bit unexpected and surprised the industry but given the phone is China-only at the moment (and will probably stay this way), the lack of international coverage makes sense.
Huawei Mate 60 price
The price of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro is ¥6999 (~$970/£760) for the 512 GB model. The non-pro version starts at ¥5999 (~$827/£650).
Phone model
128GB of storage
256GB of storage
512GB of storage
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
€1,049
€1,149
-
Huawei Mate 30 Pro
€1,149
€1,249
-
Huawei Mate 40 Pro
~€1,200
~€1,300
~€1,350
Huawei Mate 50 Pro
-
€1,299
€1,399
Huawei Mate 60 Pro
-
-
¥6999 (~$970/£760)
Another nuisance is the fact that Huawei phones aren't sold in the US, so they don't have a fixed price in US dollars, and furthermore, European prices tend to vary a bit from country to country. The phone will be sold in China initially, and there's no information on potential global debut at the moment.
Huawei Mate 60 name
There are two models in the portfolio currently, the vanilla Huawei Mate 60, and the Mate 60 Pro. The company might offer a Lite model as well, as this is common in China, as well as a buffed up Huawei Mate 60 Pro+ version, but at the moment there are only two models to choose from.
Huawei Mate 60 camera features
This is where the magic happens! Huawei phones are notorious for their camera technology, often trend-setting. The Mate 60 Pro comes equipped with a camera module housing three cameras in a ring-shape, bearing the XMAGE logo in the center.
The main camera uses a 50MP sensor, complete with optical image stabilization (OIS) and the same variable aperture ranging from f/1.4 to f/4.0 we saw the first time on the Mate 50 Pro, and the P60 series.
There's a 12MP ultra-wide camera with an aperture of f/2.2 and a 48MP telephoto camera with an aperture of f/3.0, equipped with both autofocus and OIS. This camera offers the equivalent of 3.5x zoom.
The selfie camera is a 13 MP, f/2.4, 18mm ultrawide snapper, and there are two more holes in the notch, both serving the ToF 3D system for FaceID-like recognition.
Huawei Mate 60 storage capacity
The storage capacities for the Huawei Mate 60 and Mate 60 Pro are as follows:
Huawei Mate 60 storage capacity:
128 GB
256 GB
Huawei Mate 60 Pro storage capacity:
256 GB
512 GB
1 TB
One interesting factor to consider is the so-called "nano memory," Huawei's own take on the microSD card. The Mate series has been offering the NM as a hybrid option in the second SIM slot for a while, and the same is true for the Mate 60 series. There's a shared SIM/Nano Memory slot that can take up to 256GB cards to expand the onboard storage.
Huawei Mate 60 design
One definitive feature of the Huawei Mate series has been the ever-changing design. Every iteration has its own unique take, mainly on the camera bump, while keeping some core Huawei elements intact, such as the curved screen and the overall shape of the frame.
The Mate 60 Pro follows the same philosophy, the phone features a curved Kunlun glass on the front and back with an aluminum frame around. The camera bump is circular with the three main cameras positioned on the outer part of the ring, and the XMAGE logo in the center.
The phone comes in four colors with a cool two-tone design, the bottom part of the back features a slightly different hue and feel.
Huawei Mate 60 display specs
Another very strong point of the Huawei Mate phones is the display technology involved. The OLED panels in the Mate series have always been great, and some independent test labs have even put them at the top of their lists, way ahead of the competition.
We do our own testing here at PhoneArena, and what we can say for sure is that these panels are quite well calibrated straight from the factory; they're bright and vivid, and they offer some cool customization options.
The Mate 60 Pro comes with a 6.82-inch LTPO OLED display with a 1260 x 2720 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. It's a quad curved panel and offers 1 billion colors, HDR, high brightness and great color accuracy.
Huawei Mate 60 battery capacity
The previous generation Mate sported a 4,700 mAh cell, not a huge battery but not small even by modern standards. The battery size probably allowed Huawei to go wild with the camera system, as often there's a compromise to be made between the two. The Mate 60 Pro upgrades the capacity to a respectable 5,000mAh, while keeping its slim waistline.
As for the fast charging, the Pro-version of the phone supports 88W wired, 100% in 30 min (advertised), and up to 50W wireless charging, with 20W reverse wireless for charging small Qi compatible accessories or transferring power to phones in battery emergencies.
Huawei Mate 60 features and software
The Achilles heel of all Huawei phones in the past couple of years has been the software. Say what you will about HarmonyOS, which is doing fine, but for most people, the lack of Google Services is enough of a reason to skip Huawei devices altogether.
The Huawei Mate 60 is no different, especially given the fact that it is China-only at the moment. The phone comes with the latest version of Harmony OS onboard (Harmony OS 4.0), but one of the big news here is the emergency Satellite feature, which debuts with the Mate 60.
Unlike the Emergency SOS by Satellite on the iPhone series, which can only send text messages, Huawei allows its users to make direct phone calls using China Telecom satellites in cases of emergency.
Huawei Mate 60 hardware and specs
It's time for another problematic area for the Huawei Mate series of late. The hardware. Huawei used to equip its Mate devices with homebrewed Kirin SoCs, but the latest developments on the global silicon and economic scene made it impossible for the company to source the necessary parts, technology, and intellectual property to continue to do so.
In the past few generations, Huawei has been forced to use Qualcomm silicon with 5G capabilities removed, and that's not such a bad thing. The 5G revolution is clearly happening, but for the end user, there's almost no practical reason to opt for a 5G device, at least at the moment.
Surprisingly, the Huawei Mate 60 Pro uses a new Kirin chipset (9000S), built on a 5nm manufacturing node, with eight CPU cores in a 1+3+4 configuration. These are one Cortex-A78 at a high clock rate, three more Cortex-A78 performance CPU cores clocked lower, and four efficiency Cortex-A510 CPU cores. The GPU is the "Maleoon 910."
Should I buy the Huawei Mate 60?
You should try and buy the Huawei Mate 60 if you're keen to try something really premium and also really outside of the Google Mobile Services box. Huawei Mate phones normally offer a treat for photography aficionados, so if you like to break the Google convention, that's your best bet.
You should not buy the Huawei Mate 60 if you absolutely have to have Google Mobile Services and rely on the ecosystem. Chances are Huawei won't be getting those back anytime soon, so if that's the case, you better stick with your Galaxies and other GMS-equipped devices.
Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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