Huawei Mate 90 series: camera & display upgrades

It’s been barely a month since Huawei launched its tri-fold smartphone, and it’s already moving on to its premium flagship series. The company just launched the Huawei Mate 90 series.

Besides a new architecture for the processing platform, the Mate 90 series also gets new tech for its cameras and display. Let’s see what’s went into the phones.

Huawei Mate 90 series: base, Pro, Pro Max, and RS Ultimate Design

Some variants of Huawei Mate 90 series phones use the new Kirin 9050 Pro processor,, which is built upon Huawei’s LogicFolding Tau chip architecture. If you want to understand what makes that architecture different from other modern chip designs, you can find the simplified explanation here.

According to Huawei, only the Pro Max Premium Edition and RS Ultimate Design variants are getting Kirin 9050 Pro. Its Huawei Mate 90 Pro gets a Kirin 9035 instead, which Huawei hasn’t disclosed if it’s based on the new architecture. Either way, the entire series sees a 20% (Pro) or 31% (others) increase in performance, when compared against their predecessors. Even the base model Mate 90 has a 27% performance boost via its Kirin 9030 chipset.

Also, it’s still running on HarmonyOS 7, so there’s been no change in Google access since the US sanctions. Huawei supports its own mobile ecosystem via AppGallery and Huawei Mobile Services. Other services that rely on sensitive encryption, navigation, or access (to banks or your NFC) still require a workaround, much like using Google products on modern Huawei phones.

Huawei said the Mate 90 Pro uses a second-generation Linglong Display that can put out 12,000 nits, but at 1% APL (average picture level). This means that the peak brightness can be achieved if only 1% of the display is lit up. The display architecture is Tandem OLED, and Huawei claimed it expands lifespan by 138%. 

For the Pro Max and RS Ultimate variants, theirs come with Full-Color Linglong Display, with BT.2020 colour space.

The Eye Comfort mode now goes as low as 1 nit brightness.

The phones also adopt eSIM functionality, but the Pro Max gets an extra four-SIM, three standby configuration. At least two of the three SIMs in standby must be from the same carrier, and it’s only applicable to Mainland China usage.

The cameras are now based on its self-developed True-To-Color Camera 3.0, now using infrared optical coating across the full focal range offered across the shooters. Huawei said this improves colour accuracy by 37% and skin tone accuracy by 62%.

Pro Max gets a 18 EV (exposure control), 200MP camera with a RYYB sensor, and has CIPA 7.5-rated stabilisation for still images that works beyond 20x zoom. Called the Huawei XMAGE Z10 Modular Camera, it also has 24-240mm continuous optical zoom (approx. 1x to 10x zoom) via its moving glass elements, and it’s paired with a 1-inch sensor and f/2.0 to f/4.5 aperture range.

Is the RS Ultimate Design variant getting anything special?

You might have noticed that the upgrades mentioned above are largely for the whole series, with Pro and Pro Max getting specific tweaks. The RS Ultimate Design variant is mostly based on Pro Max, but has a different physical design (Star Diamond Camera cutout with Dynamic Lenticular Kunlun Glass) in Red, White, or Black colourways.

The cameras, connectivity, display, and other upgrades are otherwise seemingly identical to the Pro Max variant.

Huawei Mate 90 series price and availability.

In Mainland China, the Huawei Mate 90 series retails at the following prices:

• Huawei Mate 90: CNY5,999 (~S$1,144.83)
• Huawei Mate 90 Pro: CNY6,999 (~S$1,335.66)
• Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max: CNY9,499 (~S$1,812.75)
• Huawei Mate 90 RS Ultimate Design: CNY12,999 (~S$2,480.68)

We will update again if the devices make their way to the Singapore market.