I really like the Mate series and I look forward to the launch of new models every year. Huawei never misses the chance to announce new and impressive features and this year’s Mate 40 series is no different. However, the standard Mate 40 disappoints in two areas – lack of wireless charging support and a low IP rating.
Wireless Charging
The Mate 40 doesn’t have support for wireless charging which is very surprising since its predecessor, the Mate 30 (and Mate 30 5G), has support for not just wireless charging but 27W fast wireless charging, putting to shame the wireless charging on iPhones and Samsung flagships. The phone even has support for reverse wireless charging. So why did Huawei launch the Mate 40 without support for wireless charging? We have no idea why but it will be hard to justify. What is worse is that Huawei didn’t stop there.
When Huawei announced the P30 series, the standard P30 model didn’t have support for wireless charging but Huawei announced a case that you could slap on the phone that allows you to wirelessly charge it at 10W. The standard Huawei P40 also has a case that allows you to charge the phone wirelessly at 22.5W.
Is there a wireless charging case for the Mate 40? No there isn’t. We also checked Huawei’s China site which has a different set of cases from those announced globally but there isn’t one there too.
Wireless charging should not be a distinguishing feature between standard and pro models
It is disappointing that the Mate 40 costs €899, which is far from a flagship killer price, and doesn’t have wireless charging. If anyone is paying this much for a phone, this is a feature that should be standard on such a device. This is 2020 and distinguishing pro and standard models of a flagship series with a feature such as wireless charging should stop.
All of Samsung’s Galaxy S20 phones have wireless charging including the Galaxy S20 FE. Even the Galaxy S10e launched last year has wireless charging. Apple also doesn’t use wireless charging as a distinguishing factor between pro and standard models. The iPhone XR supports wireless charging and so do the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 12 Mini.
IP Rating
Wireless charging is not the only feature Huawei uses to distinguish between standard and pro models of its phones. The IP rating is another feature. While Pro models have an IP67/IP68 rating, standard models have an IP53 rating. This is the case with the Mate 40.
Unlike Huawei, Samsung and Apple launch their phones with the same or very close IP ratings. All models of the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S20 have the same IP rating. The same applies to all the models of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 series.
The current situation can still be partly saved
Huawei can still announce a wireless charging case for the Mate 40. Though we won’t deny that paying extra for a feature an €899 phone should have isn’t annoying. Nevertheless, it is high time it makes wireless charging support and IP rating uniform among models.
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