Huawei has officially unveiled the Mate 80 series in China, and the headline feature isn’t the cameras or the chipsets, but the display.
Both the Mate 80 and Mate 80 Pro use the same 6.75-inch LTPO OLED panel, and Huawei claims it can reach a staggering 8,000 nits of peak brightness. That would make it the brightest smartphone display to date, at least on paper.
It’s an impressive jump for a series that already leans heavily on display quality. The panel supports a 1–120Hz adaptive refresh rate, 1280×2832 resolution, 1.07 billion colours, full P3 coverage, 1440Hz PWM dimming and a 300Hz touch sampling rate. It’s also protected by second-gen Kunlun Glass, which Huawei says offers better drop resistance than before.
Beyond the screen, the Mate 80 and Mate 80 Pro are nearly identical on the outside. Both phones feature a 3D ToF face-scanning camera, a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, and even support satellite communication.
Where they separate is performance: the Mate 80 runs on the Kirin 9020, while the Mate 80 Pro steps up to the Kirin 9030, which Huawei claims is 35% faster. There’s an even more powerful Kirin 9030 Pro inside the Mate 80 Pro Max, but that chipset doesn’t appear on these two models.
All versions start at 12GB RAM and top out at 16GB, while battery capacity is shared across the range, a sizable 5,750mAh cell. Charging speed is where the Pro earns its name, offering up to 100W and 80W wireless, compared to the Mate 80’s 66W and 50W wireless.
The camera setups look familiar but still capable. Both phones feature a 50MP main camera with variable f/1.4–f/4.0 aperture and Huawei’s RYYB sensor, plus a 40MP ultrawide.
The difference is in the zoom: the Mate 80 gets a 12MP 5.5x telephoto, while the Mate 80 Pro jumps to a 48MP f/2.1 telephoto, which should offer better low-light performance. All imaging is backed by Huawei’s second-gen Red Maple chip for improved tuning and colour.
The series ships with HarmonyOS 6, which includes a refreshed visual design and a set of new AI features.
The real showstopper, though, remains that 8,000nit claim, something we’re very interested to test in the real world once it gets a wider release in the coming months.
