Huawei propels new cell phones without 5G as U.S. sanctions, chip shortage bite

Huawei on Thursday disclosed its new P50 cell phone line, which needs support for super-fast 5G internet, as the Chinese tech monster wrestles with both U.S. sanctions and a global chip shortage.

The organization is launching two models: the P50 and a more costly P50 Pro. Huawei's P series is fundamentally known for its cutting-edge camera tech, and the P50 lineup expands on that with two enormous circular camera units.

On the P50, the main camera module has three lenses: a 50-megapixel large sensor, a 40MP monochrome lens and a 13MP super-wide angle lens. The second one uses a 64MP telephoto lens capable of 3.5 times optical zoom. Huawei says this allows clients to zoom in 200 times.

In any case, neither one of the models upholds 5G mobile networks, rather accompanying a 4G chipset from Qualcomm. It's an indication of how trade checks forced by the organization of previous U.S. President Donald Trump keep on affecting the firm.

Last year, Washington presented limitations which implied foreign manufacturers utilizing U.S. technology would have to get a license to offer semiconductors to Huawei. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's customer business group, had cautioned Huawei could run out of its own very good quality Kirin chips, which are made by Taiwanese firm TSMC.

In the mean time, Huawei and other cell phone producers are beginning to feel the effect of a worldwide shortage of semiconductors. Chips have been hard to come by this year, for the most part because of Covid-19-triggered factory closures and heightened demand for electronics. Huawei has put the lack on U.S. sanctions.

“Our products still maintain the ultimate performance,” Yu said Thursday. “Only a very small drop in speed will be experienced, almost negligible.”

“Huawei is a global leader in 5G technology and in communication technology,” he added. “Because of the four rounds of U.S. restrictions over the past two years or so, 5G phones are beyond our reach and we have to go with 4G.”

The Huawei P50 begins at a cost of 4,488 Chinese yuan ($695) while the P50 Pro beginnings at 5,988 yuan ($927).

Both P50 phones accompany Huawei's new operating system, HarmonyOS, which the organization acquainted accordingly with Google's decision to stop licensing its Android software to the firm because of U.S. trade limitations.

Yu said Thursday that in excess of 40 million Huawei clients have upgraded their phones to HarmonyOS 2, a new version of its software. Beginning from the next year, Huawei clients will actually want to redesign any model to HarmonyOS, he added.