Huawei Mate 10, the next flagship phablet device from China's leading smartphone maker, will feature a near bezel-less display. Richard Yu, the Chief of Huawei's Consumer Division confirmed that the smartphone will debut later this year with a full-screen display and technology to compete against Apple's next iPhone.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Yu confirmed that the Mate 10 will debut around the same time as Apple's 2017 iPhone. He added that the smartphone will offer longer battery life, quicker charging speed and improved photography features to compete with Apple. Yu's confirmation comes after the company reported slowdown in sales and fall in revenue during the first half of 2017.
Huawei, the third largest smartphone brand in the world, aims to ship as many as 150 million smartphones in 2017. Yu also outlined the company's plans to exit the low-end device segment where it doesn't earn much in terms of margin. "We are giving up the very low-end devices because the margin in this is extremely low, and it’s not making enough profit for us," Yu told Bloomberg. The exit from the low-end device segment makes sense considering the company already sells low-end devices under its Honor e-brand.
Huawei's Mate 10 has been rumoured to debut with an edge-to-edge display, similar to Samsung's Galaxy S8 and LG's G6 smartphones. It is also expected to get the new Kirin 970 chipset based on 10nm architecture, but Yu didn't mention anything about the smartphone's processing power. Huawei missed out on capitalising its position in the premium smartphone segment after delayed the launch of the Mate 9, but this time, the company seems prepared to compete with Apple's next iPhone, Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 and LG's first OLED smartphone, the V30.