Skip to main content

Huawei’s got a new smartphone to show us, teases September 4 event (Updated)

IFA 2024
This story is part of our coverage of IFA Berlin 2024

Huawei gave the press some very early warning about its plans for the upcoming IFA technology show right at the beginning of August, by announcing a press event for the first media day of the show, which takes place in Berlin, Germany in September.

Updated on 08-29-2014 by Andy Boxall: Huawei has released a teaser video, and a leak has given us some more clues about the device itself.

Recommended Videos

As the show draws closer, Huawei continues to drop hints about what we could see launch at the event. The first invitations said the company would be “empowering a future of exciting possibilities,” a slogan which really didn’t mean anything, leaving us to speculate about what Huawei could introduce on the big day. The next teaser image was slightly more revealing. It showed the edge of a smartphone body in silhouette, which seems to highlight the number seven at the same time.

THuawei 7 Invitehere are no words to accompany the picture, but according to MyDrivers.com, which first published the picture, Huawei’s new smartphone could be called the Ascend Mate 7, or the D7. We’ve been given a few clues about a future Huawei smartphone over the past weeks, thanks to a leak describing what was referred to at the time as the Ascend Mate 3.

Huawei introduced the Ascend Mate 2 at CES back in January, and only recently put the phone on sale in America through its own website. The Mate 3 would replace a device not quite ten months old. One possible reason for the early introduction could be due to Huawei merging the Mate series with the D-Series devices, which could explain the naming confusion.

At the end of August Huawei posted a teaser video on YouTube, named 7 Mates for 7 Dreamers, with the footage highlighting people who will love the new phone, such as gamers and business people. Again, the number 7 keeps cropping up, as does the Mate brand name.

Whatever its name, it promises to have a high spec

The specification, according to the rumor reports, will see the phone’s screen shrink down to 6-inches, and the resolution increase to 1080p. There’s also talk of a second version of the phone with a 1440p, 2560 x 1440 pixel screen, ready to take on the LG G3. If this is true, it may see a limited release.

An octa-core processor of Huawei’s own design could provide the power, replacing the Snapdragon 400 inside the Mate 2, and Android 4.4 KitKat should be installed as the operating system. Like the Mate 2, 4G LTE connectivity should be onboard, along with a 13-megapixel camera on the rear panel.

Leaked Ascend Mate 7A Huawei phone showed up on the website of Chinese certification board TENAA at the end of August, and discussed a phone with a 6-inch, 1080p screen, a 13-megapixel camera, and the Kirin 920 octa-core processor. A leaked picture shows the phone with a fingerprint scanner on the rear, just like the HTC One Max.

Any big screen smartphone announced during IFA is likely to find it hard to grab attention, thanks to the Berlin show traditionally being the launchpad for the latest in Samsung’s Galaxy Note range, and we’re not expecting this year to be any different. We’ll see what Huawei has to offer on September 4, when the event takes place at 3p.m. local time.

Updated on 08-12-2014 by Andy Boxall: Added in details about a second invitation to the event, which teases a smartphone somehow related to the number seven.

Article originally published on 08-04-2014

Andy Boxall
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
Nothing Phone 3 is the firm’s biggest swing at Apple and Samsung yet
Is this the shot-in-the-arm the smartphone market desperately needs?
A person holding the Nothing Phone 2, with the lights active.

The Nothing Phone 3 will officially be available in the US, as the company looks to take on the likes of the iPhone 16, Samsung Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 9 with a handset Nothing founder and CEO, Carl Pei, calls its "first true flagship smartphone".

Those looking for an alternative smartphone option this year will be able to pick up the Phone 3 from Amazon and Nothing's own website, reports TechCrunch.

Read more
This one iPadOS 26 feature has me excited for the iPhone Fold
Semi-open state of a foldable iPhone concept

Samsung is set to launch the seventh generation of its Galaxy Z Fold book-style folding phone this Summer, but its biggest rival is yet to show its folding phone hand. Apple has long been expected to unveil an iPhone Fold, and the latest rumors suggest that it will launch next year.

I’ve used almost every folding phone released globally, with some exceptions for extremely obscure ones. While I've always been curious what an iPhone Fold would look like, I was fairly certain that Apple shouldn't build it, as I wasn’t sure they could deliver on one necessary feature.

Read more
These are the 4 best alternatives to the Google Pixel 9a
A person taking the Google Pixel 9a out of a pocket.

The best cheap phone race has been reignited by the Google Pixel 9a, which brings the Google Pixel 9 series experience at a significantly lower price. Starting at $449, Google’s latest Pixel offers the flagship processor of its siblings for flagship-level performance, an excellent camera, and long-term software support.

Yet, Google’s software experience won’t be for everyone; there are obvious tradeoffs in the specs sheet to enable the low price; the camera bar design is somewhat polarizing for long-term fans, and there’s no telephoto camera. 

Read more