Huawei Technologies is aiming for a major international comeback, with the overseas release of its latest flagship smartphone, the Mate 80 Pro, alongside a new smartwatch and the addition of a “wheelchair mode” to its wearable devices.Powered by the company’s self-designed, China-made Kirin 9030 Pro processor, the overseas version of its Mate 80 Pro handsets will run on the Android-based EMUI 15 operating system, Huawei announced at a launch event in Madrid, Spain, on Thursday.While the domestic version of the Mate 80 Pro runs on Huawei’s proprietary HarmonyOS, the overseas model shares the same in-house system-on-a-chip, which the company touted as its most advanced for handsets.The overseas roll-out of the Mate 80 Pro, which was launched in China in November, marked the Shenzhen-based tech giant’s comeback with its bar-type Mate models in the international market, four years after its launch of the Mate 50 series in 2022.
The Madrid launch also showed Huawei’s renewed push into the global smartphone market, after it overcame crippling US tech sanctions to successfully return as a domestic leader in China, the world’s largest smartphone market.
Huawei Technologies’ Mate 80 Pro Max model comes in four colours. Photo: Handout