Huawei is a Chinese phone brand that most people are familiar with. In the mobile market, the super-giant tech firm is second only to Samsung.
Huawei has often been in news in the tech world and the wider world, be it for launching new, super-powerful camera phones or for being banned from the United States by Donald Trump.
Most of the company's business is in hardware such as smartphones, watches, tablets and other devices, but it is also big in infrastructure, as it is part of a global push to build 5G networks.
We will not get into Huawei's infrastructure, nor will we look into allegations of the company spying for the Chinese government or other similar allegations. Here the brand's smartphone and consumer technology highlights.
The Huawei P40 (Image courtesy of TechRadar) has a long history.
Huawei started as a telecommunications company in China in 1987, but it only released its first smartphone in 2004. However, the company didn't release an Android phone until 2009, and since then, we've seen a steady stream of handsets. See today.
Honor, a sub-brand of Huawei, was launched in 2013 and produces similar technology. Honor was sold to Huawei in late 2020. Honor phones are covered in a separate guide, which can be found here.
Huawei unveiled its own operating system, HarmonyOS, in 2019 to compete with Android and iOS, and in 2021, the company plans to begin user trials with smartphone users — though it hasn't announced any handsets yet. Has been. Huawei entered the wearables, laptop and tablet markets as well as smartphones in 2015.
In early 2019, 'Huawei ban', the most significant change for Huawei in recent years. This was the year the then-President of the United States, Donald Trump, placed Huawei on an 'entity list' of companies with which US businesses could no longer cooperate - a list that included Google.
Up until that point, Huawei phones, like all Android phones, came preloaded with Google apps like Maps, Gmail, and most importantly, the Play Store for downloading new apps. Huawei phones were barred from using these apps as a result of the ban, which is still in effect today.
As a result, Huawei's market share has shrunk, although the company has taken steps to mitigate the impact. Introduced AppGallery, the company's own Play Store with a limited number of apps; and Petal Search, which will sometimes let you download apps that aren't available on the AppGallery.
Since the ban, the new Huawei phones have not received the same attention as the previous models, and we are still waiting for a major comeback from the company.
(Image credit: Future) Which phones does Huawei make?
Huawei has a wide variety of phone lines around the world, but we'll only cover those that make it to the West - and we're not including Honor phones for the reasons explained above.
The P Series is the company's primary product line. These amazing camera phones usually come in a standard model as well as a Pro, Lite and Pro Plus models. Often, new camera technology will be introduced at their launch.
The Huawei Mate line is also available. These handsets are generally of a higher standard than the P series, with supercharged specs and designs aimed at business users. While the Mate devices don't have the styling, they're a good comparison to Samsung's Note phones, which are also meant for professionals.
Huawei, too, makes foldable phones under the Mate X brand - in fact, it is the second most prolific manufacturer of folding phones after Samsung. All Mate X phones till date have been 'book-style' foldable; Huawei is yet to release a clamshell-style phone.
Huawei's P Smart line, whose models previously topped our list of best cheap phones, has a lot to offer budget-conscious consumers. These low-cost phones have similar specifications to the P series, but at a lower cost.
(Image credit: Future) Information on Huawei phone availability.
Huawei's release schedules are pretty predictable, making this section relatively easy to write.
The Huawei P series usually debuts in April or May, with the Lite version arriving a few weeks before the main phone. About six months later, nearing the end of the year, comes the Mate device.
Since the Mate X phones are so new, there isn't much of a pattern yet - but we've seen them around the same time as the P phones in the past.
Huawei P smart phones don't have big launch events, so it's hard to predict when they will be available. Every year, a new model is released and it is commonly referred to as the Huawei P Smart (2019).
Other technology Huawei sells (Image credit: IDA Blix)
Huawei is a big tech company that regularly releases a number of products; However, we will focus on its consumer products.
When it comes to wearables, Huawei offers both fitness trackers and smartwatches, such as the Huawei Band line and the Huawei Watch Fit and Watch GT Pro. Previously, the company's wearables were almost identical to