Huawei Announces Porsche Design Mate 20 RS With High-End Specs And Premium Pricing
On Tuesday, Huawei took the wraps off its Mate 20 line of smartphones, and while the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro have drawn the most attention, the Chinese company also debuted a super-premium offering for those willing to shell out close to $2,000 for a new handset: the Porsche Design Mate 20 RS.
According to a report from the Verge, the Porsche Design Mate 20 RS basic specifications include three cameras similar to those found on the Mate 20 Pro — a 40-megapixel rear camera, a 20-megapixel wide-angle lens, and an 8-megapixel telephoto camera. The device is powered by Huawei’s new Kirin 980 processor, which the company advertises as the first mobile chip built on seven-nanometer architecture, and ships with Huawei’s EMUI 9.0 user interface on top of Google’s Android 9.0 Pie operating system. The Mate 20 RS battery is rated at 4,200 mAh and comes with fast charging support, but as the Verge added, the phone will only support select wireless chargers that need to be purchased separately.
In addition to the above specifications, the Mate 20 RS selling features include an inside-screen fingerprint sensor, facial recognition technology as an additional option for unlocking the phone, and HiVision, which uses artificial intelligence to recognize landmarks and paintings. Like Apple’s recently released iPhone XS and XS Max, the Mate 20 RS is IP68 water-resistant, which, as explained by 9to5Mac, means the device can be submerged for no more than 30 minutes at depths of two meters, or 6.6 feet.
Per Engadget, the Mate 20 RS has 8GB RAM and the choice of 256GB or 512GB internal storage, which slightly sets its specs apart from the Mate 20 Pro, which comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. The 256GB version will be sold with a price tag of €1,695, or about $1,950 in U.S. currency, while the 512GB edition will set buyers back by €2,095 ($2,410). This makes the device close to twice as expensive as the Mate 20 Pro, which costs €1,049 ($1,206).
Huawei’s Porsche phone is back and still unnecessarily expensive https://t.co/hUWd29KzRc pic.twitter.com/pdYGyUP91r
— The Verge (@verge) October 17, 2018
While Huawei’s Porsche Design Mate 20 RS and Mate 20 Pro have almost identical technical specifications and features except for the RAM and the larger storage options, the former device’s main distinguishing feature is its leather casing, which comes with a glass “racing stripe” that separates the two panels. The Mate 20 RS will be offered in a black-on-black version as the default option, with a red-on-black variant to be released as an exclusive in Huawei’s home country of China.
The Mate 20 RS will become available for purchase on November 16 in “most markets besides the U.S.,” according to the Verge. It’s still unclear when the device could be expected to arrive in U.S. stores.
