Huawei Mate 30 Pro UK release date: Biggest clue yet that launch is imminent

Huawei unveiled the Mate 30 Pro in what will surely go down as one of the most bizarre smartphone launches of all time. The Chinese tech giant showed the phone rocking some of the best hardware of 2019 but didn’t really address the glaring elephant in the room — the phone’s complete lack of support for Google apps and services.

Much to the dismay of Huawei fans who live outside of China, the Mate 30 Pro doesn’t come pre-installed with the likes of the Play Store, Google Maps, Gmail… the list goes on. What’s even worse is the fact there doesn’t seem to be any kind of workaround to get them on the device, despite some promising earlier fixes.

The phone’s lack of Google support is a by-product of a US trade ban on Huawei that forbids it from dealing with American companies. That means new handsets from Huawei and its subsidiary Honor aren’t able to be granted a licence for Google apps and services.

Although Huawei has already confirmed the Mate 30 Pro will launch globally, its rollout has surely been stifled by frosty US relations. But now it seems the Chinese tech giant is pressing ahead with a wider rollout anyway.

The Mate 30 Pro landed in Spain last month, marking its first appearance in Europe so far. But now Huawei has announced the handset will also launch in Italy and France later this month.

Huawei’s Google-less handset will be made available in France on December 9 and Italy on December 18 and it seems the Chinese firm will be launching each with tantalising promotions.

At the moment, those that pick up a Mate 30 Pro in Spain will receive a €299 Huawei voucher and it seems similar offers will be available in the additional European territories.

The release of the Mate 30 Pro in both France and Italy suggests Huawei is rolling out the device in key European markets despite its lack of Google apps and services. Although not confirmed, the latest news will surely ignite hope amongst Britons that a UK release is imminent.

The Mate 30 Pro still doesn’t have any UK pricing. But with a starting figure of €1,099 we’d expect the handset to cost upwards of £900.

Missing Google apps aside, the Mate 30 Pro sports some of the best hardware we’ve ever seen. The device comes with a gorgeous 6.5-inch screen with extreme curves on its sides that give it an undeniably futuristic look and feel.

At the top of the phone’s display you’ll find a notch housing a 32-megapixel selfie camera, a time-of-flight (ToF) sensor and facial scanning technologies that can be leveraged for unlocking.

Turning the device over reveals a quad-camera system comprised of a 40-megapixel primary, 8-megapixel telephoto, 40-megapixel ultra wide-angle and another TOF sensor. Although Express.co.uk hasn’t had the chance to test the Mate 30 Pro’s set of cameras thoroughly, DxOMark has been full of praise.

If you haven’t heard of DxOMark, it’s a publication based in France renowned for meticulously analysing smartphone camera systems. The outlet awarded the Mate 30 Pro a score of 121, a figure that puts it joint first in its overall rankings with the Xiaomi Mi Note 10. That means the handset is supposedly more capable than the likes of the iPhone 11 Pro, Google Pixel 4 and Samsung Galaxy Note 10.

There’s also a number of other Mate 30 Pro features that are worth shouting about, like a whopping 4,500mAh battery, its rapid Kirin 990 processor and its support for 5G (there’s also a standard 4G variant, too).

YOU CAN READ OUR FULL MATE 30 PRO HANDS-ON IMPRESSIONS HERE

source: express.co.uk