The first real-iPhone-XS rival arrives in October, but it Is not the Pixel 3

Chris Smith @chris_writes

September 1st, 2018 at 3:20 PM

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The first Android phone that has a real shot at competing against the iPhone XS is coming in October, but it’s not the Pixel 3 or Pixel 3 XL. If you’re following Android rumors closely, you already know that the device in question is coming from the Chinese manufacturer that aims to become the number 1 handset seller in the world. That’s right, it’s the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, the high-end handset of the Mate 20 series that has appeared in plenty of leaks so far. Now we officially know that the Mate Series will be unveiled in October — well, the regular Mate 20 and the Pro version, given that the Lite model already launched a few days ago.

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The news comes from Huawei, which unveiled the world’s first 7nm chip at IFA 2018 in Berlin, Germany, adding that the first Kirin 980-powered Mate Series device is scheduled to arrive in October. Because Huawei was first to announce the 7nm chip, the Kirin 980 does qualify as the world’s first commercial 7nm processor. But in a few weeks, the first smartphones in the world featuring a 7nm chip will be released, the 2018 iPhone XS duo and Apple’s new upper mid-range iPhone, which will all run Apple’s A12 chip.

A dual NPU is present as well. That’s a neural processing unit, the kind that we saw on the Mate 10 last year. The new chip can recognize up to 4,500 images per minute, a 120% increase compared to the previous year.

Huawei’s fourth-gen ISP is also included in the Kirin 980 package, which includes a bunch of features meant to improve mobile photography such as better support for multi-lens cameras, all-new HDR color reproduction technology, and a multi-pass noise reduction solution that removes artifacts to improve low-light photography. Other features include improved motion tracking, as well as support for capturing videos with 33% shorter delay.

With all that in mind, we’ll have to wait for Huawei to launch the Mate 20 Pro to see how fast it is compared to 2018 Android flagships and the iPhone XS. As for Qualcomm’s 7nm Snapdragon 855, samples are already being sent to the company’s partners and we should see it in Android flagships starting early next year.