HUAWEI Mate S is official, here are the details

After a considerable amount of teasing, the HUAWEI Mate S has been officially unveiled at IFA in Berlin. The handset builds on many of the foundations that made the Mate 7 such a great phone, offering high-end hardware and a couple of unique features of its own, as is HUAWEI’s style.

HUAWEI Mate S specs and features

Although not as large as the Mate 7, the Mate S still comes in with a considerable 5.5-inch AMOLED display with a 1080p resolution. At this size QHD may have offered a very slight boost to visual clarity, but it’s a minor point that you won’t notice without a size-by-size comparison.

The Mate S is powered by HUAWEI’s own HiSilicon Kirin 935 SoC and 3GB of RAM. This is the same SoC that powers the company’s HONOR 7 smartphone and comes with eight Cortex-A53 cores, just like the Snapdragon 615, which are accompanied by a Mali-T628 MP4 GPU.

For storage, HUAWEI will be offering the phone with 32GB, 64GB or 128GB of flash memory. As an added bonus, there’s a microSD card slot available if you want to boost your memory by a further 128GB. The battery capacity is much smaller than the Mate 7’s, coming in at only 2,700mAh, which may be a worry for the heavy user. However, HUAWEI says that it will still last you through an entire day.

For the photographers among you, the Mate S comes with a 13 megapixel rear camera that features a RGBW sensor, optical image stabilizer, dual color temperature LED flash, and an independent image signal processor, along with an 8 megapixel front facing camera for higher resolution selfies. HUAWEI has also implemented a professional camera mode that allows manual adjustment of ISO, exposure compensation, exposure time, white balance and focusing.

As for extras, HUAWEI has gone all out with a diamond-cut metal unibody design, 2.5D Gorilla Glass and some smooth curved edges. The HUAWEI Mate S also comes with the traditional fingerprint scanner located on the back of the smartphone and security features that come with it. There are a few new features included here too. The fingerprint scanner can also be used to erase unread notifications, preview pictures, and accept phone calls. HUAWEI also states that the scanner is twice as fast at authenticating fingerprints as its previous model.

HUAWEI has also built its “Knuckle Sense 2.0” technology into the Mate S. The feature was originally included with the HUAWEI P8 and allows for users in interact with the display using certain knuckle based gestures. For example, drawing a “C” activates a camera, while double-clicking the screen with a knuckle records a video capture of the display.

Force Touch

The big new, and heavily teased feature, with the Mate S is Force Touch. As well as regular touch control, the display in the Mate S can also sense how hard a user is pressing on the screen. HUAWEI is the first smartphone company to bring this technology to market.

HUAWEI is making use of this new technology to provide users with new gesture controls. For example, pressing harder over an image in the gallery or camera app will magnify the preview of the picture, while a strong press in the corner of the phone’s display can be used to access app short-cuts.

However, the Force Touch feature won’t be included in every Mate S model. The company is saving the technology for its premium tier handset, which will also ship with 128GB of internal memory.

HUAWEI Mate S price and availability

HUAWEI will be offering three different models of the Mate S, the 32GB, 64GB and 128GB Force Touch variants. The former will launch with a €649 tag, while the 64GB model will cost €699. The Force Touch model will be priced at a later date.

The HUAWEI Mate S will be available in Western Europe to begin with, and will go on sale from September 15th. The phone will be available to pre-order from HUAWEI’s vMall website, and will come in your choice of pink, gold and silver color options.

What do you think about the HUAWEI Mate S?

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HUAWEI Unveils the Mate S: A Luxury Smartphone that Revolutionizes Touch Technology

[BERLIN, Germany – September 2, 2015]: Today at Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin, the HUAWEI Consumer Business Group unveiled the HUAWEI Mate S smartphone, the new flagship product in HUAWEI’s Mate series of mobile devices. Its ergonomic, luxurious design and innovative technology deliver a premium Android experience that surpasses industry expectations once again.

“Our goal in designing the HUAWEI Mate S was to develop a smartphone that offers a personalized experience, rather than a commoditized one,” said Richard Yu, CEO of HUAWEI Consumer BG. “The HUAWEI Mate S is based on insights we gathered about human interaction – most notably that touch is a natural action we take to understand our world. The HUAWEI Mate S redefines how we incorporate touch technology into our smartphones, breaking through the conventional way of touch screen control and ushering in new imagination for human-machine interaction.”

The beauty of a curved surface: innovative design from inside out

The HUAWEI Mate S’ touch screen control technology offers an unconventional design that strikes a balance between the phone’s brilliant capabilities and its stunning visual appearance.

Building on the revolutionary HUAWEI Mate 7 smartphone, the HUAWEI Mate S features a 2.5D floating screen lens and a 5.5 inches screen. It is 7.2 millimeters thick, with side edges that are just 2.65 millimeters. The arched back fits perfectly into the palm of a hand, while its curved surface features solid pressure and weight, making the phone less likely to be dropped. With the AMOLED screen, HUAWEI Mate S presents a perfect curve.

The curved unibody of the HUAWEI Mate S encapsulates a laminated ladder battery and a staggered height printer circuit board layout design. Nanometer technology is being used to seamlessly connect the phone’s antenna and metal, resulting in a smooth feel. Additional cutting-edge technology, including diamond cutting, CNC carving, nanotechnology and a camera with a sapphire lens are part of the phone’s seamless metal body.

Revolutionary controls redefining user experience

Touch is a core of the HUAWEI Mate S, creating a new experience for users that enhances their interaction with the device.

The phone is equipped with Fingerprint 2.0, an upgraded version of the advanced chip level security and one-key unlock technology in the HUAWEI Mate 7. Fingerprint 2.0 improves recognition speeds by 100 percent, with more accurate self-learning functions. It can also be used to control the notification bar, double-click to erase unread notifications, slide to preview pictures, and hold and take phone calls. All of these options improve the one hand operation of the phone.

Knuckle Control 2.0 – first introduced in the HUAWEI P8 – simplifies how users switch between app operations and take screenshots. The feature offers users a new way to interact with their phone: drawing a “C” with their knuckle activates a camera, while double-clicking the screen with a knuckle records the screen in the form of a video. With these options, every type of touch provides an opportunity to be innovative.

A camera designed for beginners and professionals

The HUAWEI Mate S is equipped with a camera that considers users’ needs in everyday life: a professional camera and settings that incorporate contrast, texture, and distinctive tonality. The 13 mega pixel rear camera features a RGBW sensor, optical image stabilizer, Dual color-temp LED flash lights, and an independent image signal processor camera unit, which combine to capture higher quality pictures faster. The HUAWEI Mate S takes camera capabilities one step further by offering an 8 mega pixel front camera with soft front light to improve selfies. This algorithm ensures users capture the clearest, most beautifying images possible.

The professional camera mode allows manual adjustment for ISO, exposure compensation, exposure time, white balance and focusing, and functions such as the grid, and flash-assisted focusing. The real time black and white filter mode provides multiple levels of density and real-time intensity adjustment.

Technology that adapts to every environment

The HUAWEI Mate S takes regular recording functions to the next level by creatively implanting three microphones that support HUAWEI’s smart direction algorithm. The HUAWEI Mate S’ beam-forming algorithm allows all three mics to focus on the sounds coming from where the phone is facing, enabling a clear recording with minimal background noises.

For consumers on the go, the HUAWEI Mate S also supports Mopria printing general protocol, which includes 700 printer types across 29 leading brands.

Today HUAWEI also introduced its new HUAWEI G8, which is equipped with a 5.5 inch FHD screen and 3000mAh battery compatible for super low-light photo taking.

Availability

Additional to other distribution channels, the HUAWEI Mate S will also be sold via the company’s own online sales channel Vmall, starting in Western Europe. As of September 15, the phone will be available for pre-order at http://www.vmall.eu.
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