Huawei's New Mate 90 Series Phones Cost Up to $2,830

Huawei has announced a new series of Mate 90 smartphones, including the Mate 90, Mate 90 Pro, Mate 90 Pro Max, and top-of-the-line Mate 90 RS.

The Mate 90 and Mate 90 Pro are still flagship devices, albeit slightly smaller and without all the same high-end features. The Mate 90 and Mate 90 Pro both feature 6.75-inch displays, which are actually pretty big. They’re powered by the Kirin 9035 chipset and include bigger batteries than last year’s models.

On the camera side, the Mate 90 Pro is similar to the Mate 80 Pro, including a 50-megapixel main camera with a Type 1/1.28 image sensor and a 24mm equivalent lens. The lens has a variable aperture from f/1.4 to f/4.

The triple rear camera setup also includes a 50-megapixel telephoto camera (90mm f/2.1) and a 40-megapixel ultrawide camera with a 120° field of view.

The standard Mate 90 has a very similar setup, albeit with a smaller 50-megapixel main camera and a slightly shorter 88mm f/2.2 telephoto camera. The Mate 90’s telephoto camera, while not the same as the Mate 90 Pro, is a big improvement over the outgoing Mate 80, which had a 12-megapixel telephoto.

The Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max has an improved triple-camera system headlined by a 50-megapixel main camera with a Type 1/1.28 RYYB image sensor and OIS. This is the same unit as the standard Mate 90, with a variable f/1.4-4 aperture.

The telephoto cameras are quite different, though. Compared to the 50-megapixel telephoto on the Mate 90 Pro, the Pro Max variant has a 200-megapixel Type 1/1.28 telephoto camera with 4x optical zoom (89mm and f/2.6). The 40-megapixel ultrawide camera is unchanged.

The 6.9-inch phone also has a Collector’s Edition variant which works with Huawei’s new add-on camera module, the Ruiying Z10.

Huawei’s fourth new Mate 90 series phone, the Mate 90 RS, also works with the Ruiying Z10. The Mate 90 RS is the clear flagship in the lineup, sporting a supercar-inspired design and premium materials.

The Mate 90 RS has an octagon-shaped rear camera module that looks different but uses the same camera setup as the Mate 90 Pro Max, including the 50MP main camera, 200MP telephoto, and 40MP ultrawide.

When photographers need even better image quality or more reach, the roughly $900 Ruiying Z10 add-on camera delivers a larger Type 1 50MP sensor and a 24-240mm f/2-4.5 optical zoom lens.

Besides its appearance, the Mate 90 RS is very similar to the Mate 90 Pro Max. It has the same Kirin 9500 Pro chip and the same 6.9-inch OLED. One key difference is that the RS model can support up to 2TB of internal storage, whereas the Pro Max tops out at 1TB. The extra storage is pricey, though, pushing the Huawei Mate 90 RS from its base price of 12,999 RMB (about $1,940) to 18,999 RMB (over $2,800). It’s an expensive smartphone, and that’s not even counting the add-on Ruiying Z10 camera module.

Image creditsHuawei