News

Huawei Mate 40 series now official

The series is still an engineering marvel

Published

October 22, 2020

Rodneil Quiteles

It’s like clockwork now for Huawei. Every year at around this time, they unveil a new Mate series. This time it’s the Mate 40 series consisting of the Mate 40, Mate 40 Pro and Mate 40 Pro+.

Each Mate release is the company pushing the boundaries of how much tech they can pack on a smartphone that we carry around all day. The Mate 40 series is no different.

Iconic Space Ring Design

So, yeah. This.

Jokes aside, Huawei says it’s an evolution of the Mate line’s circular and symmetrical design. They didn’t exactly expound on how this particular look is form-meeting-function but hey, it helps them stand-out. If that’s the function, then it’s done its job. More on the rear camera tech later on.

Overall, the Mate 40 series looks and feels very Mate-y — curved body for an easy hold, IP68 rating, immersive viewing, and all that jazz.

In front inside a small cut-out is the selfie camera packed with the usual: 3D Face Unlock, Ultra Vision Selfie Camera, and Smart Gesture control.

Rounding up the “look” section are the colors. The Mate 40 and Mate 40 Pro will come in Black, White, and Mystic Silver. There are also two leather variants: Yellow and Green.

Meanwhile, the Mate 40 Pro+ will come in Ceramic White and Ceramic Black.

An all-around camera

Huawei’s mobile camera tech is one of the best in the business and there’s more of the same in the Mate 40 series.

The three phones come with an array of camera features found in Huawei phones past, all improved and upgraded. There’s Dual Cine Cameras, Steady Shot, Tracking Shot, Audio Focus, Audio Zoom and the list goes on.

In terms of the numbers on those cameras, take a look at this.

Mate 40	Mate 40 Pro	Mate 40 Pro+
50 MP, f/1.9, 23mm (wide), 1/1.28	50 MP, f/1.9, 23mm (wide), 1/1.28	50 MP, f/1.9, 23mm (wide), 1/1.28
8 MP, f/2.4, (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, optical zoom	12 MP, f/3.4, 125mm (periscope telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 5x optical zoom	12 MP, f/2.4, (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
16 MP, f/2.2, (ultrawide)	20 MP, f/1.8, 18mm (ultrawide), PDAF	8 MP, f/4.4, 250mm (periscope telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 10x optical zoom
	TOF 3D, (depth)	20 MP, f/2.4, (ultrawide), PDAF
		TOF 3D, (depth)

A leap in performance

Every single phone in the Mate 40 series is powered by Kirin 9000 5G. Huawei is calling it “the most sophisticated 5nm 5G SoC available.”

It features a three-level power efficiency architecture with cores running at clock frequencies of up to 3.13Ghz. Really, all you need to know is it’s extremely powerful, extremely efficient, and it’s close to mind-boggling the things that it enables the phone to do.

The 24-core Mali-G78 GPU on the Mate 40 Pro and Mate 40 Pro+ is the most powerful GPU ever on a Huawei device. It’s great for intense graphic performance and works well with the 90Hz screen refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate.

Of course, having 5G means it’s gonna take a toll on the battery. The Mate 40 has a 4,200mAh capacity while the Mate 40 Pro and Mate 40 Pro+ have 4,400mAh. But more than the numbers, Huawei says the phones are equipped with tech to handle the demands of 5G.

Configurations are as follows:

Mate 40 — 8GB+128GB and 8GB+256GB
Mate 40 Pro — 8GB+256GB
Mate 40 Pro+ — 12GB+256GB

A new user experience

We’ve already been introduced to EMUI 11 and all it’s wonderful features. So there’s all of that plus a handful of improvements in several areas.

Smart Gesture Control makes a return. It’s the feature that lets you hover your hand over the device to wake it up, navigate, and answer a call. Like magic!

Huawei is also expanding Petal Search to Petal Maps, essentially replacing everything it lost with Google and putting their own stamp on it while making sure to communicate that it’s all private and secure.

Other devices

During the launch, Huawei also introduced a handful of other devices:

Porsche Design Mate 40 Pro RS
Porsche Design Huawei Watch GT 2
Huawei Freebuds Studio
Huawei x Gentle Monster Eyewear II
Sound wireless HiFi

Apps

Canva teams up with SB19 to turn A’TIN’s passion into creativity

Campaign lets fans access assets, editable templates, more

Published

August 8, 2026

GadgetMatch

Canva Philippines has joined forces with SB19 and Sony Music Entertainment to launch the “Kaya sa Canva” campaign.

This first-of-its-kind initiative is aimed at transforming the popular Filipino boy band’s fanbase into creators by giving them access to official design assets, exclusive templates, and powerful creative tools.

That’s of course as fans have a way of creating artwork, banners, and more outputs to honor their idols.

As such, the partnership enables the A’TIN (SB19’s fanbase) to access the Canva-exclusive SB19’s Creative Hub.

This dedicated space lets fans access assets, including SB19-inspired sticker packs, custom typography, and editable templates inspired by the group.

Fans around the world will initially have access to templates for photo-booth strips, wallpapers, posters, and videos.

The campaign will then expand with Canva-exclusive assets celebrating the group’s New Era, as well as their latest single, “Lawless”.

Meanwhile, the original song “KAYA” is accompanied with an upbeat music video, doubling as a love letter to A’TIN and a masterclass in Canva’s tools.

Every visual and animation is fan-inspired, a celebration of the creativity, passion, and dedication that’s defined in the community from day one.

News

The iPhone 18 might sell out for an unexpected reason

The ongoing shortage might play a part in the phone selling out earlier than expected.

Published

August 7, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

An iPhone selling out is not news. Because of how popular the phones are, it’s within the realm of probability that Apple runs out of stock at some point. According to a new report, this year won’t be any different… but it’s for an entirely different reason.

First reported by analyst Tim Culpan, Apple is reportedly struggling to meet its demand for semiconductors for the iPhone 18 and the foldable iPhone. The ongoing memory shortage is cutting off Apple’s ability to deliver the required supply of smartphones in a timely fashion. The report even claims that TSMC, which helps produce the iPhone, is sitting on a shipment of processors, worth US$ 1 billion, that don’t have memory chips.

Now, Apple is still confident that it can weather the launch. However, if the shortage persists, the iPhone 18 generation will likely sell out much more quickly than expected.

It’s an interesting time for Apple to experience such a shortage. It’s been heavily rumored that the company will launch its very first foldable phone next month, creating a new market for the brand. Apple definitely wants this attempt to succeed after the tepid response to its last new product, the Vision Pro.

News

These “smart” glasses just sold out in under a week

DuckDuckGo touts that these glasses have zero AI, zero cameras, and an infinite battery life.

Published

August 7, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

Smart glasses are in a weird place right now. While a chunk of the population views them as cool and innovative, another significant chunk sees them as a privacy nightmare. If you’re in the latter group but want to see what life is like on the former, DuckDuckGo has a new product: a pair of anti-surveillance glasses with no camera or AI, otherwise known as just normal sunglasses.

If it’s not obvious, yes, it’s a troll product. DuckDuckGo is a search engine famously known for pushing privacy as a priority, opposing Google’s penchant for advertising and AI. Now, the search engine is taking on the smart glasses market.

Partnering with Knockaround, DuckDuckGo released the Paso Robles, a pair of sunglasses touted as having zero cameras, an always-offline mode, and a battery life of infinity.

It’s a statement piece. The rims have a logo mark, similar to the Meta’s glasses. The packaging also states that the glasses are “designed to block the sun, not send data to the cloud.”

Now, if you want a pair, they cost only US$ 35, as opposed to Meta’s US$ 299 price tag, but they are already sold out.

Which says quite a bit about today’s sentiment against AI and for privacy. Of course, to be fair, DuckDuckGo’s supply is certainly less than Meta’s stock for their smart glasses. It does, however, prove that the sentiment is there.

As of now, the world is slowly realizing that unimpeded smart glasses aren’t such a good idea, leading to people concerned about their privacy. In fact, some states have already started banning the technology in certain public spaces.