Huawei has today announced the Mate 20 Lite, ahead of an expected reveal of the Mate 20 later this year. We already knew a fair bit about the handset due to a recent leak, but now we have official details from Huawei which have been revealed at IFA in Berlin, and according to the Chinese manufacturer, it's all about disrupting the status quo.
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The Mate 20 Lite is the first device to be launched from the Mate 20 Series. We're expecting a Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro to be announced in October.
The Mate 20 Lite is all about getting high-end performance at a lower price, says Anson Zhang, UK Managing Director, Huawei Consumer Business Group: "At Huawei, we are committed to launching devices that disrupt the status quo", he says, which the company is doing by "combining pioneering AI innovation, cutting edge power and performance, all at an affordable price point".
The Mate 20 Lite comes with a new Kirin 710 processor and 4GB of RAM. As is becoming the norm now, the phone features "AI capability". This is designed to improve the phone's performance and battery life and, in the case of the Mate, will also help with tasks such as online shopping, and background noise cancellation in phone calls. The AI Smart Gallery, additionally, will automatically sort your photos into albums.
The handset packs a 3,750mAh battery (that's a 10% increase on its predecessor, the Mate 10 Lite) which apparently supports up to 17 hours of video playback, 23 hours of voice calling, 11 hours of web browsing and 107 hours of music playback.
Screenwise, you get a a 6.3-inch 19.5:9 FHD+ (2340x1080) display. That's a 4% increase in screen-to-body ratio when compared to the predecessor. To help deliver this, the top bezel has been replaced with, yes, a notch.
The Huawei Mate 20 Lite comes in at a pretty sweet price – you'll be available to purchase one in the UK from from £379 at Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone, and at EE from October.
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Paul Douglas is Global Digital Editorial Strategy Director at Future and has worked in publishing for over 25 years. He worked in print for over 10 years on various computing titles including .net magazine and the Official Windows Magazine before moving to TechRadar.com in 2008, eventually becoming Global Editor-in-Chief for the brand, overseeing teams in the US, UK and Australia. Following that, Paul has been Global Editor-in-Chief of BikeRadar and T3 (not at the same time) and later Content Director working on T3, TechRadar and Tom's Guide. In 2021, Paul also worked on the launches of FitandWell.com and PetsRadar.