Here’s all the latest news and rumours about its upcoming next generation – the Huawei P60 series.
When will the Huawei P60 series be released?
There’s no official word from Huawei about a release date, but we’ve already seen reports that the P60 range could make its debut in March 2023. The rumours comes from the wonderfully named ‘The factory manager is classmate Guan’ [translation from Google] who posted on Weibo that, ‘It is tentatively scheduled to be released at the end of the Q1 quarter’, and has since been repeated by the Chinese site MyDrivers. Looking back, the P50 series made its debut in China in August 2021, so we’re long overdue a successor, though Huawei no longer follows a strict annual timetable. As for an international launch, there could be even longer to wait. The P50 never launched outside China at all, while the P50 Pro only launched internationally in January 2022, half a year after its Chinese debut, and didn’t arrive in Europe until March. It was eventually joined by the foldable P50 Pocket in global markets at least. A recent article by Politico on the company’s restructuring in Europe sparked speculation that Huawei may give up trying to sell phone hardware in the region, but for the moment little is certain, and Huawei is maintaining a European presence and office, so there’s no reason yet to think we won’t see the phones launch there too. So, while the P60 range may be announced in March 2023, we can’t say with confidence which of the range will be available in different regions and when they may arrive.
How much will the Huawei P60 series cost?
As Huawei has yet to confirm the P60 series at all, we don’t have any set prices for the upcoming models. With that in mind, we can look at the previous couple of generations to see how they lined up.
Huawei P50 Pro – £1,099/€1,199/ ¥6,488 (approx. $1,299)Huawei P50 – ¥4,488 (approx. £500/€585/$695)Huawei P50 Pocket – €1,299 (approx. $1,450£1,100)Huawei P40 Pro – £899 (approx. $1,100)Huawei P40 – £699/€799
Obviously, the Pro model is quite a bit more expensive than the standard version, but that’s quite consistent with current flagships, as we’ve seen similar prices from Apple and Samsung. We don’t expect those numbers to drop much in the near future, so if you want the P60 Pro then you’ll probably be looking at a figure over a grand. Going by last year, it’s likely that we’ll see international launches for the Pro and Pocket, but probably not for the standard model.
What will the P60 specs and design be?
There’s been a flurry of rumours around the upcoming P60 series in the past few months, which is a sign that the devices could arrive in the not too distant future. Originally, we heard reports that Huawei was intending to use its proprietary Kirin series of processors this time around, though this would have required the company to find a new manufacturing partner to get around its US trade restrictions. Huawei stated to a Chinese reporter that this wouldn’t be the case, so it’s now expected that the P60 range will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, albeit probably only with 4G network support as the sanctions stop Huawei from accessing 5G components. More recently it’s been reported that instead the P60 Pro may use the slightly older and less powerful Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 – again, in a 4G version – which would make sense if the phone has been in development for some time. The same reports suggest we can expect a 6.6in 120Hz OLED display with a resolution of 1,440 x 3,200 on the P60 Pro, though there’s no word on the regular model’s display. Most of the information we have refers to the phones’ cameras. The Pro will supposedly pack a 50Mp main rear sensor (using a Sony IMX888), together with a 50Mp ultrawide (IMX858), 64Mp telephoto (OmniVision OV64B), and a 32Mp selfie shooter. Like the Huawei Mate 50 Pro, the P60 Pro will support a variable aperture on its main camera, and will also inherit that phone’s XMAGE imaging technology. He Gang, Hauwei’s President of Handset Business, announced at the Huawei Community Week last July that, “XMAGE brings a breakthrough for a mobile imaging system. HUAWEI has developed into a leader in the field of mobile camera technologies thanks to its earlier inventions and innovations, which helped to pioneer the industry…This is the condensation of our past innovations in the field of imaging and our commitment to the exploration of the field of imaging in the future. Breaking through new heights of moving images, so stay tuned.” The regular P60 will be different, with a 52Mp IMX789 main camera, the same 50Mp IMX858 ultrawide as the Pro, and a 16Mp telephoto (IMX351), and may also support variable aperture tech on its main camera. We also think we know a little about the P60 Pro’s battery. We can expect a generous 5500mAh cell, paired with fast 100W wired charging and 50W wireless. Naturally we’re also expecting to see a P60 Pocket foldable in the series, but as of yet we haven’t heard much about this handset. There’s not much else to go on at the moment, but we’ll be updating this article as soon as more details become available. In the meantime, take a look at our current recommendations for the best smartphones and the best new phones coming in 2023 to see what Huawei has to beat. Martyn has been involved with tech ever since the arrival of his ZX Spectrum back in the early 80s. He covers iOS, Android, Windows and macOS, writing tutorials, buying guides and reviews for Macworld and its sister site Tech Advisor.
