Huawei is hosting a press conference and launch event on 19 September to launch the Mate 30 series.

The event will be notable not only for the phones themselves but also because they will be Huawei's first devices to be affected by the US trade ban - we believe that will mean they won't be able to access Google apps out of the box (although there will be a workaround). 

Huawei's business concerns haven't previously affected its superb phones, so it will be interesting to see how things are handled by the company on stage as well as how it will affect the user experience.

It's likely that the phones will run an open source version of Android rather than the Google-backed version and latest reports suggest the phones might not even come to Europe. 

The software should predominantly still look the same thanks to EMUI 10, Huawei's user interface that sits on top of Android. Given Huawei's recent statements the Mate 30 phones are unlikely to run the company's new HarmonyOS, though that is a possibility. Indeed, Huawei did earlier say that if it "can not use Android in future [it can] immediately switch to HarmonyOS".

When is the Huawei Mate 30 launch?

Huawei's Mate 30 press conference will be held in Munich, Germany, on Thursday 19 September at 2pm CEST. The event is open to the media and analysts. 

Here are the different local times:

  • US West Coast: 5am PDT
  • US East Coast: 8am EDT
  • UK: 1pm BST
  • New Delhi, India: 5.30pm IST
  • Beijing, China: 8pm CST
  • Sydney, Australia: 10pm AEST

Can I watch it online?

Huawei usually streams its events on its own Facebook page as well as on YouTube - we've embedded the video for you here. If you click on the video you can get YouTube to remind you when the event goes live.

If you want a version other than English, Huawei says you will be able to hear it in other languages too at its main event webpage

What phones are we expecting? 

The material online about the launch comes with two taglines - that the phone will "go the full circle", in reference to the phone's circular camera housing.

The second tagline is "rethink possibilities" which is quite generic of course, but could point towards the phones having a slightly different software setup.

We're expecting that there will be four phones that Huawei talks about at the event. The Mate 30 Pro is chief of these, possibly with a 90Hz, high refresh rate display. There will be a standard Mate 30, probably with a lower resolution display, less memory, one fewer camera and a smaller battery.

Then there'll be a premium Porsche Design version with a leather back. Finally, for the phones, there will be a Mate 30 Lite. 

A bunch of images of the phones have now leaked, showing the circular quad camera on the rear of the Mate 30 Pro. The phone will also have a "waterfall" edge to the display. 

Pics Of The Mate 30 Series Surface Online - Check Out Huaweis New Flagship image 1
Huawei/evleaks

The Mate 30 Lite will still have a quad camera, but it's more standard in appearance, a little like last year's Mate 20 series with a square camera housing and a fingerprint reader on the rear instead of under the display. 

We do know that the Mate 30, Mate 30 Pro and Mate 30 Porsche Design will use the Kirin 990 platform that debuted at IFA 2019 at the start of September and that there will be a 5G version, joining the Mate 20 X 5G and Mate X as Huawei's other 5G-capable devices. However, this may not appear initially and might instead launch at the tail end of the year. 

What else will happen at the event? 

We're expecting there to be a second version of the Huawei Watch GT launched, called the GT2 unsurprisingly. It looks to be arriving in 42 and 46mm versions with a 1.2-inch 390 x 390 screen according to various rumours. 

New information from Android Headlines suggests it will apparently be available in four variations and it'll have Huawei's own software rather than Wear OS - we're expecting it to run HarmonyOS. From the same source, it looks like there will be a fitness band, but we don't know what it'll be called or what software it will run. 

Finally, on the new product front, we will also get a Huawei version of the Honor Vision smart TV. Again this will be running HarmonyOS and will have a pop-up camera.

We may also get a price for the Huawei FreeBuds 3 earphones at the event, too - the latest Freebuds were officially launched at IFA earlier in the month. Some reports suggest there will also be a global launch of the MediaPad M6 tablet, too.