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Huawei ships record 200 million phones in 2018 despite controversies
Huawei's 2018 was tumultuous, to put it mildly, but the company has at least a few reasons to brag. The Chinese mobile giant has revealed that it shipped over 200 million smartphones in the year, setting a new record (it 'only' moved 153 million phones in 2017). It won't surprise you as to why Huawei fared so well, though. Simply put, it had a string of hits throughout the year -- and flagships played only a partial role.
Huawei in 2018: Smartphone excellence and strained relations
Huawei has become one of the most recognizable consumer-tech brands in the world in a relatively short period of time. It's among several Chinese companies that reaped the rewards of an explosion in smartphone sales in its home nation, taking that momentum and branching out internationally. Still, Huawei's felt sort of like the New Balance of the smartphone world -- a tier-two brand that isn't quite as cool as Adidas (Samsung) or as desirable as Nike (Apple). But in 2018, something changed.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro review: Surprisingly, almost perfect
Huawei has grown from being a peripheral player to one of the biggest brands in smartphones in a short space of time. It started making a name for itself with competitive devices for good prices. These handsets often copycatted features from other flagships, but things have changed in recent history. Huawei's no longer an alternative to the bigger companies, it's become one of those companies. It's now the one bringing new features to market and pushing the boundaries with phones like the P20 Pro. That thing only came out six months ago, and Huawei's already back with the Mate 20 Pro, which feels like a successor despite the different family name. It's another nuts piece of hardware from the Chinese company, and arguably the best phone of 2018.
Huawei's latest phones use proprietary storage cards for some reason
Huawei's Mate 20 phones bring some clever new features to the table, but there's one that you might not be so thrilled about: a proprietary storage format. The new handsets are the first to take NM Card, a Huawei-made design that offers the capacity and performance of microSD in a card the size of a Nano SIM. On the Mate 20 line, this promises flexibility. You can use one of the phone's two SIM slots as extra storage without the need for a dedicated microSD slot or an extra-long tray. Sounds great, right?
Huawei’s latest Porsche Design collab is a fancy Mate 20 Pro
Huawei doesn't launch a new flagship these days without teaming up with Porsche Design for a flashier, and always much more expensive variant. It was a given, then, that the Mate 20 Pro announced today would get the Porsche Design treatment. As the entire front of the device is occupied by display, the aesthetic differences are limited to the back, where glass cuts a racing stripe down the length of the device between two panes of soft leather. There's a black on black model, as well as a limited edition, red on black version that's only headed to China.
Huawei's Mate 20 Pro can wirelessly charge other phones
Over the past few months, all major smartphone manufacturers have laid down their last hands and stepped away from the table for the rest of the year. Apart from Huawei, that is, which -- as usual -- is getting the last word in by spilling the beans on the new Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro today. Historically, the Mate series was intended as direct competition to Samsung's Note family, but these days it's more like Huawei's fall flagships, filling in the gaps between the spring, P family launches. It's no great revelation, then, that the Mate 20 Pro features the high-end camera system Huawei's become known for. Beyond that, though, the company's crammed all the best smartphone tech it could into the Mate 20 Pro, including special charging features you can't find anywhere else.
