The Huawei MatePad Pro Max is coming to the UK. To most of Europe, in fact. And this is great news for those of us who want alternatives to Apple and Samsung. Now, some cynics might see this as just another tech brand adding the same combination of words (Pro, Max) on their device to make it sound bigger and better. But having used the Pro Max for a week, I can honestly say this is a tablet worthy of those titles.

To begin with, it's impossibly thin at just 4.7mm – the thinnest 13in tablet in the world, according to Huawei – certainly slimmer than any recent tablet tested by ITPro. But it's also just simply great to work with. The bright display has Huawei's PaperMatte technology, and with the Huawei M-Pencil, it gives you that true-to-life pencil-on-paper feel.

Huawei aims its MatePads at both consumers and business people, and there is a solid argument that this can be a laptop replacement – particularly as Huawei's actual laptop business has stalled in the Western world. For me, however, this is a bona fide creative powerhouse. That Huawei M-Pen and the GoPaint app make it arguably one of the best around for creators.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max: Design

The MatePad Pro Max is a 13.2in tablet, encased in a very sleek-looking metal body. Our review unit is a soft satin blue with the thinnest of frames (4.7mm) and some of the smoothest corners I've seen on a tablet. It weighs just 509g, feels very comfortable in just one hand, and goes in and out of a rucksack or bag with zero effort.

The back cover has a sort of two-tone finish thanks to nano-level coating on top of its metal body. It creates a pleasing light and shadow effect that allows the features (shiny Huawei logo, camera bump) to stand out. In the top corner is a black camera ring with an 'AI Camera' logo. And at the bottom (in portrait) is a USB Type-C port flanked by two sets of speaker holes. In the same corner as the camera, there is a volume rocker and a power button.

Pogo pins connect the Huawei's NearLink Keyboard, which is connected right out of the box, and there is also a trench to house your M-Pencil. You can also connect the pen to the top of the laptop (in landscape), where there is a small, thin oblong to indicate its docking position. Whether on top or on the keyboard, the pen will charge.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max: Display

By now, we should all know about Huawei's PaperMatte technology, which again features on its premium tablet. For the uninitiated, it's a micro-layer that provides both anti-glare cover and gives that feel of pen on paper – ReMarkable, and its Paper Pro (and Pure) tablets are, in my opinion, the most paper-like, but the Huawei MatePad Pro Max is as close as you can get on a more traditional tablet. Combine that with the Huawei M-Pencil Pro, and you can really create quite striking illustrations (more on this further down).

The 13.2in display is a Flexible OLED panel, with a 3000 x 2000 resolution, and 273 ppi. It's gloriously large and vibrant, and, as I mentioned above, there is hardly any glare on this matte finish. You also get lots of brightness with the tablet peaking at 603.32cd/m2 during my tests. Huawei says it can achieve 16oo nits, which actually suggests it's capable of a lot more.

Colour reproduction is also good. In our tests, the Pro Max produced 98.2% for sRGB gamut color coverage and 100.5% for volume. That's slightly above the M5 iPad Pro for color coverage (97.3%). It just missed out on a good Adobe score, ever so slightly under 70%, which is the threshold for us to recommend it for photography professionals. Though this is perfectly suitable for illustrators and graphic designers.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max: Specs and performance

Much of this quality comes from the powerful processor in the MatePad Pro Max. It features a Kirin T93 Pro, but unfortunately, we can't get a specific benchmark for that as Geekbench isn't available on the Huawei App Gallery. You can, of course, use certain pathways to get Google Apps on Huawei devices. For more, check out our explainer video.

As for the T93 Pro, it appears to be a very smooth CPU, powering a wealth of functions and features with ease. And although we don't have a specific benchmark, the Pro Max is highly responsive, fast through tasks, and works faultlessly through its many pre-installed apps.

On that topic, there are way too many apps installed out of the box, some you will never open, not even for curiosity's sake. But it's getting better and better when it comes to adding your favorites. With each interaction of MatePad, I have found finding and installing Netflix, Spotify, and even Slack a little bit easier.

The battery is fairly decent, too. In our looped video test, the MatePad Pro Max lasted 14hrs and 11min. Which is near enough to the likes of the OnePlus Pad 3 and the Honor MagicPad 4 to be competitive. In real terms, it easily makes it through a working day.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max: Features

In my view, where this tablet has its biggest selling point is the combination of the Huawei M-Pencil Pro, the PaperMatte display, and the GoPaint app – all of which make it a formidable creative hub. With each of those elements, you can really create quite striking illustrations.

The pen feels natural in the hand, it has innovative shortcuts, and pressure-sensitive controls. It both glides across the surface for adding color, but then has slight resistance for sketching.

And the GoPaint app continues to evolve. The sheer number of brush strokes and customizations puts it up there with the likes of Procreate and Sketchbook – but there doesn't appear to be the same monetization behind it. You're not limited to certain tools through different pricing tiers.

If a tablet is going to become your work machine, something that can replicate or replace your laptop, then its keyboard and trackpad need to be pretty good. And the NearLink model on the Pro Max is excellent. The keys are nice and clicky, with decent travel (1.8mm) and fairly large icons. The trackpad is OK, maybe a little on the small side, but nothing you wouldn't expect from a tablet keyboard.

Now I know camera systems on tablets are less interesting than they are on phones, but you get quite a high-spec camera system on the Pro Max. It comes with a 50MP (f/1.8 aperture, AF) rear lens and a 12MP (f/2.4) selfie camera. The rear lens also shoots video at 4K up to 30fps. Admittedly, it was the least used feature during my review, but uploading my sketches on paper was a breeze with the detail the 50MP camera captures.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max: Is it worth it?

The MatePad Pro Max is an excellent tablet, but it isn't going to replace a standard laptop; there are too many limitations here, like the lack of Google. But also, I think you just don't buy tablets for office workers.

You do, however, buy them for creative work. And the MatePad Pro Max is right up there with the best around. The M-Pencil and the GoPaint app are great additions that get better with each new tablet. And the new tablet itself is a phenomenal slab of technology.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max specifications

Huawei is back with another of its flashy tablets, the MatePad 11.5 S, a sort of mid-range model that comes with a new and improved PaperMatte display. This was launched in tandem with a new MatePad X model. However, the 11.5 S will cost you around £400 with the keyboard and M-Pencil bundled in, and comes with either 8GB or 12GB of RAM and then 128GB or 256GB of storage.

Huawei MatePad 11.5 S: Design

When it comes to hardware, Huawei is at its best. Its MatePad range is always very eyecatching, clean, and memorable. For the 11.5 S, the accompanying keyboard is an improvement over the 13.2in model we tested in 2025. And the tablet itself is utterly smooth, well-rounded, and simply gorgeous.

You have a glass front with minimal bezels and a metal unibody with a minor camera bump. It's 6.1mm thick, so slightly fatter than the likes of the Galaxy Tab S11, but still easy enough to hold in one hand. Which is also helped by its 515g weight.

Our review unit is the kind of shade of green that only Huawei seems to add to its hardware. It's a very cool mint that complements the all-white M-Pencil and the very light gray keyboard case. The Huawei logo on both tablet and keyboard is beautiful and reflective as well.

Huawei MatePad 11.5 S: Display, keyboard, and stylus

The display is where Huawei wants your focus. A lot of work has gone into PaperMatte Editions of the MatePad over the last few years, and they have gone down well in reviews. For the 11.5 S, and the new MatePad X, their PaperMatte screens include high-precision nanoscale etching technology. Huawei says this reduces the sparkle of LCD PaperMatte displays, making them clearer. I can say from experience that this is true – even with the brightness low, the screen's anti-glare tech works remarkably well.

The 11.5in OLED screen has up to 144Hz for screen refresh, and a 2.8K resolution. You get options for both natural and vivid screen styles, but also a gray scale, e-ink-type of setting, which is great for reading books. Overall, regardless of the setting, the screen is pleasant. You get bright, punchy colors, which are best displayed in the Go Paint app.

The Huawei Smart Keyboard is also a delight... for a keyboard cover. I have to make that distinction, as it isn't as good as your notebook's keyboard, and you will see that there are some drawbacks. But as magnetic tablet keyboards go, it is a delight.

It comes in two sections that allow for multiple use cases. You can have it as a mini laptop or split with the tablet propped up with a stand and the keyboard detached. You can also have it in 'Studio Form', where the tablet is in portrait mode, and the keyboard is removed completely – this is where you get the most out of the Huawei M-Pencil Pro (more on that in a bit).

Typing on the keyboard is good; there is a surprising amount of travel for such a shallow board. The keys are pretty much edge-to-edge, and there is about a 6in depth from the base of the screen to the other side of the space bar. It means that some keys are difficult to tap at speed – up and down keys are basically one button sliced in half.

What is good, however, is the M-Pencil. Light, responsive, and perfectly matched or calibrated to the PaperMatte display. It's as close to physical drawing as any other tech company (Remarkable) has managed.

And the quick panel feature on the stylus is pretty impressive. Operated with just a pinch on the shaft of the pen, you get a crescent tool bar with options that differ from app to app... a button at the end of the pencil can be customised to open other applications – much like OnePlus, but more loaded

Huawei MatePad 11.5 S: Specs and performance

Under the hood of the MatePad 11.5 S, there is some secrecy. We don't know exactly what series of Kirin chipsets it has – Huawei left this vital piece of info out of the reviewer's guide, and there's no way of finding that out via the tablet itself. It doesn't even come up when you run the Geekbench test. GSMArena has it as the Kirin T82B, but we can't prove that.

However, it's paired with a generous lump of RAM (12GB) and ample storage (256GB). And in Geekbench 6, it scored reasonably well, with 1393 for single core and 3730 for multi-core. Those are not results that will trouble the Samsung Galaxy Tab 11, or the M5 iPad Pro. But the 11.5 S is much cheaper, so it does look good in its price range.

And its battery life was decent; it lasted 16hrs and 26mins in our looped video test – slightly longer than Lenovo's Idea Tab and the OnePlus Pad 3 – though the latter has far superior CPU performance.

Huawei MatePad 11.5 S: Features

The first feature to discuss is Wi-Fi 6 – so no Wi-Fi 7. It means the 11.5 S model isn't completely future-proof and behind other leading tablets. Not that we found any issues with its connectivity.

The other topic of concern is with HarmonyOS; you have more bloatware than any other platform – this is partly because it's clearly trying to prove it's a decent alternative to Android and iOS, but also because it does have some useful applications, such as Go Paint.

Despite the improvements, we all still want our Google apps, and there are more realistic ways to get them on Huawei devices – though it is largely through complex setups via emulators. This is all fairly well documented on Huawei forums, and it is a little bit of a faff. But once you've added the MicroG app and then the Aurora Store, you can start to pick up all your favourite Android apps. And from there, the MatePad becomes a top-quality tablet again.

Huawei MatePad 11.5 S: Is it worth it?

How good is the MatePad 11.5 S? I could sketch and draw with the GoPaint app and the M-Pencil all day long; for me, the price is worth that alone. But for work purposes, I depend on Google and Android apps – not having Google Docs, regardless of APKs, is problematic. But it does get better every year.

However, the PaperMatte display is gorgeous, the processor (whatever it really is) is fast enough for what you'll use it for, and the keyboard is actually quite good. All in all, at this price tag, the MatePad 11.5 S is a thoroughly good business tablet and or illustration tool.

Huawei MatePad 11.5 specifications

When I recently travelled to China for Huawei Connect 2025, the Huawei MateBook Fold Ultimate Edition was one of the top attractions on my list.

I'd heard tales of this device – sometimes referred to as a 'foldable laptop' but which would more accurately be described as a foldable tablet – for a few months before getting to meet it in person, and was intrigued.

Foldable phones have never really done anything for me, and even a demonstration of the new tri-fold Huawei Mate XL Ultimate Edition barely held my attention. The idea of a super-light device that can be used for work, however, was more exciting.

Huawei MateBook Fold Ultimate Edition specs

Let's talk Huawei MateBook Fold Ultimate Edition specs for a moment. According to Huawei, the MateBook Fold Ultimate Edition weighs only 1.16kg – 80g lighter than the 2025 MacBook Air. Folded up, which is realistically how you would transport it, it's 14.9mm thick. Unfolded, it's 7.6mm thick on the left and 7.3mm thick on the right, so up to 2.3mm thicker than the latest iPad Pro and up to 1.5mm thicker than the 2025 iPad Air.

In terms of memory, it features 32GB RAM and either 1TB or 2TB SSD storage, and connectivity is provided via Bluetooth 5.2, dual-band WiFi, and two USB-C ports. The display is a double-layer OLED flexible touch screen that's 18in when fully unfolded and 13in in laptop mode, with a resolution of 3296 x 2472 or 2472 x 1648 respectively.

The battery capacity is 74.96Wh – higher than the 14in MacBook Pro (72.4Wh) or 13in MacBook Air (53.8Wh), and significantly higher than the 13in iPad Pro (38.99Wh) or 13in iPad Air (36.59Wh).

Huawei MateBook Fold Ultimate Edition first impressions

I was a fast fan of the Huawei MateBook Fold Ultimate Edition, and its business use was immediately obvious. While even the international trips I take for work are normally fairly fleeting, this one lasted a little over a week, so deserved a bit of extra kit. Naturally, this makes for a more bulky and heavy experience, and when you throw in the chargers – especially for the laptop – things get heavier still.

Imagine if instead you could take one light device that folds up neatly, with an integrated software keyboard that's available when you need it but can be dismissed if you want to use the whole thing as a screen. That is indeed an option as well – while I had my eye on it as a lightweight laptop, it can be folded out to its full extent to become a rather large tablet. Even in big tablet mode, it can still be used effectively as a laptop thanks to the detachable Bluetooth keyboard, which comes as part of the package.

The software keyboard, which appears on the lower half of the screen when folded into laptop mode, was impressive. I expected some level of lag or inaccuracy but it kept up with my typing speed (60wpm for anyone who's counting) admirably. I was told that long-term use might hurt my fingers, hence the Bluetooth keyboard, but my impression was it was no more or less comfortable. Given the appeal of this device – for me at least – was a super lightweight all-in-one I'm not personally sold on a peripheral that adds another 300g to the overall weight. Drawing also from my own experience using a portable mini Bluetooth keyboard with an iPad Mini, it's a novelty that wears off quickly and is left at home or in the office just as fast.

Huawei MateBook Fold Ultimate Edition final thoughts

The Huawei MateBook Fold Ultimate Edition is a nice-looking, quirky bit of kit. Despite being hard to impress when it comes to personal devices, this foldable tablet is something I could imagine myself using while travelling as an alternative to a laptop, and especially if I wanted to avoid carrying two devices around. Even the unfolded format, which seemed slightly overwhelming at first, could be handy for video calls or even entertainment if a journey or overall time away was particularly long.

There is, however, a catch. Unfortunately, the Huawei MateBook Fold Ultimate Edition, much like the company's recently released tri-fold phone, is only officially available in mainland China. While you can buy it for a few thousand pounds on AliExpress (the price varies depending on tokens and deals), that's no way to do business procurement.

If the device does eventually make it to the European market, though, it's certainly worth consideration when buying new laptops.

Hallucinations have commonly been considered a problem for generative AI, with chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini prone to producing ‘confidently incorrect’ answers in response to queries.

This can pose a serious problem for users. There are several cases of lawyers, for example, citing non-existent cases as precedent or presenting the wrong conclusions and outcomes from cases that really do exist.

Unfortunately for said lawyers, we only know about these instances because they’re embarrassingly public, but it’s an experience all users will have had at some point.

For enterprises, there are hopes that LLMs trained on proprietary data – and only proprietary data – may be less prone to these hallucinations than public chatbots, but the need to manually check outcomes remains in cases where accuracy is key.

At the 2025 Huawei Connect conference, however, Tao Jingwen, director of Huawei’s quality, business process & IT management department, suggested that this is a wrongheaded way to look at the technology. Instead, Tao said that businesses should embrace hallucinations as part and parcel of generative AI.

Speaking at the manufacturing summit within the conference, Tao spoke about some of the challenges facing the sector when it comes to using AI.

“AI hallucinations and the black box nature of AI make it challenging for businesses and enterprises, especially businesses from the manufacturing sector, to trust and control, raising new issues around predictability and explainability,” he told delegates.

“From my point of view, well first of all we need to embrace AI hallucinations,” Tao added. “Without hallucinations, AI wouldn’t be what it is today. But there’s still a need to find effective ways to control and mitigate hallucinations.”

Tao also spoke of the challenges facing manufacturers that want to integrate AI into their businesses successfully and usefully when they already have decades of digitalization, automation, and refined processes in place.

“AI implementation requires collaboration across business, IT, data, and other teams for effective implementation, but such a magic box from AI has brought new challenges to us,” Tao said.

“Especially in manufacturing after years of digitalization and process, how can we better integrate AI with good results?”

AI hallucinations aren’t going anywhere

Tao’s comments on hallucinations come amid an increasing resignation to – rather than embrace of – the fact these erroneous outputs are unavoidable.

In a paper published on 4 September 2025, OpenAI researchers said that hallucinations were a fact of how most LLMs have been trained and that they are “inevitable” for base models.

More specialist training that has a more focused data set and that penalizes incorrect outputs can help mitigate this, researchers noted.

Ultimately, though, businesses would need to decide if it’s worth the effort of training an LLM in this way or if there are other workarounds that could be used to, in the words of Tao, “control and mitigate” the problem.

MORE FROM ITPRO

• Generative AI attacks are accelerating at an alarming rate
• Only a handful of generative AI projects make it into production – here’s why
• Generative AI enthusiasm continues to beat out business uncertainty

Huawei is back with a brand new, slightly larger MatePad Pro PaperMatte tablet. And it looks very much like another high-quality bit of Huawei hardware with the same old no-Google issues.

For 2025 the Pro comes with a 13.2in display instead of 12.2in one from the year before. There are also changes to the camera specs and a problematic new design for the keyboard accessory. All for £849.99. The question we want to answer with this review is whether this is a suitable tablet for business users...

Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2 PaperMatte: Design

In an office setting, the MatePad Pro doesn't necessarily look like it fits in – not in the way the Surface Pro does. It's a beautiful tablet designed to appeal more to consumers, and looks near enough the same as last year. If there is one thing that Huawei does almost better than most, it's hardware, and the MatePad Pro is as elegant a tablet.

It's super thin at just 5mm thick, the magnesium alloy frame is smooth and rounded at the corners. And that glass fiber back cover is a striking shimmery gold. The dual camera module is still circular but this year it is all black and has 'AI' written on it. It is, arguably, the one area of improvement on the 2024 MatePad Pro.

There are subtle and significant changes on the Pro for 2025, with minor tweaks to the tablet portion, but awful changes to the keyboard case; it doesn't have the dedicated trench for the stylus anymore so you can only magnetically attach the pen to the side of the device. This actually forces you to charge it every time, so there is a benefit, but it was far less easy to lose when slotted in the trench.

Compared to last year, the NearLink keyboard is a little bit of a letdown both for its user experience and its design. It isn't a whole unit with a flexible stand anymore, instead you have two magnetic portions that overlap slightly. It's not as sturdy, doesn't always align with the tablet part, and takes more effort to open – it's also now impossible to use on your lap.

Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2 PaperMatte: Display, keyboard and stylus

The big change with the MatePad Pro for 2025 is a slightly bigger display. It now has a 13.2in 'Flexible' OLED PaperMatte Display, with a 2880 × 1920 resolution and 262 ppi. You can ignore the flexible bit, the screen doesn't bend, and we don't quite know what they mean here – our assumption is that the message has been lost in translation and they perhaps mean adaptable. There is, however, a whopping 144Hz refresh rate that makes scrolling as pleasurable as possible. It works a treat on Slack and ExCel-style documents.

Once again the quality of the MatePad Pro's display is high, though this 13.2in model scored a smidge lower than the 21.2in one we covered in 2024. The Pro showcased 98.7% for sRGB color cover and 100.8% for volume – 99.6% on the 2024 model.

The big benefit of the PaperMatte part of the screen is the anti-reflective coating; there is nothing that catches the screen or reflects back at you. Not your bright house lights, not even direct sunlight – there is absolutely no chance of screen glare. And for brightness, the screen topped out at 652.90 cd/m2 when measured with our colorimeter.

Sadly we must come to the accessories. The Bluetooth connection to the NearLink keyboard and the Huawei Pen is seamless, they work from the instant you click 'OK', but it feels like a step back from previous models. Typing is OK for an attachable keyboard. You can feel the hard bottom of the case – there isn't much depth to them – but it is well laid out with large keys that reach from side to side. However, the biggest problem is that the keyboard is in two sections. We know why it has done this; you get a more flexible setup and you don't have to attach the keyboard part to use it. But it is less stable, in our opinion. Give us last year's keyboard, that was ace.

It is a whole lot better for the Huawei M-Pen, which is as good as you can get on a tablet – nice, light, easy to grip, and simple to charge. The pen does slide over the tablet screen a little and it isn't as realistic as an e-ink tablet, such as the Huawei MatePad Paper or the Remarkable Paper Pro. But it is still a high quality stylus that can be used to create eye-catching illustrations.

Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2 PaperMatte: Performance

Once again, with no Google, there is no Geekbench to download to test out the Huawei Kirin T92 processor. We are just going by feel here and to be honest, it's fast. No lag browsing the web, or using its multiscreen function.

Battery life is also great, if not slightly less than the 12.2in model ITPro tested last year. In our looped video test, the MatePad Pro PaperMatte lasted 14hrs 46mins – just an hour or so less than last year. In real world use, we were able to get through most of the working day before it needed a charge – the M-Pen needed a top-up after about an hour of use.

Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2 PaperMatte: Features

You have three lenses on the MatePad Pro; a 50MP main lens, an 8MP wide lens on the rear, and a 16MP wide lens on the front. All three are crisp and clear, though it's really the AI software from the Kirin chip that brings the quality. There are times when you take selfies or shots of something specific and it will seem like a terrible Photoshop where you've added yourself or an object to a different background – overdoing it with the bokeh effects.

Its video quality is OK, though it tends to produce very noisy shots and that's really apparent in different features like slow-mo. There's also a range of filters you can use to capture images and video, though they feel heavily edited and enhanced by AI – again, overdoing it somewhat.

One of the best parts of the Huawei MatePad Pro PaperMatte, and indeed most larger tablets, is the screen space. And Huawei allows you to take full advantage of that with an easy-to-launch split-screen mode. View documents and edit them on either side of the display, or watch content while you doodle, the MatePad can do a number of things at the same time, making it a pretty handy work tool – though there is just one caveat.

So, let's talk about Google. You can use third-party emulators, such as Gspace, Gbox, and Googlefinder to add your favorite Google apps but they don't all work and you can't get all the apps. YouTube, Gmail, and Sheets are all easy to find and simple to add. Google Docs, not so much. This is one step better than last year, but still not quite good enough to make the MatePad Pro a go-to work tablet, certainly not in the UK or the US.

So you are stuck with HarmonyOS software which is full of pre-installed apps from the get-go. It also seems to get in the way whenever you type as you have to try and ignore the predictive text boxes that are there by default; you get three options that are presented to you over what you're typing – a very unnecessary distraction.

One app you will be happy with, however, is the GoPaint app (version 2) which is as good as anything else on the market. The sheer range of colors, tools, brushstrokes, and canvases makes it so simple to use and, more importantly, fun. Just open it up and start creating. What more could you ask for (aside from a more familiar way to share your creations)?

Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2 PaperMatte: Is it worth it?

So, for £849.99 you get a rather beautiful 13.2in tablet with a lot of useful features. The keyboard and stylus need to be purchased separately, which is good because not all will like the former.

As always, there is a software sacrifice to make with Huawei, it really does test how much you love your familiar US-made services. You can get some Google apps through emulators, but it's an extra faff you don't need. For creative workloads like illustration, it is up there with the best thanks to its intuitive M-Pen and feature-loaded GoPaint app.

Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2 PaperMatte specifications

“The future is flash”, according to Willi Song, president at Huawei European Enterprise Business, and the tech giant appears all in as it looks to streamline enterprise AI adoption.

Speaking at the Innovative Data Infrastructure (IDI) Forum in Munich, Germany, Song and colleagues detailed the company’s sharpened focus on flash storage, unveiling the official launch of its AI Data Lake and OceanStor Pacific all-flash series.

A key factor behind this push, attendees were told, lies in the benefits flash can offer enterprises in the age of AI. It’s more energy efficient, scalable, and cost effective compared to traditional storage solutions, and industry providers have been keen to highlight these advantages in recent years as firms grapple with rising costs.

At Pure Accelerate 2024, the annual conference hosted by Pure Storage, the company waxed lyrical about the enterprise benefits of flash, while competitors such as NetApp have been ramping up similar offerings on this front.

Indeed, research by SNS Insider shows the all-flash array market is booming, reaching a value of $14.59 billion in 2023 and expected to reach over $74 billion by 2032.

Tapping into this lucrative market is a huge opportunity for Huawei, but it does face stiff competition - it’s butting heads with heavyweights like Dell Technologies, HPE, and the aforementioned duo.

Huawei agility a key appeal

Peter Zhou, president of Huawei Data Storage Product Line, told ITPro one key differentiator for the company lies in its significant R&D investment..

“We’re very strong on R&D investment,” he said. “Some data storage vendors, they’ve got less investment than Huawei - because the data storage market was occupied by public cloud. But what we’ve been seeing is that the importance of data will be emphasized more and more.”

Huawei currently operates more than 29 R&D centres across Europe, along with two open labs and boasts close collaborative ties with over 200 universities. The company has made great efforts to embed itself across a variety of industries in the region and is very much playing the long game.

In his opening keynote, Song noted the company’s commitment to European operations.

“Europe is one of our most important markets,” he said. “We will stay true to our ‘in Europe for Europe’ strategy and strengthen collaboration with all sectors in the region.”

Zhou insisted that Huawei has been highly consistent on its European ambitions and stressed it’s something that enterprise customers appreciate. Moreover, the fact it’s had to muscle in on an already crowded market means it knows customers crave reliability and speed and can deliver on both

“This kind of consistency is different,” he told ITPro. “Because Huawei is not seeking short-term wins in the market. Our investment is looking to long-term strategy.”

“We always try to have a very quick response for our customers. My R&D team are not only in China, they’re also in Munich, in Switzerland. Some of my R&D team are sitting with the sales team, and the purpose is to try and listen into the requirements - even the complaints - from our customers and then make a response very quickly.”

One of the key routes to digitizing businesses is securely deploying applications at pace and in response to immediate customer needs. Application enablement can help achieve this by enabling organizations to deploy services and solutions with high levels of security, reliability and scalability, all while reducing the risk of disruption to existing IT infrastructure.

This process all comes down to forging key partnerships with cloud-centric telecos with the tools to make that happen, known as application enablement platforms (AEPs). In the age of AI it's more important than ever to know which platforms and providers are best geared to offer the benefits that the latest AI services are guaranteed to reap. This technology is fast-becoming the most impactful for industries across the entire global economy and intelligent enterprises of the future will be those that take advantage of it in all facets, including networking operations with AEPs.

What is application enablement?

Historically, telecom providers have focused on the network itself, with the key priority being the quality of service in the context of availability, quality, and reliability of connections. With the shift to greater web-facing capabilities and customers expecting much higher bandwidth, as well as the expansion of internet-facing devices, attention has turned to AEPs.

AEPs provide a comprehensive suite of tools and services that allow businesses, in partnership with providers, to develop, deploy, and manage IT applications at pace across networks. Usually based on the software as a service (SaaS) model, they comprise components including device management, connectivity and data analytics, as well as interface design and workflow management.

Together, these elements combine to accelerate the development and deployment of applications. This way, businesses can avoid having to dedicate massive amounts of time and resources into building the appropriate infrastructure required to power the building and deployment of an application. They can also deploy it much quicker than they would otherwise have done.

This is all based on a serverless infrastructure, on which is built authentication, object storage service, databases, middleware, and more. Layered upon this infrastructure is a cloud application engine, which serves as an app orchestration model. This infrastructure allows businesses to tap into audio and video functions, data processing, IoT, AI apps, web apps, mobile apps, and so on.

Some of the core benefits of buying into the application enablement model are freedom from the stranglehold of operations and maintenance costs, much faster rollout for applications, transitioning from weeks into days, and scaling in milliseconds.

How AI fuels application enablement

The rise of AI has taken many forms, ranging from machine learning models to large language models, but in terms of application enablement, it stands to support the aims of enterprises by vastly increasing productivity and improving outcomes. Platforms that integrate AI offer additional functionality to boost intelligent network capabilities, including increasing computing potential while overcoming bottlenecks in energy efficiency or computing power. There are also autonomous generative networks that can dynamically self-optimize and perform operations and maintenance autonomously based on real-time service needs.

An intelligent distributed computing infrastructure with AI-enabled application enablement also leads to a lower latency and much higher bandwidth, offering computing and network convergence services to end-users. AI agents can process multi-modal inputs, including images, gestures, and voice, to facilitate a closed-loop of service tasks. They can also offer more personalized experiences with agents dynamically scheduling network resources based on user need. They can finally also resolve complaints and respond to alerts with the use of natural language processing and AI inference.

The AI engines found in some telecom providers' suites represent a massive transition away from legacy processes and towards an AI-powered regime of network management and rapid application development. Enterprises need to consider, however, how best to utlitize these new tools and whether integrating them into the development cycle through an AEP ties in with core business objectives.

Application enablement in 2025 and beyond

Industries across the economy are tapping into application enablement to build new services and solutions for customers, and deploy these at pace. These systems can be particularly beneficial to industrial organizations – including companies in sectors like oil and gas, energy, transportation, and chemicals – but they also have uses in public utilities, the public sector, finance, and even retail businesses.

Some specific uses of AEPs include predictive maintenance – using platforms to analyze data and create solutions that can predict when equipment will need maintenance – or in remote asset monitoring, where companies can monitor industrial equipment from a distance and identify issues faster.

By tapping into new and emerging solutions that integrate advanced AI functionality, enterprises can finally realize an array of benefits including faster deployment, lower costs, improved security, and high scalability. If businesses analyze their needs and assess all the potential integration challenges in adopting application enablement solutions, they stand to benefit tremendously by rapidly responding to customer needs. This is all the more possible if they take advantage of new AI functionality, like autonomous agents, to optimize network resources and fuel greater efficiencies.

In many ways, Mobile World Congress (MWC) is the perfect way for Huawei to highlight its business and vast offerings. The whole event is a siloed extravaganza of diverse technologies with far too much on display to understand or fully hold in your head all at once.

It all comes together, however, if you build it out piece by piece. Traditional telecommunications services are the foundation – 5G is the advancer. From there you can spread out to the Internet of Things (IoT) and automation. On top of that, you have innovative cloud services and then, of course, AI – which has taken up a larger platform at MWC 2025.

AI is a feature of much of Huawei’s MWC showcases, deeply embedded in its telco solutions, powering its B2B IoT networks and also enabling more personalized experiences across its consumer and office hardware.

This division overseeing this, known as the Consumer Business Group or CGB to Huawei, is closely aligned with its global reputation. The success of its smartphones took Huawei to a new audience in 2018 and 2019. But it is also known as the segment that felt the US sanctions hardest: in 2021, the company recorded a 28.5% year-on-year decline in revenue. The next year saw a 69% year-on-year decrease in net profit. Without access to US software and silicon, Huawei phones lost their appeal in the West – almost dropping out of big markets, like the UK, overnight.

While that will have hurt, and no doubt caused some job losses, it didn’t land a killer blow. What’s more, it also hasn’t curtailed Huawei’s expanse in Europe. The company has returned to profitability, rather rapidly, with very impressive revenues for 2023 and 2024 – this includes the smartphone business, which is now very healthy. At a company event last year, Meng Wangzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, announced that it was no longer in “crisis mode”.

This has led some to suggest that the company is back from the dead, a hyperbolic sentiment that seems to tie too much of Huawei’s overall business fortunes with its consumer goods. While there was a significant hit from the sanctions on its revenues – and there still appears to be trouble here – Huawei sales remained strong domestically and in regions like the Middle East and parts of Europe.

For example, Huawei’s first foldable smartphone was launched before both the pandemic and the sanctions. But just before MWC the firm released a new three-way foldable device, where the screen is made up of three panels that fold up like a glass accordion. For a division that almost ‘killed’ its parent, the continued development is impressive, a testament to the company’s R&D.

Throughout MWC, each Huawei executive talked about the company’s approach to research and development and how it had enabled their division to flourish. From its new cloud storage products to its AI-enabled business tools, the firm is driving innovations across the board. However, it appears that this is also a siloed part of the Chinese giant, with teams split into short-term research and development (which is where its new products and services largely come from) and then long-term R&D – heavy theoretical and mathematical research (moonshot-R&D, if you will) conducted across the world in Huawei labs and various universities. According to its communication team, more than 50% of Huawei’s considerable workforce is in some form of research and development.

Huawei weathers growing trade wars

The sanctions came under the first administration of President Trump, with the White House claiming Huawei was a security risk. To date, there is no hard evidence for this. However, from there the UK imposed its own Huawei ban. This largely extended to removing Huawei hardware from UK telecoms infrastructure, but the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) also pointed to US sanctions – essentially claiming Huawei was less secure because it wouldn’t have US technologies and would need to rely on Chinese hardware.

In 2025, the second Trump administration’s sharp trade tariffs have rattled America’s allies and raised uncertainty across international markets. There is a sense that it’s also forcing the rest of the world to either look for new trade relations or rekindle unions that are broken.

US companies might start to feel the pinch in their financials as Trump 2.0 takes full effect. Trade sanctions hurt American companies too; Intel isn’t doing particularly well right now, having ended 2024 with a large cull (15% of its workforce) and the resignation of its CEO Pat Gelsinger. Both of those blows are intrinsically tied to its sluggish revenues and new restrictions that stop it from supplying chips to Huawei will add more difficulty.

For all the governments scrambling to respond to tariffs, and the companies concerned about their supply chains, a lesson can be found in Huawei’s approach to the initial US sanctions. There is a clear method of global business without US dollars, and it’s a fascinatingly simple strategy: diversification. Whether it be new business lines based on sound R&D or launching products and services in emerging markets and untapped regions (the Middle East, Africa, Poland) – Huawei is an example we might all need in these chaotic times.

Huawei’s cloud division has seen significant growth outside of China over the last few years, with a sizable uptake in Europe.

The company said its cloud business had expanded by 50% outside mainland China, with 140 carriers and 500 financial institutions adopting its digital services. Within Europe, the company said it now had more than 33,000 customers, many of which have been amassed over the last two years.

Speaking after its Cloud Summit in Barcelona, ahead of MWC 2025, Jacqueline Shi, president of Huawei Cloud’s global marketing and sales service, told ITPro that part of its success outside of China can be attributed to its customer-focused approach to services.

“Cloud is a global business and the hyperscalers have their own advantages,” Shi said. “Huawei Cloud practices ‘everything as a service’, which means we care a lot about our customer’s needs. We listen to them and customize our solutions to them.”

The company’s success was also noted by Gartner at the tail end of 2024, as it was named a ‘Challenger’ in the research institute’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems.

Part of the report’s results are based on the ability of vendors to execute a ‘completeness of vision’ – which essentially means the product has both good availability in specific regions, but also that it serves those regions with what they need. Which also highlights Huawei’s customer-centric approach.

Huawei’s cloud databases have been widely deployed across 33 regions, with flagship products including its AI native database management platform GaussDB, and its data warehouse service, GaussDB(DWS).

Huawei Cloud's push from ‘cloud native’ to AI native’

During its Cloud Summit, Shi spoke at length about Huawei Cloud’s AI strategy and how the Chinese company aims to transition from cloud native to AI native. Shi defines ‘AI native’ in two ways; one is "AI for Cloud", which means it reshapes and upgrades all of the company’s services into intelligent ones using AI.

The other is "Cloud for AI", which is the aim of building the best platform, with compute architecture, data, modeling tools, and professional services, to accelerate the development of AI.

Huawei Cloud is now working towards the construction of AI native infrastructure, such as a CloudMatrix and AI Cloud Service. Here it will develop AI native cloud services for databases, knowledge lakes, and software development pipelines.

It will also offer AI models and tools for customers and partners so that they can train and run their AI models.

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6G is emerging as a game-changing innovation that goes beyond incremental upgrades. Unlike previous generational shifts, 6G is not simply an extension of 5G. Indeed, it represents a complete re-imagination of the wireless industry, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and other disruptive technologies. 

Dr. Wen Tong, CTO of Huawei Wireless, emphasizes this point, saying: "6G will not be a simple upgrade of 5G; it should integrate the most up-to-date AI revolution to reshape the wireless industry and take it to the next height."

Providing a specific example of how the technologies can complement one another, Dr. Tong explained the concept of ‘A-Core’, a core network for 6G built atop agentic AI technology. This could empower telecom operators with tailored development opportunities, as well as new routes for profit.

Analysts predict that 6G will have a significant impact on the global economy, with the potential to generate trillions of dollars in economic value. For instance, a recent report by MarketsandMarkets estimates that the global 6G market could be worth over $68.7 billion by 2035, driven by increased demand for ultra-reliable and low-latency communications. 

The adoption of 6G will drive new business models, create opportunities for operators, and provide enhanced services to consumers. Dr. Tong explained that when combined with AI, which he said could play a role in 90% of all businesses in the near future, 6G will become a key enabler of digital transformation across industries — from healthcare to manufacturing, providing ultra-reliable, low-latency communications and massive connectivity.

The vision of 6G: not just an upgrade

6G represents a significant departure from 5G, focusing on core developments that will make it a true generational leap. Unlike its predecessors, 6G will redefine network architecture, including the core network, radio access network (RAN), and user equipment (UE), to deliver a drastically improved user experience, increased energy efficiency, and enhanced spectral efficiency.

This roadmap sets the stage for the mobile industry ecosystem to rally for market entry, with the promise of a global 6G standard that will drive industry-wide innovation and growth.

"6G is not the continuation or upgrade of 5G technologies; it is also not another way to implement 5G. Instead, 6G is a new generation of capabilities; it should generate new values for the consumers,” according to Dr. Tong.

6G aims to deliver a 10 to 30 times better user experience, three times more intrinsic spectral efficiency, and significant energy savings. This leap is not about mere incremental upgrades but actually about redefining what is possible in the mobile industry.

6G and the AI revolution: a quantum leap

A major aspect of 6G's potential lies in its integration with AI. Indeed, AI will be a fundamental enabler of 6G, according to Dr. Tong who believes it will drive the next wave of innovation across the mobile industry. 

The AI revolution is already transforming every aspect of our work and lives, and 6G must fully embrace this shift to unlock new opportunities.

Three core areas will embrace AI within the 6G framework, through Dr. Tong’s proposed 6G A-Core:

• A tailored core network: The 6G core network will be re-architected using agentic AI technologies to achieve full automation across generation, operation, and maintenance. This will enable the 6G core to support the primitive capabilities of AI, sensing, and non-terrestrial networks (NTN), going beyond the capabilities of the 5G service-based architecture (SBA).
• RAN: In the RAN, artificial general intelligence (AGI) and embodiment-AI will be mainstream applications in the 2030-2040 timeframe. Current generative AI technologies are insufficient for the challenges ahead, and deeper research is required to fully harness AGI's potential in 6G.
• UE: User equipment in the 6G era must support "Full AI" functionality. The transition from 5G to 6G will be challenging if devices cannot adapt to the rapid development of AI and sensing capabilities. To fully realize the benefits of 6G, UE must evolve to keep pace with advancements in AI.

Specifically, agentic AI can help operators deliver their customers more tailored apps, monitor network quality and performance to meet business needs, and opens a route for operators to sell generative network services via open APIs.

“A-Core bridges the gap between connectivity and applications, empowering telecom operators to build further competitiveness in the industry,” explains Dr. Tong.

“With its capabilities for generative app creation and tailored networks, A-Core unlocks new revenue streams, redefines the value chain, and positions operators as central players in the 6G ecosystem.”

This approach will help protect operator investments in 5G while fostering the long-term growth of the mobile industry. "6G technologies should not overlap and duplicate with 5G, as well as to compete with the 5G market space and waste operators' investment,” Dr. Tong emphasizes. 

“Instead, 6G technologies should create innovative industry values and expand the market space for the mobile industry." 

Continuous innovation is crucial to expanding market opportunities, driving new revenue streams, and ensuring the industry's future growth.

Generational innovation is key to differentiating 6G from its predecessors. Reusing 5G network architecture without fundamental innovation would limit the mobile industry's aspirations and stifle the opportunities for new breakthroughs, particularly in AI-driven services and applications.

The future of connectivity and business value

One of the major challenges for 6G will be the need for breakthroughs in terminal technologies. Dr. Tong draws a parallel to the evolution of mobile devices, stating: "In 2007, iPhones enabled the mobile broadband industry development with phenomenal market success. It is hard to imagine that smartphones will continue to drive [the] mobile industry beyond 2030." Similarly, 6G will require a new wave of terminal innovation to meet the needs of the future.

The current generation of smartphones may not be sufficient to drive the mobile industry beyond 2030. Breakthroughs must be made in terminal technologies to fully leverage the capabilities of 6G. The 6G system must be prepared to support advanced terminals that can harness the power of AI and sensing technologies. These innovations will be critical to ensuring the success of 6G and to delivering a seamless, enhanced user experience.

Ultimately, 6G is set to reshape the mobile industry through true generational innovation, fully embracing the power of AI and further enabling it to deliver new capabilities and value to consumers and businesses alike. Unlike previous generational shifts, 6G is a massive step change that looks set to reimagine the future of connectivity and drive innovation across the entire ecosystem.

A thoughtful, innovative approach to 6G is crucial to expanding market opportunities while leveraging past investments. By focusing on true innovation, 6G will enable businesses to unlock new revenue streams, deliver enhanced services, and achieve digital transformation goals.

As we look towards the future, 6G promises to deliver unprecedented levels of connectivity, performance, and user experience. Businesses and consumers stand to benefit immensely from the capabilities of 6G, as it paves the way for a smarter, more connected world.

Huawei Cloud has used its first Cloud Summit in France to announce a series of products and services and emphasize the importance of France as a region within Huawei’s global cloud picture.

At Huawei Cloud Summit France, the firm made much of its new Flexus cloud services, offering out-of-the-box solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It also announced Huawei Cloud Stack 8.5 would be released in France, which brings over 120 hybrid cloud services for better performance across AI and intelligent transformation.

Attendees heard from customers such as The Explorers, a company that creates 8k footage of the natural world in partnership with UNESCO which sought Huawei Cloud’s data storage and management expertise.

ITPro spoke to Wanying Song, general manager at Huawei Cloud France, alongside Dafu Shi, director of marketing and solution sales at Huawei Cloud France, about the potential for Huawei Cloud France and what it saw as the main opportunities of the future.

“In the past, Huawei Cloud France merely cooperated with carriers to develop business with the carriers together,” said Song.

“Due to the huge potential of public cloud and private cloud, our company decided to have our own public cloud and permanent cloud business in France.”

Shi noted that Huawei Cloud France is excited to offer customers in France more choice over database and big data solutions, especially as firms in Europe look to make the most of AI investment and digital transformation.

“We are in an era of AI and we are facing a lot of changes and challenges in every new domain, so Huawei cannot be the only one to conquer the new challenges and use cases,” he said.

“We must also assemble our partners and let them build their solutions upon our platform, that’s another purpose of this event.”

Song also emphasized the importance of Huawei Cloud’s work with Station F, the world’s largest startup incubator which is based within Paris, on a new sustainability program. The pair worked on ensuring startups were given the right cloud resources, alongside mentorships and office space.

“We really believe every enterprise and every startup needs to have equal access to a dynamic business world and equal access to business opportunities,” said Song.

Huawei Cloud France is committed to bringing its digital expertise to France, both to its 500 local existing partners and to the large potential market throughout the region.

“I’m also a newcomer in France, but I really see there is a trend in France, a convergence of public cloud and private cloud,” said Song.

The Huawei Matebook 14 is billed as a flagship-level Windows laptop that sits between the Chinese manufacturer's ultra-premium MateBook X Pro and its MateBook D series devices. It features a gorgeous OLED display that would not be out of place on the most expensive Windows laptops but is slightly let down by middling performance on its Intel Meteor Lake chip when stacked up against its ARM-based competitors.

We've been sent the top spec of the Huawei MateBook 14, which comes in at £1,199 RRP and gets you an Intel Core 7 Ultra 155H processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. This is the only version of the MateBook 14 that will be available in the UK, unfortunately, but readers based in the rest of Europe will also have the cheaper Core Ultra 5 option, though you'll have to settle for a more boring gray finish.

Overall the MateBook 14 presents a sleek package that delivers solid all-round performance that would have thrust it into any conversation for most well-rounded Windows devices available on the market around the £1,000 mark. But major leaps in performance and battery life unlocked by new Qualcomm processors leave the MateBook 14 with a considerable challenge ahead of it.

Huawei Matebook 14 (2024) review: Design

The MateBook 14 stands out from the crowd with its eye-catching pale green exterior. Somewhere between green tea and mint, the finish takes on an ethereal silverish tint in brighter settings, and would not look out of place on a meeting table.

The green MateBook 14 is only available with the Core Ultra 7 chipset, so users who opt for the base unit will have to settle for Huawei's space gray; but for those who do spring for the higher spec unit will enjoy a refreshing point of difference from the blacks and grays dominating the laptop market

The device is built with 'metallic materials' according to Huawei, but it feels closer to a sturdier plastic rather than lightweight alloy. This is not necessarily the worst sacrifice to make, however, as it leaves the MateBook 14 feeling lightweight and portable (weighing in at 1.31 kg) but with enough heft that it feels solid when in use.

Overall, Huawei's MateBook 14 feels on the sleeker, more stylish end of the Windows laptop spectrum, and has a beautiful 91% screen-to-body ratio that is hard to achieve in terms of aesthetics at this price point.

But the MateBook's slightly plasticky feel, which flexes under firm pressure, means it's not quite the ultra-premium experience you might get with the Surface lineup, or Huawei's more pricey MateBook X series.

Huawei Matebook 14 (2024) review: Display

Displays have been something of a strong point for Huawei's devices and the MateBook 14 did not disappoint. It sports a very impressive 14.2in touchscreen OLED panel which has rich colors, deep blacks, and is comfortably bright when placed in direct light.

In our testing, the 2.8k panel boasted color gamut volumes of 99.9% sRGB, 85.7% Adobe RGB, and 96.8% DCI P3, which is handily ahead of devices in the same price rang, such as the Asus ExpertBook P5 and the Acer Swift 14 AI.

Although listed as 450 nits we only managed to get a peak brightness closer to 400 nits in our testing, but the display never felt dim, and it does a great job of making high-fidelity content pop.

A 120Hz refresh rate means everything feels a little bit smoother using the device and you really miss it when dropping back down to lower refresh rate panels.

The 3:2 aspect ratio has been a mainstay on Huawei laptops and is slightly rarer than the 16:10 Macbook-esque form factor, and we're big fans of 3:2 from a productivity perspective.

The taller display is perfect for working with documents or spreadsheets, and the added vertical room is noticeable when navigating the increasingly ubiquitous mobile-friendly-UIs on the web

It does slightly hurt the MateBook 14's credentials as a content consumption device, however, as HD video will suffer from slightly worse letterboxing, but this might be a trade-off you are willing to make for better usability when dealing with documents or webpages.

Overall the display is where the MateBook 14 really shines and lives up to Huawei's flagship label, where perhaps other aspects of the device fall slightly short.

Huawei Matebook 14 (2024) review: Keyboard and touchpad

The MateBook 14's keyboard is well laid out and offers a solid typing experience with noticeable key travel, although we found it is lacking somewhat in terms of tactile feedback when typing.

As a result, although we were able to get up to full speed fairly quickly without too many errors or double key presses, the switches are slightly muddier than we would like in order for the MateBook 14 to compete with the best laptop keyboards out there.

The touchpad is one area where the device falls down; it has good glide and doesn't skimp in terms of size, but the diving-board clicking mechanism feels slightly dated as it requires different pressure according to where your finger is on the touchpad. It is definitely a serviceable touchpad and has no glaring problems but we feel it is noticeably worse than touchpads on the Surface lineup and ultimately detracts slightly from the premium flagship-feel Huawei is going for.

Huawei Matebook 14 (2024) review: Specs and performance

We tested the top-spec configuration of the MateBook 14, which has an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, featuring Intel ARC graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD.

In our testing, the MateBook 14 achieved a single core CPU benchmark of 2,177 which was not far behind the 2,405 notched by the MateBook X Pro's i9 chip, but slightly falls behind the performance of new Qualcomm-based laptops like the Dell Inspiron 14 plus or the Acer Swift 14 AI.

It's a similar story for multi-core performance scoring 11,957 compared to the X Pro's 13,365 as well as the two competitors from Dell and Acer, which both scored above 12,000.

The gap is not huge, however, and if you are worried about compatibility problems with ARM-based devices, the Intel chip in the Huawei is more than capable, and in daily use, the MateBook 14 felt snappy with no lags or stutters.

Only during intense stress tests did things get a little choppy as the Intel ARC graphics system appeared to struggle with 4K video playback. Apart from this, the MateBook 14 dealt with these very demanding workloads admirably, and when the fans kicked up they only generated a faint whir at their loudest.

The MateBook 14 performed well on our looped video test lasting over 13 hours, which was better than the more expensive MateBook X Pro, and about par for what we would expect from a Meteor Lake device.

In day-to-day use, the MateBook 14 was able to last an entire shift of moderate use, with a little left in the tank at the end of play. This would have previously been considered very respectable but the recent surge in battery performance achieved by new Qualcomm and Lunar Lake chips puts the MateBook 14's score in perspective. The competition has leaped ahead in recent years and the MateBook 14 is some way behind the Zenbook S14, Surface Laptop 7, and HP Omnibook X in this department.

Huawei MateBook 14 (2024) review: Is it worth it?

The Huawei MateBook 14 is a solid all-round laptop that really shines through its display, which is one of the best you can find at £1,199. It has no glaring failings, performs well in every category, and exceeds expectations for its luscious and eye-grabbing OLED display. The MateBook 14 falls behind the competition slightly in terms of performance and battery life when compared to devices using Qualcomm chips, but it is certainly no slouch and will easily get you through the day.

For businesses, however, a beautiful display is likely not going to seal the deal over boosted performance and multi-day battery life, and even visual creatives would likely want to opt for a device with a discrete graphics chip. As such, Huawei is something of a jack of all trades, and its strengths don't quite line up with the business priorities of most enterprises.

Huawei MateBook 14 (2024) specifications

During Gitex Global 2024, Huawei hosted the Commercial Market Summit under the theme of "Joining Hands with Partners to Amplify Intelligence for SMEs." 

At the event, Huawei launched 17 new products, and six new solutions designed for the global SME market. The company also shared its achievements in strategic investment in the commercial market and underlined its commitment to a partner-centric approach to serve hundreds of thousands of customers globally.

Huawei is positioning itself as a key enabler for SMEs striving to stay competitive in the digital age. By leveraging cutting-edge technology and a partner-driven approach, Huawei aims to accelerate digital intelligence adoption across industries such as education, healthcare, and manufacturing, ultimately reshaping how SMEs operate.

Empowering SMEs with new products and solutions

At Gitex Global 2024, Huawei introduced a range of innovative solutions tailored to help SMEs embrace digital transformation. The new products and solutions span multiple industries, from education and healthcare to manufacturing. 

For example, the IdeaHub K3 is a breakthrough product for the education sector, transforming traditional classrooms into interactive and engaging learning environments. In the manufacturing industry, Huawei’s upgraded high-quality factory network solution becomes a strong backbone for flexible production processes. SMEs, in particular, stand to benefit significantly from the newly launched simplified all-flash data center solution, which offers top-notch IT infrastructure in an accessible package.

For managed service providers (MSPs) in the commercial market, Huawei’s solutions are designed for easy selling, delivery, and growth, ensuring SMEs have access to diverse and effective services. By making digital solutions simpler and more adaptable, Huawei is enabling SMEs to reduce operational challenges and enhance productivity.

A partnership-driven approach

Huawei’s strategy is deeply rooted in collaboration. At the Gitex Global 2024, Ernest Zhang, president of the partner development and commercial and distribution business department at Huawei, underscored the company's partner-centric approach. He highlighted Huawei’s ongoing efforts to build a mutually beneficial ecosystem where partners are empowered to deliver cutting-edge digital solutions effectively. 

Huawei aims to work hand-in-hand with partners to gain in-depth insights into customer requirements across industries, develop competitive products and scenario-based solutions, and create a sustainable partnership system that empowers partners' digital capabilities.

Peter Zhang, director of the commercial business department, emphasized Huawei’s focus on building a partner-centric and trustable ecosystem that provides partners with more benefits, incentives, and profits. By focusing on a partner-led strategy, Huawei aims to provide a pathway for SMEs to adopt digital technologies that best suit their unique needs.

Through its partner ecosystem, Huawei works closely with thousands of partners worldwide, providing them with scenario-based solutions that meet local market requirements. This approach ensures that Huawei’s solutions are practical and directly address the needs of SMEs, while also allowing partners to grow alongside Huawei by gaining access to more incentives and profits. The focus on building a sustainable partner ecosystem reinforces Huawei’s belief that shared success is the key to navigating the intelligent future.

Real-world examples of transformation

Huawei’s technologies are already making a difference for businesses worldwide. At the Huawei Commercial Market Summit, Yusuf Ahmed, CEO of KEMS Zajil Telecom, the largest internet service provider in Kuwait, shared how enterprises in Kuwait are adopting cloud-based solutions to support the anything-as-a-service (XaaS) trend. By leveraging Huawei’s technology, KEMS Zajil Telecom has provided customers with flexible, diverse, and innovative solutions that cater to the evolving demands of the market.

Similarly, Richard Pearson, CPDO of SIBCA in the UAE, spoke about its partnership with Huawei to advance green and intelligent building solutions. This collaboration highlights the growing recognition of sustainable and intelligent infrastructure across industries, positioning Huawei as a leader in supporting the transformation to smarter, more efficient practices. SIBCA hopes to expand its cooperation with Huawei beyond networks and storage to include data centers, cloud, and AI, driving greener and smarter construction in the future.

Building digital infrastructure and local talent

Speaking at the Huawei Industrial Digital and Intelligent Transformation Summit 2024, Li Peng, corporate senior vice president and president of ICT sales & service at Huawei, reiterated the importance of building strong digital infrastructure to support SMEs. 

Huawei’s "One Cloud, One Network" solution is an example of how the company is integrating multiple technologies to provide inclusive connectivity that benefits both SMEs and larger enterprises.

Huawei is not only focusing on digital infrastructure but also on cultivating local talent to ensure long-term growth. Through its ICT Academies, Huawei has trained tens of thousands of ICT professionals across the Middle East and Africa, helping bridge the skills gap that is critical for SMEs to succeed in the digital economy. By investing in talent development, Huawei is contributing to the creation of a robust digital talent ecosystem that can drive sustainable economic growth.

Huawei's commitment to enhancing digitalization across industries is demonstrated through its extensive partnership network and ongoing initiatives. Li Peng highlighted during his keynote that Huawei is working closely with partners to establish OpenLabs, which serve as hubs for joint innovation. In the UAE alone, Huawei has collaborated with more than 30 solution partners, creating 20-plus industry-specific solutions that cater to local needs.

These efforts are part of Huawei’s broader mission to enable SMEs to accelerate their digital transformation journey. By providing lightweight, marketable solutions and efficient digital platforms, Huawei ensures that SMEs have the tools they need to thrive. Additionally, Huawei’s "All Intelligence" strategy serves as a foundation for guiding industries toward smarter, more connected systems.

Growing together in the intelligent era

As the world moves towards an intelligent future, Huawei remains committed to working hand-in-hand with partners and SMEs to realize shared success. By focusing on collaboration, innovation, and local talent development, Huawei aims to create a thriving digital ecosystem where all businesses — regardless of size — can benefit from digital and intelligent technologies.

Huawei encourages more SMEs and partners to join them in this journey, seizing the opportunities presented by the intelligent era and transforming challenges into growth opportunities. Together, Huawei and its partners are not just building digital infrastructure but are also shaping the future of the digital economy, ensuring that SMEs around the world can thrive in a rapidly changing environment.

The tech sector has entered a new stage of digital transformation, according to Huawei, with AI, 5G, and quantum computing all fueling a new ‘intelligent transformation’ in industries around the world.

At Gitex Global in Dubai, Huawei hosted its Industrial Digital and Intelligent Transformation showcase, in which Leo Chen, corporate SVP and president of Enterprise Sales at Huawei, outlined what he described as the fourth industrial revolution.

“We are approaching a productivity revolution powered by the latest innovations brought about in the fourth industrial revolution,” he declared.

This transformation is underpinned by technologies such as AI, 5G advanced, cloud computing, and smart manufacturing through robotics. Chen noted that quantum computing, which some experts project could be a reality within the next five to ten years, will eventually play a role.

Huawei thinks it can be an integral part of accelerating this change with its full-stack network, storage, computing, and cloud capabilities.

As well as its AI-ready infrastructure, Huawei has also touted its open reference architecture for intelligent transformation projects, which it released last year and has already been used to develop a variety of industry-specific solutions.

Fourth industrial revolution frontrunners and laggers

Regardless of how one defines Industry 4.0, firms will be keen to harness the efficiencies made possible by the implementation of these technologies. Huawei teamed up with IDC to gauge where the global industry is along this transformation journey.

The Global Digitalization Index (GDI) released in late September, was established to quantify the digital transformation process of each country, measuring the progress of 77 countries using 42 indicators broken down into what it defines as the four crucial enablers for the intelligent transformation.

The GDI formalized these four enablers using the following categories: ubiquitous connectivity, digital foundation, green energy, and the nation’s policy ecosystem.

Ubiquitous connectivity refers to the country’s existing level coverage for fiber, 4G/5G, IPv6 deployments, as well as the IoT install base in the region.

The digital foundation category looks at the country’s investment in data centers, cloud, computing power, and advanced storage, all key pillars for the deployment of technology like AI.

The report also looked at each nation’s renewable electricity investment ratio and utilization rate, as well as its green energy policy. Other important factors that impact a country’s intelligent transformation include its investment in IT, E-commerce volume, STEM graduate ratio, and the number of startups it has.

The ‘frontrunners’ in the GDI were the US with a score of 78.8, followed by Singapore, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Switzerland, which all scored above 70. The UK, also considered a frontrunner under the GDI’s criteria was ranked at number 11 with a score of 66.8.

The ‘starters’ label was assigned to the worst-scoring 24 countries, with Tanzania, Bangladesh, Namibia, Uganda, and Ghana all scoring well below 30. The report put this down to gaps in the countries' mobile broadband coverage, fiber access, and a need to “enhance connectivity in every aspect and give more people access to the digital economy”.

Accelerating the intelligent transformation

The report noted that over 170 countries have released national strategies for their digital and intelligent transformation, but are still struggling with questions about how to measure the ROI on investments they make into digital infrastructure.

This thinking goes against the results included in GDI, which found that every dollar of investment in digital transformation projects results in an $8 dollar return in terms of the country's digital economy.

During his keynote presentation, David Shi, VP of ICT marketing and solution sales at Huawei, said the firm had identified two critical accelerators for digital and intelligent transformation across various industries.

These are boosting the popularization of the new technologies underpinning the new era of business transformation, and accelerating monetization.

The popularization piece is already well underway, and Huawei said it plans on continuing this journey using its ‘four easies’ strategy, which entails making their products and services easy to integrate, easy to access, easy to use, and easy to evolve.

For example, Shi talked about the importance of building standardized interfaces that are easy to customize.

“We cannot do everything [using Huawei] and benefit all customers in all industries, so that’s why it’s important we work with ecosystem partners, if we can realize these four ‘easies’ we believe, together with our partners, Huawei can really realize popularization.”

The Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) packs capable performance and a breathtaking 3.1K OLED display into a gorgeous, ultra-light form factor, without sacrificing on battery life or ergonomics.

With a top-notch trackpad and keyboard, and booming speakers, the MateBook X Pro gets a lot right, and save for a disappointing selection of ports and limited availability in certain regions, it stands up as one of the most well-rounded Windows machines available this year.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) review: Design

Huawei describes the design of its new flagship Windows notebook as setting "a new aesthetics paradigm" and while we would not go quite that far, the MateBook X Pro is certainly one of the nicer laptops to look at in recent years.

The unit we've been testing stands out from the pack of monotonous silvers, grays, and blacks that traditionally dominate laptop designs with its Morandi Blue paint job, a metallic blue-green that is eye-catching without sacrificing its professional air.

For those of you looking for something slightly less extravagant, the MateBook X Pro is also available in the more standard black and white finishes, but we would strongly recommend opting for the Morandi blue if you have the choice.

The matte finish on the MateBook X Pro is also very inviting, making the device warm to the touch from startup and extremely helpful in eliminating any greasy fingerprints on the lower clamshell of the device. Huawei also says the 'skin soothing' finish has improved scratch resistance and durability.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) review: Display

Easily our favorite part of the MateBook X Pro, the 14.2'' 3.1K flexible OLED display is eye-wateringly crisp with 264 PPI, and can easily compete with the best panels currently available on the market. The use of a flexible OLED screen meant Huawei was able to 'bend' the display driver IC round to the back of the screen, allowing for an impressive 93% screen-to-body ratio with wafer-thin bezels.

We're big fans of the 3:2 aspect ratio and welcome Huawei's decision to keep this as standard on its devices as it gives you that extra few inches of content when scrolling through a PDF or web page – a godsend for productivity.

The MateBook X Pro's 3,120 x 2,080 display is a joy to use even when simply navigating around Windows, partly thanks to its buttery smooth 120Hz refresh rate, but it really comes into its own when consuming high-quality video content. Colors are vivid and accurate, registering a 99.9% sRGB coverage and 140% Gamut volume under our testing, beating out the M3 MacBook Pro.

The screen can get extremely bright, reaching a maximum brightness of 584 nits in our testing, which puts it above the Surface Laptop Studio 2 and Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 16, but not quite up to the impressive level set by the  M3 MacBook.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) review: Keyboard and trackpad

The MateBook X performs well in the keyboard department too, providing an ergonomic typing experience where every keypress feels distinct with satisfying actuation feedback.

The keys, also in the Morandi Blue, feature a luxurious 1.5mm of travel, noticeably more than the 1mm actuation on Apple's Magic Keyboard, which some users will love and perhaps others may find slows them down. 

We found we could get up to speed on the MateBook X Pro's deck relatively quickly, moving from the Magic Keyboard we use day-to-day, and once comfortable, that extra travel really lets you hammer the keys while typing in full flow without worrying about double presses, key wobble, or similar problems the mushier keyboards struggle with.

Generally, touchpads are the area where Windows laptops have really lagged behind Apple's MacBooks, with recent exceptions of course, and we're glad to report Huawei is continuing to close this gap with the MateBook X's touchpad.

The expansive touchpad gives you plenty of room and also features a soft-touch matte finish and this helps keep things smooth when navigating around Windows and when paired with the 120Hz display scrolling through web pages is a breeze.

Similar to the Surface Laptop Studio 2, We preferred the haptic feedback of the MateBook X Pro's trackpad to that of Apple's Force Touch technology, although we would say it slightly lacks the super-smooth glide of the Surface's all-glass affair.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) review: Specs and performance

We tested the top-spec configuration of the MateBook X Pro which comes equipped with Intel's Core i9 185H processor, Intel Arc graphics, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 2TB SSD, as well as Intel's EVO certification that is meant to set the standard for a new generation of high-performance laptops.

To accommodate this level of power Huawei said they redesigned the internals of the MateBook X Pro, which now uses a new three-segment PCB, as opposed to older versions using two, which allowed them to increase the fan dimensions required to cool the Core i9 chip.

At the moment, this is the only skew of the Matebook X Pro available in the UK, but our European readers will be able to choose a slightly less powerful unit if their needs aren't quite so intensive.

In our testing, the MateBook X Pro achieved a 2405 single-core, 13635 multi-core, and 37079 GPU score in Geekbench 6, which just pips our previous leading Windows machine – the Surface Laptop Studio 2 – but it could not reach the gold standard set by Apple's M3 Macbook Pro.

MateBook X Pro performed very well in day-to-day use handling most of what we threw at it with ease, and remained cool and quiet when editing photos, exporting video, or running multiple 20+ tab Chrome windows.

The only hitches in performance came when stress testing the MateBook X Pro, with 100% CPU and GPU usage the laptop struggled to stream 4K video from YouTube, but as soon as we dialed back the CPU load it got back to smooth playback in a jiffy.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) review: Battery

In our looped video benchmark, the MateBook X Pro ran for just over 10 hours, which is only beaten out by the Surface Studio Laptop 2 and of course the incredible performance from the latest M3 MacBook Pro.

Huawei said the MateBook X Pro's new three-segment PCB design also freed up enough space in the chassis to bump up the battery capacity to 70Wh, and in our day-to-day usage we had no issue putting the machine through its paces and still having power left at the end of the day.

In addition, the Huawei uses a 90W SuperCharge Turbo power brick that we found was incredibly quick at topping up the MateBook X Pro when we needed it. This sort of power is invaluable for anyone who's had to quickly run to a power outlet on a show floor, or at a conference.

While it didn't quite keep up with the MacBook's marathon man-esque battery life in our testing, the Huawei gave a good account of itself and showed it has the juice to keep you going all day when you're on the move.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) review: Ports and features

The MateBook X Pro gives you 3 USB-C, two of which support Thunderbolt 4, and conveniently one is placed on the right hand of the device, meaning you can charge the laptop on either side, a bugbear of ours with laptops such as the MacBook Air.

One major gripe we had with the MateBook X Pro was Huawei's decision to ax the 3.5mm headphone jack that the 2023 model had, which Huawei says was to enable them to make the device thinner, but we'd happily sacrifice a few millimeters for the ease of just being able to plug in our headphones without the faff of having to use a dongle.

Another feature we were pleasantly surprised with was its new 1080p webcam which we found provided a clean image that anyone would be proud of in a Zoom meeting, although Huawei does do some face smoothing in certain applications, which has a tendency to make you look a bit like a deepfake of yourself, so we'd recommend turning Beauty Mode off in the settings.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) review: Is it worth it?

The top-spec version of the MateBook X Pro, the only version available in the UK at this time, comes in at £2,099.99, whereas in Europe you can choose to get the slightly pared-back option with 16GB RAM and 1TB of storage for €1,999.99.

Although the premium configuration is pricey, the MateBook X Pro looks like a steal compared to the eye-watering price tag on the specced-out Surface Laptop Studio 2, offering comparable performance and a better display for our money.

When pitted against the holy grail M3 Macbook Pro, a 16GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD MacBook comes in at the same price as the MateBook X Pro, and although the MacBook remains our top choice, the fact you can double your RAM and storage for the same price (if you are willing to sacrifice a bit on the performance and battery life) makes Huawei's offering look a lot more competitive.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) specifications 

At Huawei’s Innovative Datacenter Infrastructure (IDI) Forum in Berlin, Peter Zhou, president, Data Storage Product Line at Huawei, outlined his vision for the future of the storage market in the AI era.

Asked what the company sees as the main drivers of the storage market in the upcoming years, Zhou says Huawei is focused on two core concepts: cost efficiency and sustainability.

He gives the example of paper as a transformational technology that radically changed how humanity transfers information, by making knowledge cheaper and easier to share. In the age of digitalization, Zhou likens data storage to paper and asserts that Huawei wants to become the paper manufacturer of the AI era.

This is a slightly meaningless slogan, but it does highlight a shift in the attitudes of customers in recent years, with data now regarded as a valuable commodity.

As firms continue down the path of digital transformation and AI drives up data center demands, Zhou claims data has taken on new meaning and no longer simply refers to an information store.

“That’s why some people say data is somehow equivalent to oil in the current industry,” Zhou explains, stating that, “we definitely see data really becoming an asset for the future”. 

As digitalization marches on and data’s critical role in every business continues to expand, Zhou says there is a growing concern among businesses over a general lack of useful data.

This has been exposed by the rapid adoption of AI technologies following the introduction of generative AI systems in late 2022, Zhou says, arguing that it’s a concern that continues to shape business attitudes. More and more, organizations are looking to collect and process large amounts of accurate data, both to play catch-up with breakthrough technologies like large language models (LLMs) and to be better prepared for future breakthroughs.

Much has been made of the fact that to be AI-ready, enterprises need  to implement a robust data strategy, and Huawei announced it has updated its data management engine (DME), the Omni-Dataverse global file system to help enterprises set up their data lake more easily.

Data lakes are integral for AI workloads, acting as the centralized repository for various types of enterprise data that help businesses efficiently manage vast stores of data. 

Being data-ready for the AI era is only part of the story

Beyond ensuring their data strategy is in a good place to harness the power of AI, Zhou adds that a primary concern for customers looking to embrace AI is how their business can contend with spiraling costs associated with AI’s energy-intensive workloads and the industry’s surging demand for data center capacity.

Global power shortages are putting unprecedented strain on data center infrastructure around the world, as their power and storage requirements grow exponentially with AI adoption. Goldman Sachs forecasts that data center power demand will accelerate in the next five years and will more than double by 2030 after showing flat growth between 2015 and 2020.

Zhou adds that storage accounts for nearly 30% of a data center’s energy consumption, so addressing the energy intensity associated with the data storage for the infrastructure that underpins AI technologies will be vital if businesses are to keep up with the projected spike in energy demand.

Huawei is right to focus on the sustainability and cost-efficiency of its storage solutions, the two main themes of the event. It announced two new hardware devices in line with this, a new high-capacity SSD and the OceanStor 800 storage solution.

According to Huawei, the SSD will consume 92% less energy than a rival competitor’s SSDs for every PB of data stored on the drive. In addition, the OceanStor A800 storage system promises to increase AI cluster utilization by 30% and provide new scalability up to exabyte-level capacity. Zhou says its Huawei’s most energy-efficient storage solution to date, boasting the lowest power consumption on the market. 

These products are expected to be available later in 2025, with prices unconfirmed at this time.

While these are welcome steps, it’s clear Huawei still needs to flesh out its product lines to meet its goal of mitigating AI-driven energy demands. The piecemeal approach is some way away from the end-to-end solution that will be necessary to mitigate customer concerns.

But there’s every sign that Huawei is focused on incremental additions to the product line, which will slowly lead to a more joined-up approach.

On stage during the keynote presentation, Zhou says “Now is the right time to define a next-generation [of] data storage”, and believes Huawei’s data awakening product line will be a vital part of this new generation of storage solutions. 

It is promising to see this amount of stock being put into ensuring their products can be part of the solution.  Huawei can help to address ever-growing concerns over the energy demands AI will levy on data center infrastructure around the world. 

All eyes are now on whether or not these solutions will be implemented widely enough to make a meaningful impact on AI’s power requirements, or if customer data demands will outpace hardware innovations entirely.

The US government has announced another slice of funding to boost the market for Open Radio Access Network technologies (Open RAN).

The $42m will fund a project by a consortium of telecoms companies, universities, and tech suppliers to build a test, evaluation, and R&D center in Dallas and another site in the Washington, DC area.

The center will focus testing on network performance, interoperability, security, and support research into new testing methods. The aim is to make industry-standard testing more available to new market players – both in the US and elsewhere.

Mobile operators usually have to choose a single supplier for the technology across an entire mobile site, from radio antenna, baseband units, through to servers and software. The idea of Open RAN is to make it more possible to mix-and-match between different vendors’ equipment, potentially lowering costs and boosting network roll-outs.

“Operators have historically been major proponents of Open RAN because they prefer greater vendor choice and easier equipment interoperability. Some operators, for example Japan’s Rakuten, see Open RAN as a key part of a shift to a more modern, virtualized architecture, which makes innovation quicker through greater usage of software,” Ian Fogg, director of network innovation at CCS Insight told ITPro.

“Also, challenger network vendors have been drivers of the technology too because they see Open RAN as a mechanism to use to grow against the large established network vendors — many of these challengers are headquartered in the US," he said.

The funding was announced by the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). “Spurring innovation and competition in wireless technologies is vital to US economic and national security,” said US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

“These grants are supporting facilities and advancing research that will unlock new opportunities for America to lead in the global telecommunications market, strengthen our supply chains and drive down costs.”

By investing in this strategy of creating interoperable 5G network technologies, the US government hopes that it can give US companies a chance to catch up with their Chinese rivals – particularly Huawei – when it comes to network infrastructure.

“5G is a dynamic technology, but today’s market for wireless equipment is static and highly consolidated,” said NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson.

With the latest grant NTIA has awarded $140 million from its Wireless Innovation Fund, a 10-year, $1.5 billion program aimed at supporting the development of open and interoperable wireless networks.

AT&T and Verizon will lead the project, while Japanese telecommunications company NTT DOCOMO and India’s Reliance Jio are described as “unfunded” founding members of the consortium.

Also involved are the University of Texas at Dallas, Virginia Tech, Northeastern University, Iowa State University and Rutgers University. There are also a lot of tech companies involved, including Microsoft, Nokia, Radisys, Airspan, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Rakuten, Samsung, Mavenir, VMWare, RedHat, Wind River, Ciena, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Amdocs, Keysight, and VIAVI.

“Evaluating how different products integrate with one another is a crucial part of facilitating the more diverse vendor ecosystem that many in the industry and government envision. Operators need to have confidence that different vendors’ products will work together at scale before adding them to their network,” said Robert Soni, VP of RAN Technology, AT&T.

In December, AT&T said that it was working with Ericsson to deploy Open RAN products at its cell sites and said it planned to move 70% of its wireless traffic to open infrastructure by 2026.

Earlier this month Verizon said it has now deployed over 130,000 O-RAN capable radios, while in the UK Vodafone has also started the installation of OpenRAN equipment for 2,500 sites across Wales and the south west of England, using it to replace Huawei technology.

Last month the administration awarded $80m across six other projects also aimed at new testing and evaluation facilities, as well as research and development projects focused on advancing cybersecurity, automation, energy efficiency and improved testing.

According to tech analyst Counterpoint Research, Open RAN network investments have increased steadily in recent years, largely by greenfield network operators in the Asia-Pacific and North American. But after rapid network build-outs, these operators are looking to lower capex spending and focus on network monetization.

And many network operators remain very cautious about additional investments in 5G infrastructure, particularly Open RAN, due to the uncertain macroeconomic climate, the analyst firm said.

As a result, Counterpoint Research expects that the Open RAN market will stagnate during this and the next year, before picking up again in 2025.

BT has missed a deadline to remove Huawei equipment from core networks following a government ruling over national security concerns. 

The telecoms giant was required to remove Huawei kit from core network infrastructure by 31 December, along with a long-term goal of cutting equipment from 5G networks by 2027.

The order to remove the Chinese firm’s equipment from core networks was originally given a deadline of January 2023, however, this was extended following industry concerns that the timeframe was not realistic.

BT said it has made significant progress in its work to remove non-compliant equipment, with all 4G and 5G services now delivered by hardware sourced from alternative providers.

“Over 99% of all core traffic is now being served by non-Huawei kit,” the firm said in a statement.

Despite this, the telecoms provider revealed that some services are still reliant on Huawei equipment - specifically 2G and 3G. However, the firm said this accounts for only a small portion of its total traffic.

“Our primary concern throughout these activities has been to ensure the resilience and operational capability of our networks for our customers,” BT told ITPro.

“The only voice and data services yet to be migrated are 2G and 3G, which accounts for less than 1% of the total traffic. We’re working hard to complete this work.”

Kester Mann, director of consumer and connectivity at CCS Insight, told ITPro the time BT has taken to implement changes highlights the difficulty of the task it has faced in recent months.

BT said the project has been “unprecedented in terms of scale, cost, and complexity”, and previously warned that it could cost more than £500 million in total.

“The time it has taken BT to remove Huawei gear demonstrates how technically challenging it is for an operator to switch from one core provider to another,” he said.

“It also hints that BT has sought to move carefully, wary of the potential impact on customers were anything to go wrong during the migration.”

Could BT face a fine?

Questions remain over whether BT could face penalties for its failure to fully meet the end-of-year deadline. 

Companies were warned that they could be fined up to 10% of their annual revenue, or £100,000 ($126,560) each day for failing to comply with the order.

A report from telecoms regulator Ofcom is expected to be published in early 2024 detailing progress on the removal scheme.

BT said it will provide Ofcom with details on progress next year as part of its obligations. The firm added it is still on-track to achieve the broader 2027 deadline.

Mann said that any potential penalties for BT would be harsh given that the deadline was only missed by a small margin. Similarly, figures released by the telecoms provider show it is more or less “over the line” at this stage.

“With almost all core traffic now served by non-Huawei kit, and with its 3G network set to shut down in just a few months, the company is almost over the line.

“Considering the rip-and-replace costs incurred BT would have incurred – estimated at around £500 million – it would feel harsh for the company to be penalized for only missing the deadline by a very small amount of time.”

AWS’s new Malaysia cloud region is set to officially launch in 2024 as the cloud computing giant looks to solidify operations in Southeast Asia. 

The new cloud region was first announced in March 2023, with AWS committing to investing $6 billion on ramping up infrastructure in the country. The latest update puts into motion a general timeframe for launch, however exact dates are yet to be confirmed.  

The confirmation follows the opening of AWS’ first office in Kuala Lumpur in June 2023, which it said at the time formed part of a bid to create a firmer foothold in the country. 

“Since 2016, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has made deep investments in Malaysia, serving customers and unlocking transformation across industries” the company said in a statement. 

“Today, AWS reaffirmed its commitment, announcing that the new AWS Region in Malaysia will be live in 2024. 

“AWS’s previously announced pledge to invest MYR 25.5 billion and build a new AWS Region in Malaysia by 2037 will give developers, startups, entrepreneurs, and enterprises, as well as government, education, and nonprofit organizations greater choice when running their applications and serving end users from data centers located in Malaysia.”

Malaysian generative AI adoption

Increased adoption of generative AI technology in Malaysia has also contributed to the AWS’ expansion, the company said. 

AWS noted that it has observed a “ wave of widespread adoption” of generative AI in Malaysia in recent months. 

The firm said the new cloud region will play a key role in providing infrastructure for organizations exploring the development and deployment of the technology. 

AWS support for Malaysia digitization

AWS’ push in Malaysia forms part of a broader effort to both expand infrastructure services across Southeast Asia and foster closer ties with organizations operating in Malaysia. 

The cloud giant has close ties with public sector organizations in the country and is playing a key role in supporting the nation’s digital transformation, according to Chuah Seng Heng, country manager for worldwide public sector at AWS in Malaysia.

“In Malaysia, we're not just building infrastructure, we’re spurring a wave of digital transformation and investing in a digital workforce that will shape the nation's future,” he said. 

“The new AWS Region will empower Malaysia to accelerate cloud adoption in the public sector and help agencies transform the way citizen services are delivered.

Southeast Asia cloud competition

When AWS first unveiled plans to launch the Malaysia cloud region in March 2023, it came during a period of accelerated competition in the region. 

The cloud giant isn’t alone in its expansion efforts in Southeast Asia. Microsoft and Google have both made significant strides in the region with the launch of cloud regions and efforts to attract customers. 

However, the aforementioned hyperscalers are also facing competition from Chinese competitors in the cloud computing space. 

Alibaba Cloud, Huawei, and Tencent have all expanded operations in the region over the last 18 months, with Alibaba announcing plans to invest $1 billion to support regional expansion in September 2022. 

Huawei has claimed its new Cyber Engine database security system is "the best in the world" with a 99.9% detection rate for ransomware.

The system, which was launched on the opening day of the 2023 Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, is described as a "last line of defence" by the Chinese conglomerate.

"The mechanism we have built for Cyber Engine, together with data storage, is the last line of defence, but it also should be the most effective way," Huawei's president of IT product line, Dr Peter Zhou, told journalists after his presentation.

"Our mechanism and also the algorithm we have developed within Cyber Engine is AI-trained to detect the fingerprint of the ransomware virus and whether or not there has been an attack on the system," he explained.

Once it has detected an attack, the system then informs the database to begin shutting down affected systems or systems that can be implicated. It does this with a technique called 'air gap' which is about isolating data sets.

"We honestly believe its ability to detect ransomware is the best in the world," Zhuo said.

Ransomware detection systems, whether AI-powered or otherwise, will tend to have a very high success rate, according to Jake Moore, cyber security expert at ESET, however, they have to work every time to remain secure.

"An intruder only has to infect once for the disruption to begin," he told IT Pro. "SMBs must always prepare for the worst-case scenario by simulating an attack to fully understand the localised risks rather than relying on any one tool.

"Threat detection and response are absolutely vital but cannot be relied upon completely. However small the percentage 'get out clause' is, it remains every information security controller's nightmare and therefore preparation is key to survival."

What's behind Huawei's growth in cloud computing?

Cyber Engine was just one of several new cloud computing capabilities Huawei revealed at MWC.

The Chinese firm also launched Blu-ray storage. Related to the storage of cold data, which requires low-cost archiving, Huawei said it has a longer service life and reduces the total cost of ownership for organisations.

The company also unveiled a multi-cloud storage service that deals with cross-cloud data transfers. This service is simply called 'Tiering' and categorises data to create a prioritised order for transfers to and from other cloud environments. Its aim is to reduce energy consumption as well as lower operational costs.

Another multi-cloud-based offering was the Cloud on Cloud solution, which will enable carriers to quickly build and operate their own cloud services with the capabilities and resources of Huawei.

One of the driving factors behind some of its cloud ventures, particularly its expansive database portfolio, is an expectation of increased data generation.

Dr Zhou spoke of yottabytes of data being created by 2030 - a storage volume equivalent to a quadrillion gigabytes. The company is keen to begin working on systems that handle vast amounts of data, with its AI-based security system acting as a first step.

Huawei has designed a new smartphone that’s able to link up to the Chinese satellite system, deploying the new technology as a way to deal with US restrictions on its access to 5G technology.

The Mate 50 series, launched today, will allow smartphone users to communicate with short messages through the BeiDou navigation satellite system. This is China’s version of the Global Positioning System (GPS) developed by the US.

The Chinese company has no access to premium 5G mobile chips since it has been the target of a US crackdown, while competitors like Samsung or Apple already include this technology in their flagship devices.

“Basically, the Mate 50 series will allow users to send short messages together with location information using China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) for emergency uses when the telecom operator's mobile network is not available,” Arnold Gao, senior director analyst at Gartner, told IT Pro. “BDS offers a broader coverage for signals, higher reliability, and ubiquitous access compared to commercial mobile networks, which can play an important role for emergency communication in disaster senses, in the desert, at sea.”

Gao added that by launching this new service, Huawei has become the first smartphone maker to bring satellite communication technology to the consumer market prior to Apple.

“However, the ‘ground-breaking’ part is more on the satellite side as the global short message communication service offered by BDS is not available from other global navigation satellite systems such as GPS or GLONASS,” underlined Gao.

The Huawei Mate 50 includes a 6.7-inch OLED panel with 2,700 x 1,224 resolution, 90Hz refresh rate, 300Hz touch sampling rate, and 1440Hz PWM dimming, according to Huawei Central. It also has a triple camera system including a 13MP ultra wide-angle camera and a 50MP main camera.

The device comes in five colours including blue, orange, silver, black, or purple, and has plain leather or glass-back variants.

The company confirmed in August last year that its flagship phone, the P50, was set to ship without 5G support. Huawei blamed the decision on ongoing trade restrictions placed on the company by the US. The P50 handsets were only going to support 4G and run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 4G chipset, although the Pro version would use the company’s own Kirin 9000 processor.

Huawei and its partner Berlevåg Jeger-og Fiskerforening (BJFF) have deployed an AI-powered filtering system in Norway’s Storelva river that allows Atlantic salmon to pass upstream while filtering out other invasive species.

Norway's delicate coastal ecosystem has been damaged over the past few decades, largely due to the introduction of the Pacific salmon species into Russia’s White Sea in the 1950s, which have since made its way south into Norwegian waters.

The fish have a rapid reproduction cycle and are able to aggressively compete for food, which threatens to overwhelm the native Atlantic salmon in hundreds of rivers along the nation’s coastline.

Huawei and BJFF revealed today that it has now successfully deployed and tested a filtering system that uses AI to prevent Pacific salmon from entering the upstream channel of Norway’s river system. A mechanical gate allows Atlantic salmon, as well as the Arctic red-spotted variety, to continue upstream to complete their migratory spawning process. The invasive species is diverted to a holding tank for subsequent removal.

Algorithms were designed in early 2021 based on Huawei’s machine vision technology to identify different fish species. In July 2021, the two companies then deployed a monitoring station equipped with an underwater camera in Storelva River. Providing a continuous video stream, the hardware is able to use the algorithm to identify Atlantic salmon with an accuracy of 91%, cutting the need for workers to manually check the fish by 90%.

Traditionally, volunteers were required to stand in the river to identify the Pacific salmon with the naked eye, mainly by the spots on their tails. This can make it challenging to quantify the threat, with many fish being missed and their sex impossible to determine.

"This is a unique innovation, both in Norway and globally. With this high-tech solution, we have complete control of the river. Local river managers and local and central administrations along the coast have also shown great interest in the project," said BJFF president Geir Kristiansen.

The Chinese tech company said the demand for a solution was urgent. The number of Pacific salmon in Norway’s rivers has skyrocketed, with 13,900 caught in 2019, jumping to a record breaking 111,700 caught in 2021, representing 57% of all salmon caught in the country. Although almost all of these fish were caught in Troms and Finnmark, a county in the north of the country, Pacific salmon catches have been recorded in every county.

In contrast, numbers of the native wild salmon have declined by a quarter from peak levels. Huawei and BJFF said the invasive species is largely responsible, with escaped and less genetically diverse farmed salmon exacerbating the problem by weakening the Atlantic salmon's genome after interbreeding.

The companies also claimed that the data collected can also reveal accurate patterns of migratory behaviour, monitor different types of fish populations, provide information for further research, and help develop measures to stop overfishing.

The next step of the project is to deploy the technology in Norway’s salmon farms to reduce the environmental harm caused by escaped farmed fish.

BT has asked the UK government for an extension to the deadline for removing Huawei equipment from its network.

The UK government confirmed in July 2020 that it would remove Huawei equipment from the country’s 5G network by 2027, following concerns over potential ties between the company and the Chinese government. The decision was spurred by the UK sanctions imposed on Huawei earlier in the year, and was expected to delay the UK's 5G rollout by up to two years.

Telecom operators were also given the deadline of 28 January 2023 to remove all Huawei equipment from the core of the telecoms network and reduce its use in non-core parts to 35%.

However, BT has now made a request to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to extend this deadline, according to The Guardian.

“We are continuing to work towards the January 2023 deadline for that work to happen in our core, but have requested a necessary, short extension, to reflect significant Covid-driven impacts to the programme over the past two years,” BT said.

The government has already granted a six-month extension to July next year for operators to meet the goal of non-core component usage, including in telecoms masts. BT said that the logic behind this decision should also be applied to the core parts removal deadline.

“We continue to liaise with DCMS and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to ensure our programme can be completed as quickly and safely as possible, and remain confident that the final 2027 deadline for delivering new equipment throughout the 5G network is achievable,” said BT.

Following the initial removal order, BT and Vodafone warned in 2020 that they would need at least five years to remove all equipment made by Huawei from the UK’s networks.

If telecoms companies fail to comply with the new security rules for the country’s network, they could face fines of 10% of turnover or £100,000 a day.

"Our proposed measures to control the use of Huawei in UK networks were subject to a targeted consultation and BT was one of a number of affected companies that were consulted,” a DCMS spokesperson told IT Pro. “We're considering all the responses received and will publish our decision in due course."

Solid-state drives (SSDs) are recommended as a more energy-efficient alternative to hard-disk drives (HDDs) in data centres, using 70% less power and 50% less space for the same capacity.

This is part of Huawei’s strategy to help data centres go green through data storage. The strategy reduces energy consumption per TB of data through high-density design, system convergence, data reduction, and full-lifecycle carbon footprint management.

This is especially important as by 2030, 1 yottabyte (YB) of data will be generated globally every year, representing a 23-fold increase over 2020, Huawei revealed at an event last week. Storing mass data consumes enormous amounts of energy, highlighting the importance of green and sustainable development.

As part of this strategy, Huawei looks to use high-density components and systems to increase the hardware density and heat dissipation efficiency of its data storage products, including replacing HDDs with SSDs. Its use of half-palm NVMe SSDs helps its storage systems to support 36 SSDs in a 2U disk enclosure, which it says delivers a higher hardware density than similar products and 25% higher heat dissipation efficiency than a traditional disk enclosure.

The company also hopes to ensure higher resource utilisation by supporting multiple protocols and eliminating storage silos. One storage system supports block, file, object, and Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) protocols for diversified requirements to consolidate multiple kinds of storage. Additionally, the converged resource pool aims to consolidate multiple storage systems in data centres to improve their resource utilisation.

Huawei also aims to use deduplication and compression algorithms to reduce data duplication. The algorithms currently help its storage systems deliver a data reduction ratio of up to 72:1, 20% higher than the industry benchmark.

"Huawei has always been committed to the green and low-carbon data storage strategy, providing customers with more environment-friendly products for sustainable development,” said Assaf Natanzon, Huawei's chief architect of Data Storage.

Initiatives into green data centre technology have become more popular recently, with Japan choosing six companies in February to help power new research into this area. The project aims to address the challenge of increasing power consumption at data centres in today’s digital society. The companies taking part aim to develop products to realise greater energy efficiency, larger capacity, and lower latency across data centre sites.

Despite being relatively green in the space, Huawei has quickly cemented its MateBook range as one of the best laptop brands around. It's in stark contrast to its flagging smartphone business, as the Chinese firm's PC revenues continue to grow year on year.

The fourth instalment of its flagship ultraportable, the MateBook X Pro, launched in 2021 and it looks just as slick as ever. In fact, it looks almost the same as it did when it was first released in 2018. Which begs the question, what exactly is new about the Matebook X Pro 2021...

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) review: Design

Each refresh of the MateBook X Pro has very minor stylistic changes and the dimensions for the 2021 model are identical to last year's version, with a 14.6mm thickness and a 1.3kg weight. As such, it isn't the slimmest laptop around by any stretch, but it's small enough to go largely unnoticed in a rucksack.

Despite the lack of change, the 2021 model is still a very fancy-looking ultraportable, particularly in the Emerald Green shade our review unit came in. The green is a welcome addition that helps it to stand out in a market saturated with grey and black finishes. You can be boring and opt for the 'Space Grey' model, but the Emerald Green is simply too beautiful to ignore.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) review: Display

Upon lifting the lid, our attention was almost immediately taken by the MateBook X Pro's glossy 14in LTPS LCD display, which has a 3,000 x 2,000 resolution and a 3:2 aspect ratio. It's very much the same as the 2020 model, save for a slight reduction in bezel size with a 91% screen to body ratio. This is, however, still packing lots of colourful quality; with our calibrator, the X Pro hit 94.4% sRGB gamut coverage, which is just a fraction below the 2020 model.

There are other, cheaper 14in displays with better scores, such as the Acer Swift 5 (which managed 98.3%), but you'll not be disappointed with the X Pro. Whether you use it for work or streaming or even gaming, the display offers a very rounded experience. It's bright and vivid and has a peak brightness of 581 cd/m2. The only fault we found was due to the glossy finish, which can catch the odd glare of sunlight no matter how high you raise its brightness level.

Once again, Huawei has used a 10-point touchscreen on the MateBook X Pro and it's as responsive as ever. Unfortunately, the laptop doesn't flip back into a full tablet mode, but there are some pretty innovative touchscreen shortcuts. Swiping down the centre of the screen with three fingers enables a screen capture mode. From here you can capture the whole screen with a single digit or an app window by running a finger diagonally from corner to corner. You can also select a small part of the display by drawing a circle around it.

The latter doesn't always work and it doesn't automatically save what you capture; you need to go into the notifications bar and explicitly click save on the image, which is more exertion than most methods of screen capture, quite frankly.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) review: Keyboard and trackpad

The MateBook X Pro includes a deliciously smooth keyboard with understated black keys, beautifully backlit for nighttime typing. The sound from the keystrokes is also nicely muffled for those that like a silent office.

It all gets a little more exciting when it comes to the trackpad, which is full of ingenious features (similar to the touchscreen controls) that differ depending on the number of fingers being used. For instance, three digits pressed in the centre brings forth other app windows a user might have open, or the search bar if only one window is open. There are a number of different variations here, though not as many as you'll find on the similar touch controls offered by macOS. That being said, the core operations on the MateBook are also very smooth with a very subtle click action and excellent cursor control.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) review: Specs and performance

There's a complete change inside the 2021 Matebook X Pro, however, with an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 Tiger Lake chip and integrated Iris Xe GPU, rather than the Nvidia M250 card that was found in the 2020 version. This is matched with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and from our in-house benchmark tests, we can see an instant improvement. The MateBook's overall test scores jumped from 78 with the 2020 model, to 90 in the new version. The problem comes when you compare it to rival laptops, such as Samsung's Galaxy Book Pro (2021) which hit an overall score of 100 in the same test. Worse, Samsung's laptop is almost £300 cheaper. We're not going to cause further embarrassment with an M1 MacBook comparison - but suffice to say that Apple's notebook leaves this machine thoroughly in the dust.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) review: Battery life

Our experience of using the MateBook X Pro was relatively positive; it's snappy and handles multiple tasks with ease. But you don't get long to enjoy all that if it isn't plugged into the mains. We're going to trash the battery here and deservedly so; it lasted a pitiful 8hrs 49min in our looped video test, which is just plain woeful. So much so, we actually struggled to find another machine from 2021 that had a worse life span. In day to day use, we didn't have the confidence to go very far from a plug socket because no matter what you do with the MateBook X Pro, it simply cannot make it through a standard eight-hour shift.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) review: Features

Feature-wise, the MateBook X Pro has some very useful tools and a few that are a little tired, such as the popup webcam. This, which has been hidden between the F6 and F7 buttons since the series was first released, is an idea that was novel in 2018, but problematic now that we have constant video meetings. It does make sense if you're security conscious and want that webcam blacked out, but not everyone wants the unflattering view up the nostrils that the low angle provides. Thankfully this has been binned on other Huawei laptops, such as the MateBook 14s and also the upcoming MateBook X Pro (2022).

For connectivity, there is almost no change for the MateBook X Pro, with two USB Type-C ports for charging and data transfer, Wi-Fi 6 support, and a 3.5mm headphone and microphone jack. There is a USB Type-A port, but it's now the 3.2 version, rather than the 3.0 which was found in the 2020 model.

Sadly, there's no UK release date for the next iteration of MateBook X Pro as yet, but getting an older Huawei laptop doesn't stop you from enjoying some of its newest software features. This includes Super Device; a screen sharing programme that can be accessed with an upgrade to the latest version of the Huawei PC Manager (12.1) and by enabling Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on both devices the user wishes to pair.

It's operated via a Super Device UI, where the main device (the MateBook) will appear as a central pebble in a pool with other available devices floating around it. Dragging one of the surrounding pebbles into contact with the main one links them together, and we tested this with the Huawei P50 Pro, where its UI appears as a floating box on the left of the screen. From here we could control the handset via the laptop, drag and drop files from one to the other, and even load up apps such as Netflix and Spotify from the phone to play via the laptop - which is exceedingly cool.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) review: Verdict

As mentioned earlier, Huawei has other MateBook models, and even a 2022 X Pro model coming soon, with even more features and design changes. So at £1,600 exc VAT, our Emerald Green review unit is arguably too expensive to make it worthwhile.

Even leaving this aside, however, the very short battery life is too hard to ignore. No matter how good the display or design is, no one wants a laptop they can only use for half a day. Unfortunately, this is a Mate with no staying power.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) Specifications

Huawei made its name in smartphones and networking equipment, but its excellent laptops have shown that it has the chops to succeed in other areas. The most recent one it's moved into is monitors, and its debut effort is the Huawei MateView.

There are many things to love about it, and top of the list is its aspect ratio, which is delightfully different at 3:2. We found this worked supremely well, whether we were focusing on a single window or working on two side by side. It helps that a second thing to love about this monitor is its 3,840 x 2,560 resolution, which translates into a super-sharp 164ppi across the 28.2in diagonal.

Next on our list is the minimalist design, which will have art deco fans weeping with joy. We haven’t yet seen a bezel-less monitor, but with 7mm on the top, left and right edges the MateView comes close. The bottom bezel spoils the symmetry, being 10mm thick, but it holds a secret: you can slide your finger underneath from left to right to pump up the volume up, and the built-in speakers sound great.

This trick is the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Tap the underside and you can access the main menu, which lets you use taps and swipes to intuitively jump to the setting you want. It takes seconds to master: you could ask a five-year-old to switch between sRGB and DCI-P3 colour modes and they would work it out, which we can’t say about most monitors.

What’s more, switching between those two profiles makes a visible difference. Huawei has clearly put plenty of effort into tuning the electronics, with sRGB coverage of 98% and DCI-P3 coverage that’s nearly as good, at 94% out of a 98% volume. Colour accuracy is strong too, with an average Delta E of 0.38 and maximum of 1.01. Only one of our tests could find a weakness, with considerable variation of brightness across the screen – perhaps Huawei has tried too hard to hit the peak brightness of 500cd/m2.

The MateView supports wireless projection from a Windows PC or phone, with Bluetooth 5.1 and Wi-Fi 6 built in, but most people will rely on wires. Here, Huawei makes - in our view - a mis-step: at the rear you’ll find HDMI, mini-DisplayPort and USB Type-C connectors, but the latter is exclusively for the external power supply. If you want to connect a laptop via USB, you’ll need to use a separate USB-C port at the side, spoiling the monitor’s otherwise clean design. That’s also where Huawei puts the MateView's two USB Type-A ports.

Perhaps the biggest challenge is the price. £500 is a lot of money to pay for a monitor – even for such a gorgeous and innovative one. If money is tight, check our guide to the best monitors around: you may well be able to find a display that makes you almost as happy for a much lower price.

Huawei MateView specifications

Huawei could potentially see revenue from its smartphone business drop by almost £30 billion this year as the company continues to struggle with US trade restrictions.

Speaking at a press conference in Beijing on Friday, the firm's rotating chairman, Eric Xu, said disappointing smartphone sales could not be offset by other business areas and suggested the firm will struggle to continue, according to Reuters.

Huawei has brought in just £36.16 billion from the first half of 2021, according to its earnings report, which is roughly the amount its rotating chairman predicts it will lose by the end of the year. Xu is also reported to have said his "biggest hope" is that the company will still exist in five to ten years.

US trade sanctions placed upon the Chinese firm under then president Donald Trump's administration have hit its smartphone business the hardest; the company has already been forced to sell off its Honor brand and is now denying reports it plans to do the same with its P and Mate brands, following poor sales.

The sanctions meant Huawei is no longer able to license the full version of Android, which includes Google Play Services and popular apps like Netflix and WhatsApp, on its smartphones, effectively derailing its expansion into the European market.

Huawei's sales have flagged in the region as a result, despite an innovative number of handset launches. The company has tried to adopt an alternative operating system - HarmonyOS - and worked to build out a suitable app ecosystem, but these efforts have done little to help Huawei regain ground.

Even with Trump's presidency at an end, Huawei and the US continue to endure a fractured relationship. On Thursday, US commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, said that Joe Biden's administration would take further action against the Chinese firm "if necessary".

The comments were in response to calls for even tougher action against Huawei, which is still seen as a national security threat due to alleged ties to the Chinese government.

This automatically-generated transcript is taken from the IT Pro Podcast episode ‘Are foldable phones more than a fad?’. To listen to the full episode, click here. We apologise for any errors.

Jane McCallion

Hi, I'm Jane McCallion.

Adam Shepherd

And I'm Adam Shepherd.

Jane

And you're listening to the IT Pro Podcast where this week we are flipping out over phones.

Adam

Most of our listeners will remember a time before every phone was a flat uniform slab of glass. The form factor of top phones hasn't changed much over the last five years. But the recent trend for foldable smartphones has reintroduced a bit of variety into the mobile market.

Jane

But while these new devices may be a bit more unique than our now traditional rectangular design, is this new wave of foldables an actual evolution of the technology or merely a passing fad that will be swiftly forgotten?

Adam

So before we get started with this, I think it's worth recapping a brief history of foldable devices because foldable devices aren't exactly new, per se.

Jane

No, no. And when the new generation of foldables came out, I was very much sort of like, oh, so we're doing this again then, are we? Cool. Okay, fine. And yeah, I mean, foldables, they date back to the days of sort of PDAs, really - personal digital assistants, if you're not au fait with the acronym. One of the earliest ones was the Psion series five, which came out in 1997. So like I say, it's, it's not a new idea. And that was had a little screen, your typical sort of grayscale type screen and integrated a physical QWERTY keyboard. And another contemporary of the Psion was the Nokia 9000 Communicator. It came out in 96. And once again, kind of physical keyboard, a much smaller screen, but something that's more recognisably a phone. When it's closed, it looks like an extremely chunky phone. But it was the 90s so everything was a bit brickish. Not quite one that you need to carry a suitcase sized battery around with but still sizable.

Adam

The big difference between kind of newer foldables and the older generation of devices is that the older generation were based around having a QWERTY keyboard, as opposed to the older T9 style of button layout. And that meant that you could get a lot more done in comparison, you know, it was easier to do things like making notes or typing emails, and you know, all of these kinds of productivity tasks in inverted commas that a traditional mobile phone just wasn't really suited for, you know, even when smarter phones started becoming a thing, you know, phones where you could do things like reply to emails, and check your stocks and all of these kinds of kinds of things, there was still a bit of a trend for, you know, mobile phones to have access to a QWERTY keyboard, whether through, you know, a little plug in accessory or through a kind of clever fold out mechanism where you could have access to a QWERTY keyboard. BlackBerrys for example, the the kind of first BlackBerry devices, that was a big selling point of them.

Jane

Well not even just the first ones like going up until sort of the 2010s. They were still people - I'm going to slightly age myself here, but, you know, when I left my first job, it was only the MD who had a blackberry and do price that was very kind of like high status. And then I went back into education a few years later, and suddenly all these people who, you know, kind of a good five years younger than me, who've all got the BlackBerrys. Clearly, in these few years, I slipped through some alternate dimension in which young people now want QWERTY keyboards as well, allegedly, although obviously it turned out to be slightly different to that. But yeah, I think that these older foldable devices are more like kind of mini computers. And I kind of appreciate that actually, what we have now as smartphones, despite the word phone on the end of it is very much a tiny computer with a software based keypad. But yet they they are little, almost like little laptops really, to look at them, like little proto-laptops.

Adam

Yeah, and with that in mind, modern foldable devices are very much kind of following that trend. So the likes of the Galaxy Z Fold 3, which has recently been launched by Samsung, the Huawei Mate X2 and the Surface Duo from Microsoft, have all been following that trend of essentially trying to merge a traditional phone and a traditional laptop. And while older foldable devices were reliant on QWERTY keypads, these combine essentially two touchscreens to recreate the same functionality.

Jane

Yeah, they use the sort of software keypad that we're used to from smartphones now. And I think that the idea is that you would be typing on them with your thumbs in the similar way that you do on a smartphone rather than kind of laying them out to type out, whatever.

Adam

Well, you say that, that is one of the use cases that I've seen, you know, if you are, like, for example, on a train, and you want to rattle off a couple of long emails in a manner that's a bit speedier than doing it with your thumbs, which, you know, can be a bit time intensive and, and prone to mistakes, you can set it down on a table, you know, with the with the screen propped up as, as you would a laptop and just rattle away. With a full proper QWERTY keyboard,

Jane

You see, you can tell from this discussion, but I'm not involved in the review side of things. I look at it and go, well, obviously, you wouldn't want to type on that. That's, that's quite kind of interesting. I think it also shows I have long nails, so like you couldn't possibly type on that.

Adam

Of course, it does depend on you know, things like how big your fingers are.

Jane

Yeah, which in fairness, I have quite small hands, as we have discussed previously on this podcast, whenever the topic of phones comes up.

Adam

So part of the raison d'etre for these devices is that they're merging the old kind of PDA functionality with the more modern kind of digital smartphone app experience, you know, so you can have both in the same device.

Jane

Yeah, and it does seem to me that these devices are bringing a bit more to the table than the previous PDAs, whereas they were tiny laptops, these ones do seem to, they do a bit more, it's not just, here's something that you can write an email on, and maybe make some calls. You can, for example, I've seen with the Surface Duo, when it's in sort of portrait orientation, if you like, that you could, for example, have a reference text on one side and a note taking thing where you can take notes with a stylus or your finger or whatever, on the other screen. So that's quite useful, quite kind of almost like the split screen function that you have on desktops and laptops, which which I am a frequent user, I'm a big fan, big fan. So I can see how that'd be like, super useful, actually.

Adam

And one of the big things for modern foldables is that for most of the time, they can just act as you know, a normal standard form factor smartphone with the standard, you know, roughly 16:9 screen. And you know, you can use all of your apps and whatnot in the way that you normally would. But when you need a little bit more real estate, if you're, for example, watching a video or taking notes, or whatever it is that you need a little bit more elbow room for, you can fold it out, and bang, you've got more more space to work with straight off the bat rather than having to hop between devices, you know, because at the moment, I can do, let's say 90% of what I need to do on a daily basis on my smartphone, you know, push comes to shove, I can do the vast majority of my work and my you know, day to day technology needs, they can be met with a standard smartphone, sometimes I need a little bit more room to work with. And for those situations, I will have to go back to you know, a desktop or a laptop or a large form factor tablet, something with a bit more room. The idea of these, or part of the idea of these is that you can fold them out and you have that extra room without having to switch devices.

Jane

Yeah, and you're kind of personally thinking about it. I also use my smartphone for not for a lot of things like even if I am working on my desktop, I'm dual-screening with my phone half the time as well. But if I for example, want to be on a mobile device, and I want to look at Pinterest, which works better in a mobile form factor anyway, I then have to hunt around my house for my iPad Mini because my phone is too just too small. While I appreciate they're not as big as the screen for the iPad Mini. There are an awful lot bigger than the iPhone 7 that I have for example, which isn't great for looking at Stuff that just needs a bit more space. Yeah, I don't want a massive phone.

Adam

So these devices then are very much geared around productivity, we've covered a lot of the things that they can do in terms of note taking and videos and multi app multitasking. There are many apps, for example, that are now being built around a dual screen or a foldable setup. So Outlook, for example, on the Microsoft Surface Duo is built specifically or has been optimised for the dual screen form factor. So you'll have your inbox on one side of the device, and then the actual, you know, email view on the other side, which makes for much easier inbox management, you know, you get a much more desktop style inbox on your phone.

Jane

That's what I was about to say, Yeah, kind of very similar to what you would have with either mail client, or, you know, webmail.

So I think we've spoken a lot about the 'what' of these foldables. But it's probably worth our while looking at the 'why' as well, because so much technology innovation, you've got to sit there and think why?

Adam

Well, this is the kind of form factor that it's easy to look at and go, Well, there's no point to this. This is just innovation, quote, unquote, for for its own sake, you know, it's just a fad. There's no real need for it. You know, that's certainly the initial reaction that I had when I first saw the kind of newer generation of foldable devices because of course, the big innovation that has enabled these devices is foldable touchscreens. So the Samsung foldables, and the Huawei foldables, among other manufacturers, have been built around flexible, flexible screen panels, which is a relatively new invention. The Surface Duo, we should note, is built slightly differently. So that's built over two separate panels with a connecting hinge. But most of them are built around a flexible screen. And that seems initially, like it's just a solution looking for a problem. But that might not be the case.

Jane

So it's not just that they invented this foldable polymer, I think it is, or whatever it is they've got on them. And when let's find a way to market this, it does have a genuine use case in your opinion.

Adam

Yeah, I think there's a lot of applications that this can be put to. So the the form factor, it does bring with it a number of functionality benefits. But it's important to recognise the the need that's driven this. You know, as I alluded to earlier, there are some tasks, which smartphones as good as they are just aren't equipped to deal with, you know, if anyone's tried looking at a spreadsheet, for example, on a standard smartphone. Yeah, exactly. It's, it's far from comfortable.

Jane

Yeah, yeah. Looking at it as one thing, have you ever tried to edit or input to a spreadsheet?

Adam

Oh god, it's just not worth it. But that's exactly the kind of thing where, you know, if you could grab the corners of your phone and stretch it by about, you know, four or five inches, it would suddenly be a lot more comfortable to use. And this is exactly the kind of use case that foldables have been designed for.

Jane

It would also suddenly be a laptop.

Adam

Well, yeah, but that's kind of the point, right?

Jane

True, true. And I guess the idea is also that say if you are a business person who is on the road a lot or something like that, that you don't have to cart around a laptop, in addition to your smartphone, you can have this one device that is both a smartphone and a laptop, in one.

Adam

All things to all people. So who are these devices for then? You know, we've spoken about a lot of the applications already. But most of these devices have been targeted at business people, you know, working professionals, power users, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, for example, has been kind of pretty clearly pushed towards the niche that the old Note range previously occupied. You know it has support for Samsung's S Pen stylus. It's clearly being marketed as the the evolution of that particular, you know, power user niche.

Jane

Can I just say that I am very disappointed that the Z Fold 3 doesn't actually fold up like a Z. I feel like, I feel like everybody's being conned. But yeah, you know that there is a reason why it is targeted towards, like you say, business people, I'd say even more so than power users. Because if you're out just like in everyday situations, you just use your phone for browsing the internet, you know, looking at a few apps, whatever, you're not going to need this. And you're not going to fork the extra money that is involved in getting one. But if you are a salesperson who is out and about a lot, traditionally, then this may be very useful to you or somebody who just needs to be connected on the go on a regular basis, I can see it being really quite useful for for people who are in that kind of working situation who don't really want to have to cart loads of stuff around with them because they're on the move, but may have to.

Adam

Yeah, but they aren't without their problems. You mentioned a second ago, the additional expense. And yeah, they are not cheap at all. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, for example, retails from just under £1600, £1599. And that's the starting price.

Jane

That's so much money, I realised that I've just said that about five times. But that's a lot of money, a lot of money. A lot of money to drop on a phone.

Adam

Yeah, but that's actually more expensive than most laptops, even. The average mid range to high end laptop will run you between, let's say £800 and £1200, the average high end smartphone will cost about £600 to £800. So even if you completely replaced both your existing smartphone and your existing laptop with one of these devices, you're still only saving a couple of hundred pounds, really.

Jane

If that.

Adam

If that. And realistically, as good as foldables are, they're not going to replace laptops anytime soon, you know, they might be a decent stopgap if you're, you know, out and about, and you don't have access to a laptop, but they can't, they can't replace laptops, if for no other reason, then they just won't run a lot of the desktop apps that laptops are used for.

Jane

They're also too small.

Adam

They are also too small, realistically.

Jane

Would it then rather than you and I thinking about ourselves individually, or individuals flogging off their laptop and smartphone and getting one of these instead, for IT departments, is it something that would be worthwhile investing in for certain segments of the company like say, hate to keep, I always feel like that whenever people talk about, you know, those who are on the road all the time, it's always salespeople, which makes it sound like they're never home, but you know, kind of, yeah, reps who are on the road a lot, people who do have to travel a lot for work - is it worth them being given one of these devices for work and say, having a desktop or a lower end laptop, such as a Chromebook back at the office?

Adam

Realistically, I don't think this is going to be a company issue device for anyone but Samsung. I mean, like it has a lot of applications. And I can absolutely see a lot of executives, and a lot of individuals wanting to pick one up. But I just don't think there are enough applications for IT departments dropping, you know, what is a considerable amount of money on a standard issue employee device, even if it's just for the sales department, it's a lot of money. And you've got to look at the ROI for this. And I don't think the productivity benefits of this kind of form factor are there yet. If they're ever going to be there, frankly.

Jane

Yeah. And the expense is not the only problem with these devices. They can also, while I have said that they are not quite as space consuming as predecessors, this still pretty chunky devices.

Adam

I would actually argue in some ways they're more space consuming than the devices of the 90s. And admittedly, you get a lot more for that than you did with stuff like the Psion Series 5, but they're really, they are really thick. If you think about it, it's essentially the the width of your average smartphone doubled, because it's basically a standard smartphone folded in half, and...

Jane

Is this because we're used to thin smartphones now, though?

Adam

It's partly because we used to thin smartphones, but also screen technology and, you know, mobile technology in general, has only come so far. Phones, you know, components still take up a certain width. And while yes, we can get a we can get a smartphone down to a thickness of eight millimetres, seven millimetres very thin for a single, a single flat panel. Yeah, when you're putting two of those together, that's suddenly a lot less convenient to carry around.

Jane

Yeah.

Adam

And it's, it doesn't feel like it should make much of a difference. But it really does, particularly when you're trying to use the device, in its kind of folded over form factor as a traditional smartphone, which, you know, realistically, you're probably going to be doing most of the time, you know, you're going to be trying to use it one handed. Yeah, because that's how most apps and most you know, user interaction models work these days. And when you're doing that, it's a big, like, inch thick brick of a thing that you're trying to trying to navigate.

Jane

And there is also perhaps less so for the current generation, but concerns that they may break more often, obviously, if you've got a hinge like the Surface Duo, that's another mechanical part that that can just break. And I'm sure they've tested it and put it in all kinds of machines that fold an open fold, nope, and fold and open, whatever. But it is a point of failure. And absolutely critical is a point of failure. And I'm sure that anybody who saw the first series of the Galaxy Fold is familiar with reviewers accidentally removing the screen, because it looked like it was a screen protector.

Adam

Yes. And Samsung to its credit has put in a lot of you know, protective measures and has introduced a lot of design elements to protect the screens protect the hinge to make it more durable. But as you say, there are more points of failure with this form factor, the hinges are point of failure. If any kind of water or debris gets into the hinge, it can then get into the internal components a lot easier. And on a very basic level, you've now got screens on the front, and on the inside, which is just additional areas that can shatter if and when you accidentally drop it.

Jane

Oh, yeah, I mean, I hadn't even thought about that. My phone is always in a protective case. So I don't really think not often when I'm consistently dropping it, like onto concrete or in my bathroom, and it's just a lovely little projector and a glass screen protector so that if anything does crack, it's the screen protector, not the phone. And that would be those kinds of mitigations against clumsiness, or not caring, lack of due care and attention. And would, that just wouldn't be possible with it.

Adam

It's possible, but it's more difficult. You know, we've already mentioned the thickness and the bulk of these devices straight out of the box. If you had a big thick rubber bumper case around them, that's even more size and weight that you've got to contend with. And they're stretching the limits of profitability as it is. plus the fact that protective cases and whatnot are likely to be much more expensive, just for if for no other reason, then they've got to be designed with a lot more kind of flexibility to accommodate a form factor.

Jane

Yeah, how do you get something that is both flexible and durable and protective enough that if I drop it when it's closed, it will protect that hinge and not flop around when I've got it open and also will protect the when it's open for when inevitably gets dropped in that form factor as well. So, ultimately, is this something that you could see yourself using Do you think I think I might know the answer. I'm asking the question anyway.

Adam

I think you may be surprised by the answer, actually, I could see myself using one. But what I really want more than anything else, is, I don't want a foldable phone. I've written about this for the site before, I don't want a foldable phone, I want a foldable tablet. So what I want is a six, seven inch tablet that folds out into a larger kind of roughly a4 size tablet, That, to me, seems much more useful, much more durable, much more ironically, much more portable, and much more user friendly than the current crop of foldable phones that we've got.

Jane

Interesting. I wonder if such a thing, whatever, kind of make it to the table, or if there's not really very much point in, in engineering such a thing when we have laptops and we have these foldable smartphones? What about you? Okay, so you are not going to be surprised by my art? No. I Well, I'm a bit of a technological stick in the mud. Anyway, I think when you and I first started working together, I possibly still had my feature phone that I kind of relied on for a really long time.

Adam

I think you'd moved on to your Windows Phone by that point.

Jane

Windows Phone rip, I accidentally three my HTC crossing the right ones. Luckily, it had one of the bumpers on it because otherwise, it exfo No, I don't. I don't you kind of my clumsiness, or lack of lack of attention beside. And I just don't think it's something that would be useful for me, it's too expensive, it doesn't really offer enough to persuade me that I should fork out for it. The only foldable I've ever ever wanted was the Motorola razor. And even then I couldn't be persuaded to leave my, my feature phone. Like my little Nokia and get one of those. So I don't think I'm really the target audiences I'm waiting for when we live in the future, whichever future you want to look at. But every imagined future for for books and games and TV and stuff, you either have a like hologram phone, or one that's basically just a screen of glass, and or it's just completely flexible for rolling rollout. That's I'm waiting for, for the future. The dystopian future that is a fiction.

Adam

Someone's been rewatching The Expanse.

Jane

This is a possibility.

Adam

So foldable smartphones, then may not necessarily be our cup of tea. But do we think that they have a long term future in the smartphone market? Or are they just going to be a flash in the pan thing that we'll look back on in a couple of years, the same way that we look at Google Glass now?

Jane

When they first appeared, I thought it was a fad. I'm surprised that they've stuck around as long as they have. But I am not convinced that there is a sustainable market for them. I think that if you and I were to revisit this in, say, five years time being generous, I don't think that this is a vertical that would continue to exist. And what about you, do you think you will still be reviewing these phones will they will I be eating my words in five years time? It wouldn't be the first time.

Adam

I think that they are going to stick around. But I think that they're going to stick around in a very specialised capacity, they're definitely not going to replace traditional smartphones in any kind of capacity. What I think they are going to end up settling into is they're going to end up settling into a nice cosy niche in the same way that giant fabulous have done previously. So the big kind of 6.9, 7 inch devices for people that want a really big screen and you know, stylus support, and all of that kind of stuff, because there is still a market for those big devices that sit on that dividing line between phone and a larger kind of tablet style device will still do want those kinds of things. And being able to have that but also to you know, make it slightly more portable and slightly more. One hand friendly, as it were. I think is a Useful proposition, let's say, but in terms of mainstream appeal, I'm not convinced.

Jane

Well, unfortunately, that's all we have time for this week. You can find links to everything we've spoken about today and even more in the show notes and on our website itpro.co.uk.

Adam

You can also follow us on Twitter at @itpro as well as on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Jane

We'll be back next week with more analysis from the world of it but until then, goodbye.

Adam

Bye.

The average smartphone tends to look fairly unassuming, but recently, foldable phones have injected a bit of diversity into the market. These eye-catching new devices include foldable screens, and are aimed at businesspeople and power users.

But do foldable phones represent a genuine step forward for mobile technology, or are they simply a passing trend that will be swiftly forgotten? In this week’s episode, we dig into what makes foldable phones so unique, and look at whether or not they deserve a place in our pockets.

Highlights

“One of the big things for modern foldables is that for most of the time, they can just act as a normal, standard form factor smartphone with the standard 16:9 screen, and you can use all of your apps and whatnot in the way that you normally would. But when you need a little bit more real estate, if you're, for example, watching a video or taking notes, or whatever it is that you need a little bit more elbow room for, you can fold it out, and bang, you've got more space to work with straight off the bat, rather than having to hop between devices.”

“It does seem to me that these devices are bringing a bit more to the table than the previous PDAs; whereas they were tiny laptops, with these ones, it's not just, here's something that you can write an email on, and maybe make some calls. For example, I've seen with the Surface Duo, when it's in portrait orientation, that you could have a reference text on one side and a note taking app on the other screen. So that's quite useful, almost like the split screen function that you have on desktops and laptops, which I am a frequent user of.”

Read the full transcript here.

Footnotes

• Samsung aims for the mainstream with sub £1,000 foldable phones
• Is the world ready for foldable phones?
• Forget foldable phones - where's my foldable tablet?
• Will folding screens ever make it to the mass market?
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review: Flipping impressive
• No new Galaxy Note this year, Samsung exec confirms
• Microsoft Surface Duo review: Progress is a double-edged sword
• The Surface Neo is a tantalising glimpse of what might have been
• Cosmo Communicator review: For the few, not the many

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Tech giants Huawei and Verizon Communications have agreed to settle a pair of lawsuits alleging patent infringement, according to Reuters.

The trial in one of the two lawsuits had just opened last week in Texas.

Huawei sued Verizon in February 2020, alleging it used a dozen of its patents without authorization in sectors such as computer networking, download security and video communications. The lawsuit was seeking unspecified compensation and royalty payments.

At the time, Verizon countered by calling Huawei’s lawsuits “nothing more than a PR stunt” and “a sneak attack on our company and the entire tech ecosystem.” Verizon countersued Huawei, claiming the Chinese company was the one violating Verizon’s patents.

Huawei responded that it was “simply asking that Verizon respect Huawei’s investment in research and development by either paying for the use of our patents, or refraining from using them.”

However, all the back and forth appears to be over. Huawei and Verizon filed joint motions late Sunday to dismiss the various lawsuits and counterclaims.

In a company statement, Huawei said it was “pleased that Verizon and Huawei reached an agreement that ends the companies’ patent litigation. The terms of the agreement are confidential.”

Huawei has been a flashpoint in the U.S.-China relationship for several years. When it comes to US sanctions on Chinese firms, no company has been impacted more than Huawei. The telecoms giant has been labeled as a security threat based on perceived ties with the Chinese government.

In December, the FCC ordered certain telecom companies to remove Huawei equipment from their networks as part of the revocation of the company’s authorization to operate in the US.

To date, Huawei remains on the US economic blacklist with no signs of being taken off despite the new Biden administration taking over in January 2021 and rolling back some of the previous administration’s executive orders on Chinese tech companies.

With embattled Chinese telecoms giant Huawei starting a pivot from hardware to software and cloud services, its founder is calling on the company to "dare to lead the world" in software development and exclude the US from the rest of the world.

Huawei's smartphone business is struggling due to US sanctions the Trump administration installed and the Biden administration extended.

The US sanctions on Chinese firms have impacted no company more than Huawei. The US labelled the telecoms giant as a security threat based on perceived ties with the Chinese government. The concern is China will use Huawei's telecommunications business for surveillance, but the legislation has instead impacted Huawei's smartphone business more than anything else.

In a sign that Huawei wants to shift its business model away from hardware, the tech giant recently announced it's launching six new cloud products to take on the likes of Alibaba, Amazon, and Google. The newly announced cloud products, including containers, artificial intelligence (AI) programming assistants, databases, computing services, and infrastructure software, were revealed at the company's three-day developer conference in Shenzhen.

Now, in the latest sign of the company's massive shift to software, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei told company staffers in an internal memo that Huawei will focus more on software development because that industry's future is "outside of US control and we will have greater independence and autonomy," Reuters reported.

Because of Huawei's ongoing difficulties with the US, Ren urged the company to strengthen its position at home and build up its territory to the point where it could exclude the United States. "Once we dominate Europe, the Asia Pacific and Africa, if US standards don't match ours, and we can't enter the US, then the US can't enter our territory," Ren's memo said.

Because it'll be difficult for Huawei to design and produce advanced hardware in the short term, Ren's memo suggested the company focus on building software ecosystems, such as its HarmonyOS operating system and Mindspore cloud AI system.

Huawei recently announced a $200 million investment in its developer program, which aims to boost its software ecosystem and cloud services.

Huawei said it achieved a record profit in 2020 despite being blacklisted in the US and barred from the UK’s 5G infrastructure.

This success can be partly attributed to Huawei’s enterprise segment, which despite providing relatively small revenue in comparison to the tech giant’s two other business groups, managed to achieve a 23% year-on-year growth with full-year revenues of £11 billion.

By comparison, Huawei’s consumer business segment grew by only 3.3%, while its carrier segment experienced minuscule growth of 0.2%.

Nevertheless, the company didn’t manage to completely brush off the difficulties of the past 12 months. Huawei’s total year-on-year growth was half of what it had generated for the year prior, plunging from 5.6% for 2019 to 3.2% for 2020, at £7.19 billion.

The tech giant’s growth was largely driven by its home market, with a 15.4% rise in revenue in China. Elsewhere, the business declined considerably, with revenues down by 12.2% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Huawei suffered the most severe drop of 24.5% in the US, likely as a result of the trade restrictions imposed by former president Donald Trump.

Huawei's rotating chairman Ken Hu said that “over the past year”, the company had “held strong in the face of adversity”.

“We've kept innovating to create value for our customers, to help fight the pandemic, and to support both economic recovery and social progress around the world. We also took this opportunity to further enhance our operations, leading to a performance that was largely in line with forecast,” he added.

According to Huawei VP Victor Zhang, one of the key reasons for Huawei maintaining “growth and profitability is that many countries trust us as a partner to deliver next-generation connectivity for their citizens – connectivity that delivers crucial economic and social benefits”.

“After 20 years in the UK we remain committed to our vision of a fully connected and intelligent world for every home, person and organisation,” he added.

Huawei has announced it will charge royalties for the use of its 5G phone technology as it looks to open up new revenue streams.

Jason Ding, the company’s head of IP, said that Huawei hopes to raise around $1.3 billion in revenue from patent licensing between 2019 and 2021, as reported by Reuters. He added that for every phone that uses Huawei’s 5G technology, the company will receive up to $2.50 in royalties.

This move could affect companies like Apple or Samsung if they choose to use Huawei's patented 5G technology in their smartphone devices.

The company added that by the end of 2020, it had over 100,000 active patents in over 40,000 patent families worldwide.

Huawei, along with its rivals Samsung, Nokia, Ericsson and Qualcomm, is one of the leaders of 5G technology. Although the company has achieved positive growth for both 2020 revenue and profit, the company’s smartphone business remains under pressure because of the US trade ban.

At the start of the month, it emerged that the Biden administration was set to continue with the tough restrictions on Chinese tech firms implemented in the Trump-era. Huawei had been labelled as a security threat based on perceived ties with the Chinese government, with a concern that its telecommunications business will be used for surveillance.

In January, the Trump administration also decided to revoke certain licenses that allow US firms to sell to Huawei. In September, Huawei had to stop the production of its most advanced smartphone chips as a result of other US sanctions.

As a result of not being able to access US software and hardware supplies, the company was forced to develop its own mobile operating system and find alternative chip manufacturers. Since mid-2019, Huawei smartphones have also been devoid of Google apps like Gmail because of the Trump administration’s blanket ban of the networking giant.

Huawei is not only losing ground in Europe, as its share of the smartphone market in China is also shrinking.

That's according to Counterpoint Research, which revealed that rival Chinese brand Oppo overtook Huawei to become the number one provider in China for 2020's fourth quarter after claiming 21% of the smartphone market.

Huawei was just 1% behind, but it has seen a gradual fall from the top ever since it was hit by US sanctions that banned American firms, such as Google and Qualcomm, from selling their products to the Chinese firm.

Counterpoint's senior analyst Varun Mishra puts Oppo's success down to changing its pricing strategy, but he also points to Huawei's fall.

"The rebranding of the Reno series and launching a more capable device at a lower price point than its predecessor helped Oppo capture the affordable premium segment," Mishra said. "The strong momentum of the A series in the mid-segment strengthened the product portfolio for Oppo and it was able to cater to the 5G demand in China across a wide price band. This was further helped by the decline of Huawei."

It has been well documented that Huawei can not use the full version of Google's Android and its smartphones are being shipped in Europe without various popular apps. But another issue is the lack of access to semiconductors and other components needed for mobile 5G technologies which is resulting in a more gradual sales decline in the Chinese market.

This could be one of the reasons for the recent sale of the Honor brand, which automatically took some of Huawei's market share with it, and why the firm has been launching fewer models in recent months.

Counterpoint suggests that a depleting inventory of components has forced Huawei to focus more on the "premium" categories with more elite products, such as the Mate X2 and the P40 Pro. This has, it suggests, has created a gap in the middle tier of the Chinese smartphone market.

Over 65% of devices sold in China in Q4 were 5G-ready with the likes of Oppo, Xiaomi and Vivo taking share away from former market leader Huawei. Apple also made it into the top five list after growing its market share from 9% in December to 16%.

Huawei's decline is estimated to continue in 2021, with other mid-range models set to fill the gaps it is leaving.

You wouldn't begrudge Huawei if it celebrated Donald Trump's election defeat, given the damage his administration's sanctions have caused. The Chinese firm is now on its third smartphone without Google Play services and its sales in the west are starting to lag.

There is no guarantee that the new president-elect, Joe Biden, will lift the sanctions but Huawei remains undaunted. It's continuing to invest heavily in the development of its own app ecosystem and the Mate 40 Pro 5G is the latest device on which we can measure these efforts.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro 5G review: Design

One of the real tragedies of the trade ban is that it has coincided with the release of some of Huawei's best hardware. The firm has launched a spectacular body of work over the last three years, all consisting of very original and eye-catching designs, and the Mate 40 Pro is another work of art. The device features a shiny glass body and a futuristic central camera module - which Huawei calls a 'space ring', as it takes inspiration from the first photo of a black hole.

As with last year's Mate 30 and 2020's P40, the screen has Galaxy Edge-style curves along either side. These create a wrap-around look to the device, where the bezels practically disappear - they're still noticeable at the top and bottom, but not too much. It adds to the overall tidiness of the screen, which looks neater than the Mate 30 with its front cameras in a cutout in the top corner, rather than a central notch. There's also a red power button on the side - which is a nicely understated feature.

Our review model came in a colour which Huawei insists is black, though to our eyes, it's decidedly grey. The only other option available in the UK is 'Mystic Silver' which is a little more appealing as it reacts better to light. The phone is so well designed, however, it could probably pull off any colour. It also comes in 'Olive Green' and 'Sunflower Yellow', but these fancy shades are only available in China, where Huawei is appreciated that little bit more.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro 5G review: Display

The Pro's 6.9in OLED display comes with a 1,344 x 2,772 resolution and an 18.5:9 aspect ratio. This also includes a 90Hz refresh rate, which isn't quite as much as the Samsung S20's 120Hz, although it is still a very smooth display. This, combined with its 94% screen to body ratio, creates a deeply immersive experience. We'll go into more detail about the cameras later, but this screen's vivid colours and smooth refresh rate make the perfect accompaniment.

In our calibrator tests, the Mate 40 Pro scored 99.9% sRGB colour coverage and 140.9% colour volume. That's as good as you can get right now; almost identical to the P40 and on par with both Ultra versions of Samsung's S20 and Note 20. Its brightness topped out at 272.6 cd/m2, which is significantly less impressive, but this didn't really show in daily use. The screen handled most bright conditions with little issue - although it may struggle in blazing sunshine.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro 5G review: Specs and performance

Under the hood, Huawei has given the Mate 40 Pro a serious upgrade. We're not talking about a small power bump either. There's a Kirin 9,000 chip inside it, built with a 5nm process, matched with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. Huawei has suggested this processor is superior to the 5nm A14 Bionic chip in Apple's iPhone 12, but for reasons that will become clear, we can't definitively say whether or not this is accurate.

You'll understandably be tired of hearing it by now, but Huawei can't download apps from the Google Play store - which means we can't run the GeekBench 5 tests which we usually use to measure performance. Instead, we used the Antutu benchmark app, in which the Mate 40 Pro scored 848,854. For context, that's almost double what the P40 Pro managed. We may not be able to match this with the iPhone, or the S20, but it is safe to assume that it's a super-fast device. Phones generally have more power than they need in any case, and our day to day experience of the Pro suggests it can handle everything with ease.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro 5G review: Battery

Sadly, the same isn't quite true of the battery. In our looped video test, the Mate 40 Pro's 4,400mAh battery lasted 16 hrs 31 mins. That's almost an hour less than the 17 hrs 14 mins of the P40 Pro, which isn't an amazing score itself. The Samsung Galaxy s20 Ultra lasted over 22 hrs, just to compare it to a similarly priced rival. The processor and its power-hungry display could be the reason for its poor battery life. Turning off the 90Hz refresh rate did help, though that means dropping down to 60Hz. In day to day use, however, the battery life is acceptable. There's more than enough juice to keep it going from morning to night, assuming you're not straining it too hard, and there's a 66W fast charger in the box.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro 5G review: Software and features

As mentioned, Huawei has moved heaven and Earth to bulk up its App store. To its credit, there is quite an array of services available, but very few of these can replace your favourite Google ones. There's no WhatsApp, for instance, or any kind of decent replacement. The company's pre-installed search app 'Petal' can help you find the likes of Facebook and WhatsApp as APK files which you can then side-load onto the device, but it isn't as smooth an operation as you'll be used to, and it also puts you at increased risk of malware infection. Until it gets access to full Android or, more likely, builds a decent enough ecosystem of its own, this will always be a turnoff.

It's a shame because elsewhere, the Mate 40 Pro is brimming with innovation. The screen wakes in your presence; it senses your face from the side, lighting up and seamlessly moving into the facial recognition software. From reaching out to opening it, users hardly need to press anything. There are also lots of artificial intelligence applications running in the background, notably with the cameras. For example, the systems can read and translate foreign text in real-time.

The only area in which it seemed less intuitive is its default navigation setting, where users swipe up or hold to close or switch apps, similar to the system used by Google's more recent Pixel devices. This will be fine for some but as with the Pixel, we found it a little problematic and quickly switched back to the more common three-button navigation setting found on most Android devices.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro 5G review: Camera(s)

Not having Google, and other US components, is an unwanted headache, but it could have been (and potentially still can be) a lot worse. Imagine the German government handing out sanctions, for instance. That would stop Huawei collaborating with Leica. How well would its devices sell without those astounding cameras?

The Mate Pro is housing a 50MP f/1.9 wide-angle camera, a 12MP f/3.4 telephoto lens and 20MP f/1.8 ultrawide snapper. There's a mere 5 x optical zoom on the Pro, with the full capabilities saved for the P series. It is perhaps more useful to everyday life, however. The P40 has double that for optical zoom which is little more than a gimmick; does anyone really need a fuzzy close-up of the moon?

There's also a 13MP f/2.4 selfie cam with a time-of-flight (ToF) sensor that measures the depth between the camera and various points of the subject by timing the travel of infrared light. This is certainly impressive, but it's arguably more than you need for a selfie camera.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro 5G review: Verdict

This is the coolest device Huawei has ever produced and arguably one of the best around at the moment. Sadly, it's difficult to recommend; particularly with its £917 price tag, but mainly because it hasn't got the Google Play store.

It's also hard to review Huawei products without mentioning Google, because until it gets its app ecosystem up to a good enough standard, there will always be a feeling it's lacking. It doesn't matter how good the hardware is: if you have to live without your favourite apps and services, that makes it a tough Mate to love.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro 5G Spesifications

The UK's government has u-turned on so many things in 2020 that it's hard to know which decisions -if any - it will actually stick to. It almost resembles a Lazy Susan, slowly changing firm rebuffs into pitiful acceptances within a month or so. And, like lockdowns, furloughs and feeding poor children, Huawei seems to sense its own reprieve coming around.

Clearly emboldened by the electoral defeat of Donald Trump, the embattled Chinese firm wants the UK's government to reverse its decision to remove all of its equipment from the country's 5G networks by 2023.

"The decision was a political one motivated by US perceptions of Huawei and not those of the UK," Huawei's vice-president Victor Zhang told The Guardian. "This is not really motivated by security, but about a trade war between the US and China."

These so-called 'Trumped-up' accusations may have had some influence on our indecisive Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. The swell of Tory rebels who called for the Chinese firm to be ditched may also have impacted the decision. However, Huawei's call assumes that the UK's decision was based solely on those concerns.

The Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) found that the Chinese firm failed to comply with "its own secure coding guidelines" during an incident which likely led to a vulnerability "of national significance". That's from a centre owned by Huawei but which is directed by the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). It didn't find state-sponsored surveillance, it found "sustained evidence of poor coding practices" - essentially, incompetence.

It's not exactly evidence of Ren Zhengfei in cahoots with the People's Republic of China. They haven't been caught embedding backdoors into the UK's 5G networks. They've simply been found wanting from a security perspective. So, by all means, the government can revisit the decision, but this isn't about Donald Trump and his mad ideas: it's about reassurance that Huawei is up to the job.

There are also pretty strong arguments for not reversing the decision. While it might cost the government in the short term, removing the biggest provider does open up the space for smaller businesses and greater competition, and it also gives a chance to more local startups. Until the ban, Huawei was potentially on course to be for 5G what Google is to search.

The damage caused by having a giant provider squashing competition should be especially obvious to Huawei. The company's smartphone sales have gone south, partly thanks to the fact that it can't use Google Play services, and there aren't that many viable alternatives to the Android mobile operating system.

I've previously argued for the US trade sanctions to be lifted, because it ruined the otherwise-excellent P40 and Mate 40 smartphones without addressing the problem of national cyber security. However, I can't say the same for the UK's ban. Unlike Trump's trade sanctions, I don't think Boris' Huawei blockade should be reversed, because it might actually end up being one of the few decisions that he actually got right.

Huawei's revenue growth for the first three quarters of 2020 has drastically slowed compared to the same period last year.

The embattled Chinese giant saw revenues increase by 9.9% from January to September, a significant slowdown compared to the 24.4% growth record Huawei recorded the first nine months of 2019.

Huawei said its business results "basically met expectations", but there is a suggestion that US sanctions and pressure from governments to find alternatives have started to take a toll on the Chinese firm.

"As the world grapples with COVID-19, Huawei's global supply chain is being put under intense pressure and its production and operations face significant challenges," the firm said in a blog post. "The company continues to do its best to find solutions, survive and forge forward, and fulfill its obligations to customers and suppliers."

Huawei had previously warned that 2020 would be a tough financial year, particularly as it has had to pivot away from American suppliers and source alternative chips and software. It's hard to say where it has struggled as no detailed guidance has been released, but it's easy to speculate that the US blacklisting has had a significant impact.

In August, Gartner analysis suggested that Huawei had recorded the worst performance among the top five global smartphone vendors in the first quarter of 2020. Sales fell to 42.5 million, a decline of 27.3% year on year, which could be attributed to its first two releases without Google apps (Huawei Mate 30 and Huawei P40).

However, even with its first-ever decline in smartphone sales, the Chinese firm held on to second place with 14.2% of market share.

"Huawei will have a challenging year," said Anshul Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner. "It has developed the Huawei Mobile Service (HMS) ecosystem, but with the lack of popular Google apps and Google Play store, Huawei is unlikely to attract new smartphone buyers in international markets."

There was a brief period during the second quarter when Huawei had sold more units than Samsung. This was largely down to its presence in China where the markets had opened up again after lockdown. Samsung managed to recover by the end of the quarter to reclaim the top spot.

The impact of the coronavirus can obviously not be ignored, but as Gartner also pointed out, the smartphone market as a whole was shrinking beforehand. Apple noticeably had troubles after releasing 2018's iPhone Xs, which was viewed by many as too expensive.

Huawei's latest release, the Huawei Mate 40, is priced at £1,099.99, which might be a little too much in these difficult times.

On the face of it, the MatePad Pro faces the same problems as the Huawei P40 Pro Plus. Thanks to the US trade sanctions, it doesn’t have access to Google’s apps, Play store or services – and many popular apps rely upon the latter.

However, the types of apps people use on tablets are different to those on phones. There’s less reliance on location services, powered by Google, and we found the lack of direct access to the Google Play store wasn’t an issue. If we needed to grab an app not available on Huawei’s AppGallery store, we could legitimately copy it over from our phone; that worked fine for Netflix and Spotify. Microsoft Office is even available direct from AppGallery. While the iPad family still has a far greater range of tablet-friendly apps, if you just want something to watch films, browse the internet and do light work on, the MatePad Pro meets those needs admirably.

For instance, we typed this review in Microsoft Word on the tablet using a Bluetooth keyboard and navigating Android with a mouse. It’s surely no coincidence that Huawei is actively pushing people to buy a bundled version of the MatePad Pro, which adds the M-Pen stylus (sold separately for £100) and MatePad Keyboard (£130) with the tablet for £610. Sadly, Huawei couldn’t send a stylus or keyboard in for review.

The feeling of a desktop in disguise is enhanced by the operating system’s Desktop mode, which you can activate from the settings bar. Similarly to Samsung’s DeX mode, click it and you switch to a windowed environment, complete with a Start menu and the ability to work with two windows side by side.

This does highlight the screen’s relatively small size, however. As we mentioned in our iPad Pro review, you need a big screen to take true advantage of a modern tablet’s power, and while the MatePad Pro’s 10.8in display is 0.6in larger than Apple’s vanilla iPad, it still feels cramped once you start doing ‘real’ work on it.

The screen itself is superb. We measured its peak brightness at 454cd/m2, which is lower than the 540cd/m2 Huawei claims but enough to cope with direct sunshine. You can choose between Vivid and Normal modes, with Vivid close to the DCI-P3 colour space – it covered 96.3% in our tests – while Normal echoes the sRGB gamut (94.9%). The panel’s accuracy was excellent in both, with an average Delta E of 1.1.

This is a powerful device too. It uses Huawei’s Kirin 990 processor, which keeps pace with the top-of-the-range Snapdragon. A score of 2,915 in Geekbench 5’s multicore benchmark nudges ahead of the Galaxy Tab S6 and is twice that of the iPad, and it’s a similar story for 3D acceleration. The only faster tablet is the iPad Pro, and that has a price to match. Battery life is also better than the iPad’s, lasting 12hrs 21mins in our rundown test.

There are other minor advantages it holds over its Apple rival. Its camera setup is superior, with both the 13-megapixel rear camera and 8-megapixel front camera producing sharper results than the iPad. Its speakers are also surprisingly powerful, while the array of microphones is extremely effective at picking up voices. In this videoconferencing age, it’s a fine tool.

The MatePad Pro is only available in Midnight Grey in the UK. While that is indisputably boring, you don’t notice it in use because the screen occupies so much of the front; that’s in stark contrast to the bezel-laden basic iPad. What you do notice is the solidity of the chassis and its matte finish, which means minimal smudges.

Then come two surprises. First, Huawei makes no waterproofing claims. Second, it only states that the rear is made of glass fibre, which means no Gorilla Glass protection. You should factor in accidental damage insurance for maximum peace of mind.

It doesn’t help that the MatePad Pro - which includes 128GB of storage – costs £51 more than the equivalent iPad. It only pulls ahead for value if you take the bundle deal into account, as the iPad’s Smart Keyboard costs £159 and the Apple Pencil £89. Huawei would no doubt prefer us to compare the MatePad Pro to the iPad Pro, but the two are in a different league when it comes to flexibility.

The quality of its iPad opposition means the MatePad Pro misses out on an award, but this is still an excellent tablet – and one that surprisingly isn’t hobbled by the lack of Google apps.

Huawei MatePad Pro specifications

If this laptop was a boxer, it would be short, lean and wiry. It packs a lot of power, but that’s only obvious when you pitch it into battle. The muscle comes courtesy of Intel’s tenth-generation Core i7-10510U processor, and it’s got all the right components in its corner thanks to discrete Nvidia graphics, a fast M.2 SSD and a tasty 16GB of RAM.

Considering the MateBook’s slight frame, that’s quite a lineup. While most 13in laptops are more than 300mm wide, it measures 286mm. It’s also a slim 14.9mm.

Huawei still finds room for one of the best cooling systems we’ve seen in an ultraportable, helping to make this one of the fastest laptops we’ve tested with a Core i7-10510U. Just compare it to Huawei’s own MateBook X Pro - a much more expensive and supposedly more capable laptop - which the MateBook 13’s overall benchmark score of 104 handily surpassed by 25%. The MateBook 13 also kept hurtling along at a turbo clock speed of between 4GHz and 4.8GHz for several minutes for added power.

The downside is fan noise, but this appears during particularly tough tasks rather than general use. Battery life is capable, if not outstanding; a score of 8hrs 15mins in our tests is enough to get you through a workday, but not much beyond that without a quick recharge.

Huawei makes good use of the GeForce MX250 graphics though, which sit a notch above Intel and AMD’s integrated offerings. For example, Metro: Last Light returned a 44.9fps average at 1080p and Dirt: Showdown 89.6fps. This extra horsepower means you can enjoy many games at the screen’s resolution of 2,160 x 1,440.

As mental arithmeticians will have spotted, that translates into a Surface Pro-style 3:2 aspect ratio, rather than the 16:9 of most screens. The extra pixels also means more density than a Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) panel, which in turn makes it easier to view two windows side by side on the screen. It’s touchscreen too, and there’s even enough colour accuracy for web designers, with 90.4% coverage of the sRGB gamut with an average Delta E of 0.94; not print designers, though, as its Adobe RGB coverage is 62.9%.

Despite a relatively flat 990:1 contrast ratio, don’t be put off if you’re looking for an after-hours entertainment system. It coped well with dark, brooding scenes, and a decent pair of speakers mean you don’t need to plug in headphones. Drums lose something in translation, and you wouldn’t want to listen to heavy rock on it, but the same could be said for most laptop speakers.

Aside from a combo 3.5mm jack, the only two physical connectors here are USB-C, with one on either side. Huawei bundles an adapter with HDMI, USB and VGA connectors, but this doesn’t make up for the annoyance that the left USB-C port only supports charging and data transfer, while the right port is for data transfer alone. If you want to connect a monitor, you’ll need to fish out that adapter.

We’re also disappointed to see 802.11ac wireless rather than Wi-Fi 6, with the only good news being for owners of recent Huawei and Honor phones: thanks to Huawei Share, you can tap your phone against the sticker below the keyboard and then quickly share files between phone and laptop.

The unfortunate side effect of this is the Huawei Share sticker itself, which spoils this laptop’s minimalist lines. You can remove it, but Share will no longer work. A huge trackpad sits to the left, and it’s matched by a backlit keyboard with large keys. It isn’t our favourite to type on, with little feedback, but it’s quiet at least.

Huawei builds a fingerprint reader into the power button, but note that the webcam squeezed into the top bezel doesn’t support Windows Hello. It takes terrible photos, but its video is passable for Zoom.

Should you buy the MateBook 13? It certainly excels for speed, and Huawei Share sticker aside, it looks great. That said, if you’re paying this much you should demand a better keyboard and USB-C ports that actually work like everyone else’s. It’s a nice laptop, but it lacks the killer punch.

Huawei MateBook 13 (2020) specifications

On Monday, the Trump administration announced it’s tightening restrictions on Huawei Technologies to limit the company's access to commercially available chips.

The US Commerce Department’s actions will expand restrictions aimed at preventing Huawei from obtaining semiconductors without a special license, including foreign-made chips manufactured using US software or technology. The Trump administration first announced restrictions targeting Huawei in May.

Sources say the Trump administration will also add 38 Huawei affiliates in 21 countries to the growing list of companies on the government’s economic restrictions. Huawei was added to the list in May 2019.

In an interview with Fox Business, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross explained the restrictions imposed on Huawei-designed chips in May resulted in the company going through third parties.

“The new rule makes it clear that any use of American software or American fabrication equipment is banned and requires a license,” Ross added.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo further explained that the rule change “will prevent Huawei from circumventing U.S. law through alternative chip production and provision of off-the-shelf chips.”

The tightened restrictions are effective immediately and, according to the Commerce Department, should stop Huawei from evading US export controls. A Commerce Department official added in a statement to Reuters, it “makes clear that we’re covering off-the-shelf designs that Huawei may be seeking to purchase from a third-party design house.”

A separate new rule will require companies on the administration’s economic restrictions list to secure a license when a company on the list acts as a purchaser, intermediate consignee, ultimate consignee or as an end-user.

The department also confirmed it won’t extend the temporary general license allowing US software providers to continue sending updates and patches to customers using Huawei devices. The temporary license expired Friday. Instead, parties must now submit license applications for previously authorized transactions.

The Commerce Department says it’s adopting a limited permanent authorization for Huawei entities to allow “ongoing security research critical to maintaining the integrity and reliability of existing” networks and equipment too.

Though the May restrictions don’t go into full effect until September 14, the existing restrictions have already had an impact on Huawei and its suppliers. As a result of pressure being put on US suppliers, Huawei will cease production of its flagship Kirin chipsets next month.

Huawei has confirmed that production of its most advanced smartphone chips will stop in September as a result of US sanctions.

The company, which recently overtook Samsung to become the world's largest smartphone maker, said on Friday that production of its high-end Kirin 9000 chipset would be halted from 15 September.

From this date, the AP reports, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which has been making Kirin 9000 chips using US equipment, will no longer be allowed to manufacture chips on behalf of Huawei's HiSilicon subsidiary.

“Unfortunately, in the second round of US sanctions, our chip producers only accepted orders until May 15. Production will close on September 15,” Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business unit, said on Friday. “This year may be the last generation of Huawei Kirin high-end chips.”

It's likely Huawei’s upcoming Mate 40 flagship, scheduled for release in September, could be the last phone with a Kirin chip. It could also be in short supply, as Yu added that this year’s smartphone sales probably will be lower than 2019′s level of 240 million handsets.

“Huawei’s mobile phones have no chip supply, which makes our shipment volume this year a little less than 240 million units,” Yu added. “This is a huge loss for us.”

As a result of the US action, which prevents Huawei from purchasing goods and services from US-based companies, the company is reportedly calling on China to step up its chip design and manufacturing capabilities.

However, Qualcomm is also looking to step in and help. The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that the American chipmaker had asked the Trump administration to ease the restrictions on the sale of components to Huawei, and allow it to sell chips to the company for use in its 5G phones.

Huawei isn't just facing difficulties in the US. Last month, the UK government announced that it will remove Huawei equipment from the country's 5G network by 2027 on the grounds of national security.

The decision, spurred by the US sanctions imposed on the Chinese company earlier this year, will delay the UK's 5G rollout by up to two years at a cost of up to £2 billion.

There probably isn’t a more controversial smartphone right now than the Huawei P40 Pro Plus. With all the drama that’s transpired in the States regarding the banning of Google services on Huawei devices, the company has had to make some major changes to how it sells its handsets in the West. As a result, the P40 Pro Plus is seriously lacking in terms of access to apps when compared to most of its rivals, as there’s no Google Play Store.

However, what it lacks in one area, it sure as hell makes up in another. In this instance, it’s the camera. In true Huawei style, the company’s latest flagship flaunts a stellar seven-camera setup that has to be one of the best we’ve ever used on a smartphone. But what else is on offer for its mammoth £1,299 price tag, and is it all worth missing out on Google Drive and the like?

Huawei P40 Pro Plus review: Design

If you’ve paid any attention to Huawei’s smartphone lineup over the past few years, you’ll know that the brand is renowned for its ability to cram lots of impressive hardware into a sleek and relatively slender form factor. Well, the Chinese phone maker has done it again with the P40 Pro Plus, only this time around, those familiar with its previous handsets such as the P30 Pro will notice that the company’s latest release is one of the chunkiest we’ve seen for a while.

Measuring 9mm thick, the P40 Pro Plus is only 0.6mm thicker than the P30 Pro, but it’s very obvious in the hand. It’s also noticeably heavier, weighing 226g, which is 34g more than its predecessor but not irritatingly so. Overall, it’s a very impressive design, with the highlight being a never-before-seen construction on the rear consisting of a “nano-tech” polished ceramic material that comes in either white or black and is said to offer a finish almost as tough as sapphire glass. This is broken up with a camera plate featuring an array (five, to be precise) of different sized cameras and a flash, which are arranged neatly enough to retain a high level of elegance.

It’s also worth noting that the P40 Pro Plus has an IP68 rating, which means that “based on certain defined test conditions” the device is protected against harmful ingress of static water at up to 1.5 meters, for up to 30 minutes.

Huawei P40 Pro Plus review: Display

When it comes to display, the Huawei P40 Pro Plus switches out an AMOLED screen (as seen in its predecessors) for a 6.58in OLED panel, which gives much deeper blacks for a richer-looking colour pallet. With a resolution of 1,200 x 2,640 pixels (441ppi) in a 19.8:9 aspect ratio, the overall display is nothing short of stunning. It’s also the curviest we’ve seen on an Huawei phone yet, wrapping halfway around all sides of the handset’s chassis.

In terms of color accuracy, the P40 Pro Plus has two display options - ‘Vivid’ and ‘Normal’. As default, the screen mode is set to Vivid, which in our tests gave a great excellent colour accuracy average of Delta E of 3.3. However, you will find that the Normal (sRGB) display colour mode will actually give you more accurate colour results, if that’s what you’re looking for. It scored a pretty much perfect calibration with a fantastic 100% sRGB coverage of the colour gamut and an average Delta E of 1.3. Nevertheless, each of the color saturation settings can be fine tuned if the default one is not quite what you want.

As for the display refresh rate, the P40 Pro Plus display supports 90Hz. While not the fastest in class, it does allow for an exceptionally smooth picture. The OLED panel also means that brightness is decent, with the screen achieving a level of to 760cd/m2 when set to Auto mode. This is an ideal boost for those summer days, performing very well in really bright conditions.

As with the last few Huawei models, the P40 Pro Plus doesn’t have a home button. Instead, it makes use of biometric security housed within the screen, like the P30 Pro and P20 Pro that came before it. This has got much better over the years and it does work well most of the time on the P40 Pro Plus, but will still fail to recognise fingerprints now and again. You’re definitely better off relying on the face unlock feature to gain access to your homescreen.

Huawei P40 Pro Plus review: Performance and battery

As with the last few flagship handsets from Huawei, the P40 Pro Plus houses the firm's own brand of processor. This time, it’s the most recent Kirin 990 5G chipset, a 2.86GHz octa-core processor built using a 7nm+ fabrication process with EUV technology, which basically means it squeezes over 10 billion transistors into one chip to make it more power efficient. In theory, the smaller fabrication should equate to more power and thus a better battery life in the same chip size, but we’ll talk more about that in a bit.

Joining the Kirin CPU is 8GB of RAM, which equates to the same as seen in the P30 Pro from a year ago, so we’re expecting to see a little more in Huawei’s latest release. February’s Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, for instance, touts 16GB RAM.

Unfortunately, due to the limited availability of apps available in the Huawei app store at present, we were unable to download the Geekbench app to run our usual performance benchmark. However, we were able to manage an Antutu benchmark, with the handset scoring 493,436, which is quite the result, especially compared to the P30 Pro we have, which scored 373,295.

In terms of real life performance, the P40 Pro Plus is exceptionally nippy. In fact, it feels like one the fastest smartphones we've ever used, responding to every command we throw at it in a flash, even with multiple apps open.

So, how does the battery cope with all this power? Well, as you can expect with a 4,200mAh battery like this, very well indeed. In practice, it easily powers through a full day of intensive use before dying. You’d probably get a day a half out of it if you were careful. On the other hand, our in-house video rundown test shows that the Huawei's P40 Pro Plus’ stamina isn’t quite as impressive as its predecessor, the P30 Pro, reaching a total of 17hrs 14mins before its 4,200mAh capacity battery died. That’s quite a substantial difference of 4hrs 8mins when compared to the P30 Pro’s score of 21hrs 22mins - although the latter does have a slightly bigger 4,300mAh battery capacity and a lower screen resolution.

The P40 Pro Plus also supports 40W fast charging via a USB Type-C port. 40W wireless charging is supported, too. For connectivity, it should come as no surprise that there is no 3.5mm headphone jack or MicroSD expansion, but it does only come in a 512GB storage option so even the lower option should be plenty to store all the basics, lots of songs, media files, games and more.

Huawei P40 Pro Plus review: Software

As we mentioned earlier, one of the major downfalls that you cannot escape when buying the P40 Pro Plus is that there is no longer support for those much-loved Android apps. While it does still run the latest version of Google’s operating system, Android 10, it’s Google’s services that have been given the chop, including applications such as Gmail and Google Maps.

It’s incredibly frustrating going from using a normal Android device to this more limited experience. The lack of familiar apps makes it a lot less useful to the average Joe in the West than a device from a rival like Oppo or Samsung, for example.

Nonetheless, Huawei does have its own AppGallery which comes preinstalled on this device. While most of the apps you’re likely to use on a daily basis are still missing, there is a new additional ‘app search’ dedicated app preinstalled, too, called Petal Search. This will search the web for compatible app .apk packages from big players such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc and help you install them on your device. It does feel a little dodgy but in most instances it works well. Still, there are going to be apps you want that it just cannot find or won’t work properly once installed. It’s a bit hit and miss, generally, which can feel disappointing, especially considering how much this phone costs. One positive, though, is that Huawei’s EMUI 10 UX is a delight to use. It’s smooth and responsive, making multi-tasking a breeze.

Huawei P40 Pro Plus review: Camera(s)

Although the P40 Pro has a brilliant design, snappy processor and decent battery life, the real standout feature is the seven Leica camera setup. There’s five on the rear consisting of a 50MP Ultra Vision main camera, a 40MP ultra-wide snapper with wide-angle f/1.9 lens and image stabilisation, a 3D depth-sensing camera and - unlike most camera phones - dual telephoto cameras, both packing an 8MP resolution.

The first telephoto camera features a 3x zoom and an f/2.4 lens, while the second is the real star of the show as it features a 240mm periscope and 10x optical zoom, combined with an f/4.4 aperture. Ironically, for a company regularly accused of espionage, this camera is capable of capturing incredible detail from huge distances. So much so that it can actually leave you quite gob-smacked how crisp these can appear when taken from so far away.

On the front, there’s a dual 32MP camera setup with IR 3D sensor for depth estimation and autofocus as well as 4K video recording. This, alone, would have been considered a brilliant rear camera set up just a few years ago. And the resulting images are just as impressive, with exposure, colour, noise, and bokeh effects leaving little to be desired.

Huawei P40 Pro Plus review: Verdict

From a hardware point of view, the Huawei P40 Pro Plus is probably one of the best smartphones available today. But the sad thing is, that’s not the end of the story. If you’re well and truly baked into Google’s Android services, it might not be possible to give them up - even for a phone with such an amazing specs sheet. Yes, the camera is nothing short of spectacular. So much so that, after just a few minutes paying around with it, you’re likely to be put in two minds as to whether you really do need Google’s apps that much. That’s going to be your main quandary here if you’re in the market for a new smartphone.

But what you need to ask yourself is: are the Google apps that you’re already very dependent on worth giving up for the best smartphone camera you can get your hands on right now? We’ll leave that to you, but with an RRP of £1,299, it’s a risky decision to make.

Huawei P40 Pro Plus specifications

There’s no denying that the past few years have been tough for Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. Despite enjoying record smartphone sales in western markets, its future isn’t so clear as governments continue to impose restrictions on the firm due to national security fears.

Following pressure from Washington and a reassessment of the company’s networking technology by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the UK government has banned Huawei from any involvement in the country’s 5G network. With Huawei out of the picture, a gap emerges for competing firms from across the globe to be involved in the development of Britain’s next-generation mobile network infrastructure. But could it be filled by a homegrown, UK company?

No easy task

The biggest challenge for a homegrown 5G company would be the sheer volume of Huawei’s existing portfolio. It has been ahead in the development and research of 5G technologies for several years, with reports claiming that the firm owns the majority of patents in this area.

“It is not easy to create a tech giant. The barriers and pre-requisites are immense. In order to compete in the 5G race, then the UK has probably missed the boat,” says Paolo Pescatore, a technology, telecoms and media analyst at PP Foresight.

For UK-based companies looking to dominate the field of mobile networks, their best bet is to look to future developments in the industry. Pesctore says: “Looking further afield, then there is no reason why the UK cannot look to home grown technology. There needs to be a significant push from key stakeholders, including the government, to ensure the right ingredients are in place including attracting the key creative and technical expertise.

“This is something the EU is keen to foster with plans to invest in 6G. Europe is keen to regain its technological leadership. Each generation is happening far more quickly so it makes perfect sense. A cultural shift is required with a clear focus on supporting R&D.”

Although researching and developing a new technology like 6G won’t be cheap, it is clearly a lucrative opportunity. Pesctore says that costs aside, the potential benefits could be huge in fuelling sustainable growth for the region in the future.

“In essence, this move also suggests the desire to create the next group of FAANGs (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) to come from Europe. For sure this will have an impact on the UK as a result of Brexit,” he says.

“Let’s not forget both Ericsson and Nokia are global leaders and are European-based companies. Ultimately, partnerships with smaller and more agile niche solution providers would make logical sense. The majority of these companies bring to market novel solutions that will allow UK plc to future-proof networks.”

Taking on Goliath

Despite the fact that many will be pleased by the UK government’s decision to halt the involvement of Huawei in British 5G networks, some have questioned whether this is the right decision.

Robert Pocknell, IP partner at Keystone Law, says: “While the UK is said to have considered the intellectual property rights, it’s not clear how much consideration has been given to the bigger picture of the other intellectual property that Huawei owns (including its portfolio of 5G patents), and what steps Huawei could take if they are excluded from the UK market.

“Huawei is ranked first worldwide for the number of ‘standards essential patents’ (SEPs), which are the patents that must necessarily be infringed when making a product which complies with a communications standard like 5G.”

Given that Huawei owns a large bulk of 5G patents, it would be difficult for a homegrown company to develop its own innovations and could end up being sued by the Chinese tech giant.

Pocknell says: “If Huawei adopts the same licensing practices as Nokia and others, who are part of a patent consortium that is refusing to license SEPs to businesses selling communication products, then Huawei could seek injunctions to stop companies using 5G networks unless they pay excessive royalties, and that will drive up pricing for other vendors, and ultimately for network operators and consumers.”

Like Pectore, he believes it would be difficult for UK technology firms to compete with Huawei. He adds: “Whilst the Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden wants to make the UK’s mobile networks less dependent on companies like Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia, unless the government take steps to prevent companies engaging in unfair, unreasonable and discriminatory SEP licensing practices, it will be hard or nearly impossible for smaller, UK-based technology companies to compete in the market.”

Seizing the opportunity

While it seems impossible for the UK to develop its own 5G giant at this stage, that doesn’t mean it can’t succeed in the field of mobile connectivity as a whole. Björn Odenhammar, chief technology officer of networks and managed services at Swedish mobile communications firm Ericsson, says: “If the UK is to seize the economic opportunity of 5G, it needs to act soon.

“The question therefore shouldn't be about creating a UK-based 5G provider, but about how the country enables swift deployment by establishing clarity in legislation and simplification to speed up the roll-out of 5G networks.”

To make 5G a success in the UK, Odenhammar takes the view that collaboration between tech companies and the government is essential. He explains: “At this moment in time, industry and government should be coming together to tackle the existing barriers to 5G including access to sites and spectrum allocations, and developing an action plan for the widespread roll-out of 5G. With a world class 5G network, the UK can create a platform for business innovation that could help it discover the next Uber or Spotify.”

The rise of 5G networks not only promises to transform the way people use the internet, but is a significant economic opportunity that is worth billions. With the government having given mobile network operators a deadline of 2027 to replace any Huawei equipment in their 5G network, an alternative must be found that doesn’t compromise on technical ability nor safety – and soon. Whether that’s a European firm like Ericsson or Nokia, or East Asian companies like Samsung and NEC, for homegrown companies the greatest opportunity likely lies in the next wave of mobile communications technology: 6G.

Being dropped by the UK government and the outbreak of a deadly pandemic hasn't stopped Huawei from releasing new hardware. The launch for its refreshed MateBook X Pro was hampered due to the coronavirus shutting down MWC, but the Chinese firm still managed to unveil it with the now de rigueur virtual event.

The general consensus is that as we move into this new normal, remote working will become more pronounced, for the time being at least. So investing in the best quality gear is more important than ever - and the Huawei MateBook X Pro could be a good candidate for your money.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) review: Design

Despite being relatively green in the laptop market, Huawei has built a stylish brand in the MateBook X Pro. The 2018 version was both elegant and eye-catching and that's probably why its design hasn't changed in two iterations. 2020's model is sleek and svelte at just 14.6mm in thickness and 1.3kg weight. It has edges that are all subtly rounded and decorated with slim, mirrored trimming, as is its logo, which catches the light perfectly. This is not just another laptop, it's a fashion accessory to boot.

Apple's MacBook will always spring to mind when thinking about Huawei's premium laptop, partly because it's on that level for design quality, but also because they gave it a very similar name. This may be a poor decision in the long run as you'll always remember MacBooks and their iconic designs, but probably not Huawei's flagship device. Which is a shame, because the MateBook X Pro is a genuinely stunning machine.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) review: Display

The X Pro's display is a good place to start when weighing up its qualities as its 14in LTPS screen is both bright and bold. It has a resolution of 3,000 x 2,000 and, like Microsoft's Surface range, a 3:2 aspect ratio. This does leave fairly prominent black bars above and below the screen when streaming, but that's just a minor gripe, really.

In our tests, the X Pro scored 96.2% for sRGB colour gamut coverage, with its colour accuracy also excellent. For its price, very few machines can beat this. HP's Elite Dragonfly is just a tiny bit cheaper and also just slightly better, according to its gamut score. The X Pro's display holds up well in bright sunlight too, with its peak brightness 533cd/m2. Its colour rating and brightness scores are only small increases, with last year's model hitting 95.9% and 531cd/m2 respectively, but the newer device has been launched for almost £1,000 less than the 2019 version.

Both test scores also fared well compared to Apple's 16in MacBook Pro, but if you need further convincing that this is your machine, it's also a touch screen display - and a good one at that. Whether you use it will come down to whether you want to get finger smudges over that glorious display.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) review: Keyboard and trackpad

When you pull the lid up on the MateBook X Pro, you'll see an almost perfect back-lit keyboard with well-laid out keys that are fairly large and finished in black. Typing is a joy with plenty of travel and a delicate clack sound with each keystroke.

There is a central trackpad, placed below the space bar. It's not too big, but it offers remarkable reach across the screen. It's worth remembering, as we noted above, this is a touchscreen as well, but the trackpad is so good that you'll rarely need to use it.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) review: Hardware and performance

Inside the X Pro is where the big changes are. The 2019 model's eighth-gen chip has been upgraded for a tenth-gen Intel Core i7-10510U processor. Huawei has kept the same NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics card that's in 2019's X Pro, but it is backed up with 16GB of LPDDR3 RAM and 512GB or 1TB of SSD storage. In theory, this should equate to faster performance and longer battery life, but only one of those has proved correct.

In our CPU tests, the X Pro notched up a score of 78, which is a bump up on the 2019 model. It doesn't necessarily beat any rival machines - the score is exactly the same as the HP Dragonfly - but that is a good machine to be compared with. It also fared well in Geekbench 5, hitting 1,075 for single-core and 2,826 multi-core tasks.

From our own experience, the machine is seamless and smooth with absolutely no lag or sluggishness with whatever tasks we put before it. The only area in which it came out poorly was its battery, which lasted just 7hrs and 55mins. That's not great, especially as most of its competitors reach closer to ten hours, but it does seem to handle an eight-hour shift with no problems. However, over time that might become more of an issue.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) review: Ports and Features

There is a decent selection of ports on the X Pro, including some quite surprising additions considering its size, however all of them featured on 2019's model. On the left is a pair of USB-C ports for data sharing and charging, one of which is Thunderbolt-3 enabled. On the right, somehow squeezed into this slim frame, is a good old fashioned USB-A 3.0 socket. This retro option goes along with a 3.5mm headphone jack.

As for features, the cute, button popup camera is back, but the novelty has worn off as we're all deep into home working and video conferencing. It's far too low on the device and with most folks already using at least three good-sized books to raise laptops to eye level for webcams that are at the top of the screen, the X Pro shows everyone your nostril hairs. Worse, it's just one megapixel, so you'll look fuzzy at best.

The home button with fingerprint sensor also makes a welcome return as does the NFC tag that supports Huawei Share. While this is a very useful feature, enabling users to seamlessly share content from phone to laptop and vice versa, it's still just a Huawei-exclusive feature, meaning you need a Huawei smartphone to go with the laptop. That's a big ask now that it doesn't have full access to Google's app ecosystem.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) review: Verdict

With little changing year-on-year, it's difficult to recommend the 2020 X Pro to anyone that has 2018 and or 2019's models - particularly as its battery isn't better. However, it is a faster machine and does have that beautiful display.

Sp for those looking for a new laptop, or interested in changing brands, we can fully endorse the MateBook X Pro 2020. You'll look amazing with it under an arm, or in a coffee shop (hopefully from a distance of at least two metres). It runs like a dream, it doesn't feel like much when carried in a bag and it's fairly affordable (by premium laptop standards, at least) at £1,699.99 inc VAT. This is a business machine, but it's also a fashion statement.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) specifications

The UK government has confirmed that it will remove Huawei equipment from the country's 5G network by 2027 on the grounds of national security.

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden told the House of Commons on Tuesday that the UK will impose a ban on the purchase of all new 5G infrastructure from Huawei by the end of the year, with all existing equipment to be removed by 2027.

This is in-line with a warning from BT and Vodafone, which both said that they will need at least five years to remove equipment manufactured by Huawei from the UK’s networks.

Dowden said that by the next election, the UK will have implemented an "irreversible path" for the complete removal of Huawei equipment from 5G networks.

The decision, spurred by the US sanctions imposed on Huawei this year, will delay the UK's 5G rollout by up to two years, Dowden warned, at a cost of up to £2 billion.

The UK’s full-fibre broadband operators will also be given two years to “transition” away from the purchase of Huawei equipment. However, the government has no plans to remove the company from 2G, 3G, 4G, or its broadband network.

"This has not been an easy decision, but it is the right one for the UK telecoms networks, for our national security and our economy, both now and indeed in the long run," Dowden said.

The NCSC began to re-examine Huawei’s role in the UK’s 5G networks in May this year and concluded that US sanctions will have a “severe” effect on Huawei’s supply chain, meaning the Chinese company may have to use "untrusted" technology.

This comes after the NCSC advised in January that the government should allow telecoms companies to use Huawei on the peripheries of their networks. Under these initial recommendations, Huawei was restricted to supplying 35% of the hardware that connects devices and equipment to mobile phone masts.

In a statement given to IT Pro, Ed Brewster, a spokesperson for Huawei UK, said today's "disappointing" decision is "bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone.

"It threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide. Instead of ‘levelling up’ the government is levelling down and we urge them to reconsider. We remain confident that the new US restrictions would not have affected the resilience or security of the products we supply to the UK," he said.

"Regrettably our future in the UK has become politicized, this is about US trade policy and not security. Over the past 20 years, Huawei has focused on building a better connected UK. As a responsible business, we will continue to support our customers as we have always done.

"We will conduct a detailed review of what today’s announcement means for our business here and will work with the UK government to explain how we can continue to contribute to a better connected Britain."

The US Commerce Department announced on Monday it has amended a ban targeting Huawei.

Previously, Huawei was added to the US Entity List under Export Administration Regulations but now, per the amended ban, US companies can work alongside Huawei to develop 5G standards.

US Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, announced on Monday a new rule “ensuring US industry’s ability to more fully contribute to standards-development activities in the telecommunications sector.”

Under the new rule, companies can now disclose tech information to Huawei and companies working with Huawei for the purpose of standards development without needing an export license. In amending the Huawei Entity Listing, the rule aims to advance US national security and foreign policy interests by promoting US leadership and participation in standards development bodies.

“The United States will not cede leadership in global innovation. This action recognizes the importance of harnessing American ingenuity to advance and protect our economic and national security,” stated US Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

“The Department is committed to protecting US national security and foreign policy interests by encouraging US industry to fully engage and advocate for US technologies to become international standards,” Ross continued.

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) told CNBC it welcomed the move by the US Commerce Department.

Naomi Wilson, senior director of policy for Asia at ITI said: “It is exceptionally important for US companies to be at the table. Being forced to cede their seat at the table to the likes of Huawei no less, was in nobody’s interest, except the Chinese.

"The last thing we want to see is unintended consequence that negatively affects US companies’ competitiveness.”

While the updated rule means the US tech industry can work with Huawei to develop 5G standards, disclosures for commercial purposes remain subject to Export Administration Regulations and all other applicable requirements.

In a sea of luxurious, convertible 13.3in laptops, this 15in machine is a welcome relief. It’s unpretentious – there’s no cutting-edge processor, touchscreen or backlit keyboard – but it sets out to be a good-quality laptop for a low price. And does so exceptionally well.

For a start, it’s made from an all-metal chassis rather than the plastic you would expect for £600. This gives the MateBook a solidity most of its rivals can’t match. When you consider that metallic build and a 15.6in screen, it’s light at 1.53kg; match that to a sleek 16.9mm height and this machine is surprisingly portable.

Huawei even keeps the weight of the power adapter down to 159g, and it’s a slimline affair that’s more akin to a phone power plug. Even the top prong of the UK plug slides down to make it easier to stow. You’ll probably want to sling it into your bag, too, as the MateBook D 15 only lasted for 5hrs 50mins in our video-rundown test.

The downside to the charging mechanism is that it consumes the single USB-C 3.1 socket, with the other three USB ports being Type-A. There’s also a full-size HDMI port and 3.5mm combo jack, but there’s no SD card slot or RJ-45 Ethernet adapter. This means you’re reliant on the 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

If you own an Honor or Huawei phone, you can also take advantage of Huawei Share. The idea is to tap your phone against the Huawei Share sticker and create a bond between the two devices; you can then quickly transfer files from one to the other. This all ties into the quietly impressive PC Manager, which is worth using simply to keep drivers up to date.

One oddity is that Huawei sets up the 256GB SSD as a C and D partition, which we recommend you convert into a single partition via Windows’ Disk Management feature (first delete the D partition and then extend the C partition). There’s space in the chassis for a 2.5in SATA drive too, but adding that is a job for a professional.

You can’t upgrade the MateBook’s core spec, but that’s not a problem. AMD’s Ryzen 3500U processor is a fine choice for a laptop of this price and, in combination with 8GB of RAM, provides plenty of everyday speed, along with occasional 3D acceleration when you need it. The MateBook D 15 scored 112 in our benchmarks, outpacing Intel’s Core processors in both video-encoding and multitasking tasks. You can expect to play older games at the screen’s native 1080p resolution, but AAA titles are likely to be beyond its scope.

Then there’s the screen. As test results of 56.6% sRGB gamut coverage and a pretty appalling Delta E of 5.2 indicate, the MateBook wouldn’t be our go-to choice for colour accuracy. Compared to pricier models, its colours are drab, an impression that isn’t helped by a matte finish. In short, it isn’t a great choice for watching film (nor is it helped by the tinny speakers). Also note the lack of a touchscreen. However, we don’t want to be too critical of Huawei saving money here; the screen is acceptable for a budget laptop.

You also can’t expect the last word in keyboard quality at this price, and the keys offer little in the way of tactile feedback. But three factors come to its aid, including generously sized keys, quiet operation and a spacious precision trackpad. The Full HD webcam hides away between the F6 and F7 keys; it pops up when you press down on it. This has the benefit of privacy – and the drawback of offering people a view of your nostril hair. Nor is this the best-quality camera, with compression obvious to the eye. It also means that Windows Hello facial recognition is out of the question, but Huawei integrates the fingerprint reader into the power button – an approach that works well.

While Huawei doesn’t offer many configurations of the D 15 – this is it for now – if you’d prefer a 14in model, the £649 MateBook D 14 is available with an identical spec, aside from a 512GB SSD (as well as a smaller footprint and lower 1.45kg weight). We haven’t tested the D 14, but I’m confident it will have a similar set of results.

Both laptops offer excellent value for money, with a highlight being an all-metal chassis for such a low price. Battery life could be better, as could screen quality, but Huawei had to compromise somewhere. It has made all the right choices and created a great-value machine in the process.

Huawei MateBook D 15 (2020) specifications

President Donald Trump has extended an executive order signed in May 2019 for an additional year. The executive order declared a national emergency and ultimately barred U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment manufactured by entities deemed a national security risk. The original order invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and while the order didn’t aim directly at specific companies, it’s said to target Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE.

While the Trump administration issued its original executive order last year, the full ban has yet to take effect. Huawei has been unable to work with U.S.-based tech companies to design and manufacture new devices, but it received a series of temporary general licenses from the U.S Commerce Department to allow it to continue supporting its existing hardware with software updates.

According to a Reuters report, the U.S. Commerce Department is expected to extend a temporary license, which will expire on Friday. By extending it, the U.S. Commerce Department would continue to allow U.S. companies to do business with Huawei.

In April, the U.S. Commerce Department attempted to add structure around the repeated 90-day temporary license extensions. The department asked businesses what the impact and cost would be if it chose not to extend the licenses.

Thomas C. Power, senior VP and general counsel for wireless trade association CTIA responded to the inquiry, urging the department to “grant a long-term extension of the TGL, which has permitted transactions necessary to maintain certain telecommunications network equipment and to provide essential security updates and repairs to customers with Huawei handsets and other devices.”

CTIA continued in its response, arguing that “ongoing, limited engagement with Huawei to protect the security of equipment and devices in the market benefits American consumers by reducing the risk that they will be subject to device compromise.”

The group’s response to the inquiry also asked the U.S. Commerce Department to “reinstate and modify its prior authorization for standards development work to allow for exchanges with Huawei in furtherance of global telecommunications standards.”

At this time, the U.S. Commerce Department and representatives from Huawei have declined to comment on the matter

The Department of Commerce is reportedly close to signing off on a new rule that would allow companies to work with Huawei Technologies to set 5G standards.

The Department of Commerce originally placed Huawei on its “entity list” last May, citing national security concerns.

Doing so restricted Huawei from selling its goods in the US, and also raised questions as to how American companies could participate in organizations focused on establishing 5G standards, as Huawei is a member of many of these organizations.

After the Department of Commerce blacklisted Huawei last year, many engineers within US tech companies stopped engaging with the China-based company.

Now, nearly a year later, two Reuters sources have revealed the Department of Commerce has drafted a new rule addressing the issue. According to these insiders, the rule would allow US companies to participate in organizations that include Huawei as a member.

The draft is reportedly under final review at the Department of Commerce and, if accepted, would pass through other agencies for additional approvals. At this time, it’s unclear how long that process could take. The Department of Commerce and Huawei declined to comment on the matter.

Just last month, six US senators sent a letter to the US secretaries of commerce, state, defense and energy regarding the need to issue regulations related to the development of 5G standards. The senators stated the entity listing shouldn’t restrict American companies.

“It is critical for US companies to participate fully in these standards-setting bodies to ensure that their technologies are represented in the standards,” the senators wrote in their letter.

The letter continues: “When US export controls restrict US companies from participating in standards-setting bodies, China-based Huawei is well positioned to fill any gaps.As the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has said, any restrictions that hinder US participation in 5G standards-setting bodies ‘would leave an opening for China to expand its influence on the 5G standard-setting process,’ a result that ‘would have substantial negative national security consequences for the United States.’”

If there is one thing we can definitively say about Huawei, it's that it is a very resilient company. The President of the United States couldn't stop it and neither, it seems, will a global pandemic. Despite everything that's going on, the Chinese firm has launched three new flagship phones: the P40, the P40 Pro and the P40 Pro+.

These follow on from last year's highly successful P30 and P30 Pro, the latter of which had spectacular zooming camera technology. The P40 is the standard model, with the smallest battery and little in the way of special specs, while the Pro is a very beefed-up version of the P30 Pro. Here we will focus on the P40 Pro+, which is the biggest, and possibly the best, of the three.

Huawei P40 first look: Design

The first thing you'll notice on the Pro+ (as you will on the other two devices) is its 'Overflow display', which is basically fancy wording for an edge-to-edge display. The screen itself includes cutouts for the front-facing cameras, similar to Samsung's Galaxy range, and there's a new look to the main camera array which is housed in a shiny rectangle with rounded edges, which is also strikingly reminiscent of the Galaxy S20's design. Other than that, there is little difference in design from the P30.

All three models will come in a refreshed colour palette, though: 'Ice White', 'Black', and 'DeepSea Blue'. The Pro+ will have special ceramic versions in 'Silver frost' and 'Blush Gold' too, which are both said to be resistant to fingerprint smears.

Huawei P40 first look: Display

The Pro+ has a massive 6.58in screen, which is just slightly smaller than the one on the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. This is an OLED FHD+ display with a 19.8:9 aspect ratio and a smooth 90Hz refresh rate. We can't confirm its quality as we haven't tested it, but these are similar specs to the OnePlus 7 Pro and the S20, and Huawei's displays are usually of similar quality.

Huawei P40 first look: Specs and Features

All three models will have the Kirin 990 5G processor inside them, which Huawei is suggesting will have 30% more CPU power than the P30. This will come with support for standalone and non-standalone 5G bands - which means it works with current and future 5G bands. Strangely though, the Pr0+ will have a 4,200mAh battery, which is actually a smaller capacity than the P30 Pro, which lasted 21hrs and 22min in our intensive tests. This doesn't necessarily mean it's going to run out quicker, but we won't be surprised if it does. It also supports 40W wireless charging, so that should help when the power drops.

There are updates to the P40's biometric security with a dual selfie camera that has infrared facial recognition technology - which Huawei claims will work in the most challenging lighting conditions. The size of its in-screen fingerprint sensor has also been increased by around 30% and will unlock 30% faster - that seems to be a popular number for Huawei.

It has an EMUI 10.1 skin over the basic version of Android 10. One of the big problems going forward without Google is that Huawei users will miss out on the most popular Google-branded apps, but who needs Google Maps or Gmail when you're one of the biggest companies in the world? Instead, Huawei is simply replacing these with its own versions, so the P40 range will feature preloaded apps to compensate, starting with Huawei's own version of video calling called 'MeeTime'. This can work anywhere and also for multiple users, according to Huawei. It's also an open-source app that the company wants to offer up to developers, as it announced it would back in January when launching the Huawei App Gallery.

The Chinese giant is also getting involved in the world of voice assistants with 'Celia', its answer to Siri. It wakes with the classic "Hey" before Celia, or by holding the power button for a second and it supports all the usual things digital assistants like Siri or Bixby do, with basic commands and some helpful information on objects you capture with the camera. Huawei does have a grand IoT strategy with its Harmony OS and this could potentially be its Alexa.

Huawei P40 first look: Cameras

On the P30 Pro, Huawei took camera technology to new heights, with its amazing optical zoom and light-capturing sensors. The P40 Pro+ is aiming to do the same and comes with an 'Ultra Vision Leica Penta Camera System'. It features five lenses on the back: an 8MP 10x optical telephoto lens, a 50MP RYYB wide lens, a 40MP wide-angle lens, an 8MP 3x optical telephoto lens and a time of flight sensor. To clarify, that's a dual optical telephoto lens that hits 240mm zoom range.

As impressive as the zoom was on the P30, there was an issue with keeping shots still when at full magnification. To counteract this on the Pro+, Huawei has added AI-based stabilisation. This is another area where the company is going above and beyond with camera technology, using AI as an editing system, or to help refine pictures. Or, in one case, to delete people, as the P40 Pro+ will come with software that allows the users to cut out photobombers - or random people in the background - by editing multiple shots into one perfect picture.

Huawei P40 first look: Early Verdict

The P30 and P30 Pro were both superb handsets with extraordinary camera technology, but they both hit the shops before Donald Trump's cumbersome blacklist. Huawei is now launching smartphones into a market disrupted by COVID-19 and doing so without Google apps.

There is a worry that this device might get ignored without full Android, but that would be a shame because the P40 Pro+ looks like another knockout device from Huawei. It has a huge display, exciting AI features and superzoom cameras. Despite a relentless campaign from the US, and the global pandemic, we hope Huawei's P40 Pro+ zooms above it all.