Huawei puts AI in consumers’ back pocket
MUNICH: Huawei has launched a new flagship smartphone that has several artificial intelligence (AI) features.
The Mate 10 was launched in Munich yesterday (NZ time), with Huawei consumer business group chief executive Richard Yu often comparing them to those of Samsung and Apple.
The Mate 10 has a 5.9-inch screen, while the Pro version is slightly larger at 6 inches. There’s also an upscale Pro model featuring a design from Porsche.
The Chinese company’s phones are the first to offer a dual 4G SIM manager, with others in the market only giving 4G capabilities to one of the two SIM cards.
The Mate 10 will launch in November for €699 (NZ$1150), while the Pro and Porsche Design will sell for €799 and €1395 respectively. The New Zealand price is yet to be confirmed.
The smartphone features a long-lasting battery, fast charging, text translation, and an advanced ‘‘AI engine’’.
Its battery has more capacity than the iPhone 8 Plus and the Samsung Note 8 battery.
Huawei’s recently debuted Kirin 970, the world’s first ‘‘neuralnetwork processor unit’’, is what drives the phone’s AI capabilities.
It allows the phone to grow accustomed to the user’s voice and isolate it for better clarity during calls and audio recording.
It also can apply camera settings by identifying what the user is shooting, and has 100 learnt images including people, dogs, cats, foods and landscapes.
German company Leica developed the dual-camera system on the phone as part of its ongoing partnership with Huawei.
Huawei is the third largest smartphone retailer in New Zealand, coming in third after Samsung and Apple.
Yu said further development of facial recognition and audio translation was still to come.
Android and Google Play vicepresident Jamie Rosenberg pointed to a long-term shift in mobile technologies.
‘‘Mate 10 includes deep technology investment in artificial intelligence, which is very consistent with our philosophy that computing is undergoing a fundamental shift from being mobile first to AI first,’’ Rosenberg said on stage at the launch.
Huawei has reported a 30 per cent year-on-year revenue growth, with the most growth being seen in its Southeast Asian market.
Yu said: ‘‘Being number one or number two? That’s not what’s most important. The most important for me is to have the best product, the best innovation for consumers and best services.’’
Last year the company spent US$11 billion (NZ$15.3 billion) globally on its research and development, something Yu said will keep the company moving forward in the long term.
The writer travelled to Germany with the assistance of Huawei.