HUAWEI Mate 60 Pro launched: This phone can make satellite calls

HUAWEI may have suffered loads of US-induced setbacks in recent years, but that hasn’t stopped the brand from producing some otherwise great phones. Now, the Chinese brand is back with the newly announced Mate 60 Pro.

The Mate 60 Pro brings a rather interesting design to the table, primarily due to three punch-hole cutouts on the front. One of these is the selfie camera (more on that later), while the other two enable 3D face unlock capabilities as we’d expect from Mate phones.

The new HUAWEI handset also brings what appears to be a two-toned rear cover. The black and purple models have a leather back while the green and silver variants are made out of brocade fiber. Otherwise, you’ve got an IP68 rating here, in line with previous devices.

Perhaps the most notable Mate 60 Pro feature is the addition of satellite calling capabilities. This is a major step forward for satellite connectivity on conventional smartphones, especially as the rest of the industry is only touting emergency SOS and text messaging. This functionality is limited to China Telecom right now, though.

HUAWEI Mate 60 Pro specs

The rest of the HUAWEI handset is pretty respectable, for the most part. You’ve got a 6.82-inch LTPO OLED screen (2,720 x 1,260), 12GB of RAM, 256GB to 1TB of internal storage (expandable via NM card), and a 5,000mAh battery with 88W wired and 50W wireless charging.

Oddly enough, HUAWEI isn’t listing a processor or even network bands for the Mate 60 Pro on its website (a change from prior models). But a trusted leaker has claimed that this is an in-house Kirin chipset with an octa-core CPU (four Cortex-A78 and four Cortex-A510) and an in-house “Maleoon 910” GPU. We’ve asked the company for more info about the phone’s chipset, but the firm has refused to comment on this processor or whether it has 5G support.

Switching to the cameras, the Mate 60 Pro brings a versatile triple rear camera system. Expect a 50MP main camera with an adjustable aperture (f/1.4 to f/4.0), a 48MP 3.5x telephoto camera (f/3.0, with macro mode), and a 12MP ultrawide lens. That telephoto camera has a narrower aperture than the P60 Pro’s excellent tele camera, so we’re not expecting a similar level of low-light image quality. But we’re nevertheless glad to see macro capabilities on this lens. Otherwise, a 13MP camera is available up-front for selfies.

HUAWEI Mate 60 Pro pricing and availability

The Chinese brand seems to be running a limited sale in China today as part of an early access program. There’s no word on the price of the base 256GB model, but the 512GB variant is currently listed at 6,999 yuan (~$960).

HUAWEI told Android Authority there were no current plans to launch the Mate 60 Pro outside China. That’s a real shame, as this certainly looks like an impressive flagship phone (lack of Google integration notwithstanding).