HUAWEI Mate S goes up for pre-order for £469

Huawei’s latest flagship smartphone, the Mate S, has gone up for pre-order in Europe ahead of its launch in the coming weeks. HUAWEI’s own VMall store – which launched last month and bought the HONOR 7 to Europe – is offering the Mate S unlocked at a cost of €649 in Europe (or £469 if you’re in the UK).

The store has listed the 32GB Mate S in two colours – Titanium Grey or Mystic Champagne – with a delivery date of 4-5 weeks and it doesn’t look like Europe will get any of the higher storage options. Neither the 64GB or the Force Touch-enabled 128GB Luxury Edition are listed on the website, suggesting that European customers will miss out.

To recap the specs, the Mate S comes equipped with a 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display, Kirin 935 octa-core SoC and 3GB RAM. On the back is a 13MP rear camera with optical image stabilisation and a one-touch fingerprint sensor beneath it, that has been updated with a range of new features, while the front snapper is an 8MP sensor and comes with an LED flash.

HUAWEI claim the Mate S is just 2.65mm thin at its thinnest point along the curved edges and rear back but at its thickest point, the handset measures 7.2mm and weighs in at a respectable 156 grams. Running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, the Mate S also comes with HUAWEI’s Emotion UI v3.1 and the latest updates addresses some of the software issues that affected the HUAWEI P8 and HONOR 7.

The full metal handset comes with a tray that allows you to use either a microSD card to expand the storage or a secondary SIM to use two SIMs at once, while the handset also houses a non-removable 2,700 mAh battery and the Mate S is the first HUAWEI smartphone to come with quick charging.

Are you planning to buy the Mate S? Let us know your views in the comments below and for more information on HUAWEI’s latest smartphone, check out our Mate S unboxing and first impressions.