Why is Huawei Mate 60 Pro smartphone generating so much buzz?
The surprise launch of the latest high-end smartphone from Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies has triggered an international guessing game over what is inside it.
The company, which has been heavily targeted by U.S. government restrictions, began selling its latest Mate 60 Pro for 6,999 yuan ($964) online on Tuesday, raising eyebrows over its decision not to do any prior advertising and prompting widespread speculation over whether it could be 5G capable.
Following is what we know and don't know about the phone, and why it matters.
From 2019, the U.S. cut Huawei's access to chipmaking tools essential for producing the most advanced handset models, with the company only able to sell limited batches of 5G models using stockpiled chips.
The U.S. and some European countries have called Huawei a security risk, which the company denies.
The restrictions devastated the business of a company that once competed with Apple and Samsung to be the world's biggest handset maker, with its consumer business peaking at 483 billion yuan in 2020 before plunging almost by half a year later.
But Huawei has repeatedly said it is fighting back and research firms told Reuters in July they believed it was plotting a return to the 5G smartphone industry by the end of this year, using its own advances in semiconductor design tools along with chipmaking from China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co (SMIC).
If Huawei and China were capable of producing their own 5G chips, it would mark a significant advancement in their capabilities and a blow to U.S. efforts to limit its progress.
Huawei has kept mum, only saying that the smartphone is the "most powerful Mate model ever".
Buyers of the phone have been posting tear-down videos and sharing
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