Huawei Mate 40 Pro release slips to late Q4 2020 at the earliest; 120 Hz display touted for upcoming flagship

Huawei may be making the jump to 120 Hz displays for the Mate 40 and Mate 40 Pro, but ongoing US trade sanctions may have forced the company to postpone the release of its next flagship smartphones. To recap, Huawei has been comparatively slow in adopting high refresh rate displays, with the company taking until April of this year to release the 90 Hz-capable P40 Pro series. According to Ross Young of Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC), the Mate 40 series will be the only smartphones with 120 Hz displays that Huawei will release this year.

Doing so would put the Mate 40 and Mate 40 Pro on par with other flagship smartphones like the OnePlus 8 Pro and Galaxy S20 series among others. Samsung is expected to bring 120 Hz displays to some Note 20 devices, as Apple is with the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. We would expect Huawei to persist with using curved displays too, which are frequently to as waterfall displays.

The Mate 40 and Mate 40 Pro are expected to launch with EMUI 11, Huawei's in-house version of Android 11. However, TSMC's refusal to accept any new Kirin chipset orders has delayed the mass-production of the Mate 40 series by at least one to two months, the Nikkei Asian Review reports. Huawei has also informed some component suppliers about delaying production for its next flagship smartphones while it finalises and resolves ongoing supply-chain issues.

The Nikkei Asian Review posits that while Huawei may not be ready to ship the Mate 40 series in September or October, supply chain issues would not necessarily delay the announcement of the company's next flagships. Hence, it could still press ahead with a Mate series announcement in Q3 or Q4 as it has done in previous years.

The Mate 40 series is thought to feature 5 nm SoCs, with the Kirin 1000 and Kirin 1020 being likely candidates. The Mate 40 Pro has also been rumoured to feature a "freeform lens" designed to improve the fidelity of ultra-wide-angle photos. This lens may be exclusive to the Mate 40 Pro, though.