Huawei launches its first 5G phone in UK

Chinese telecom giant Huawei on Thursday officially brought its first commercial 5G smartphone to the UK, as British carriers are set to provide 5G network services in some areas of the country soon.

The new handset, which is the 5G version of Huawei's mega-sized Mate 20 X firstly released in late 2018, will be available to British consumers in June, and pre-orders will open from late May.

Visitors take images of Huawei's new foldable 5G smartphone HUAWEI Mate X at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), on February 24, 2019 in Barcelona.[Photo: AFP]

At the event in London, the company introduced that the 5G version of the phone is different in two major ways. It supports up to 40W supercharge instead of 22.5W of the existing 4G model and is compatible with the M-Pen stylus, similar to the S-Pen in the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and other similar devices.

Earlier this year, Huawei unveiled its first foldable 5G commercial handset during the 2019 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February. It is also expected to arrive at UK shores in the second half of 2019.

The UK has been in the leading position among European countries with regard to the development of 5G, and several carriers are planning to launch 5G services this year.

Vodafone said on May 14 that it would start from this July to provide 5G Internet in seven cities including London and roll out the service to another 12 cities by the end of this year.

Carriers including EE, O2, Three and Vodafone have announced they will stock the Huawei Mate 20 X 5G, which joins a handful of 5G-enabled handsets already coming to the UK, including the Oppo Reno, Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and Galaxy Fold.