Huawei announced their new smartphone, the Mate S, with Force Touch technology. This is the same technology that Apple will be including on its upcoming iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.
The 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display on the Mate S features a Full HD resolution that is protected by a 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass. The Mate S shares the same design language as its predecessor and features an all-metal body with diamond-cut bezels that has now shrunk in size to make it more portable.
Just like the Mate 7, the Mate S also comes with a rear-mounted touch-based fingerprint scanner, though it has been improved and now offers “100%” increase in recognition speed and sensitivity. It can also be used to control notifications, scroll through photos, take selfies, and do much more than what fingerprint sensors do in almost all other phones out there.
The Mate S also comes with Huawei’s second generation Knuckle Sense technology that allows you to use your knuckle to do certain tasks on the phone. This includes drawing a ‘C’ on the display using your knuckle to quickly launch the camera app or zooming in on a video you are playing by knocking twice, and more.
Apart from Knuckle Sense 2.0, the Huawei Mate S comes with ForceTouch that allows you to zoom into a picture by simply pressing harder on the screen. It can also be used to quickly launch your favorite apps by pressing harder on different edges of the display. That’s not all though. Huawei says that thanks to Force Touch, you can use the Mate S to get an estimated weight of objects around you. The company demonstrated this by weighing an orange during its IFA presentation.
The rear of the Mate S houses a 13MP F/2.0 camera with RGBW pixels that is protected by a Sapphire glass. It also features OIS that is capable of compensating for jerks by up to 1.2-degrees and comes with an independent image processor for “DSLR-level” quality.
Under the hood, the Mate S is powered by a Kirin 935 chipset and sports 3GB RAM and 32GB of storage space. The device runs on Android 5.1.1 with Huawei’s Emotion UI 3.1 running on top of it. To make up for the relatively small 2700mAh battery, Huawei has also included fast charging on the Mate S that will allow it to last an additional 2 hours if it is charged for only 10 minutes through its supplied charger.
The Mate S will be available in four colors: Coral Pink, Mystique champagne, Titanium Grey, and Prestige Gold. The 32GB version of the handset will retail for €649, while the 64GB option will set you back by €699. Huawei will also release a Force Touch version of the handset with 128GB storage space later this year, though it will only be available in select markets. The handset will be making its way to Australia, Belgium, China, Hong Kong, Germany, Singapore, South Africa, UK, UAE, and other major markets from September.
