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HUAWEI says cheap 5G phones are coming next year
July 18, 2025
The first wave of5G phoneslaunched this year have largely been expensive, with the likes ofLG,Samsung, andHuaweiall touting $1000+ price tags for their devices.
Now, HUAWEI consumer business group CEO Richard Yu has told journalists that cheap 5G phones will be a reality in 2020.
“5G will definitely hit mid-range and even low price range definitely from next year (sic),” Yu told journalists at the Mate 30 event.“This year (our) premium segmentation is 5G, next year we will go to middle tier 5G smartphones, and later on, the low tier.”
HUAWEI adopted theKirin 810as the chipset of choice for mid-range phones in 2019, so we’re likely looking at a follow-up with 5G next year. The firm doesn’t really have dedicated low-end chipsets though, but it shifted 2018’sKirin 710processor, originally designed for mid-range phones, to lower tier devices in 2019. So it’s possible we could see a 5G-enabled successor to the Kirin 710.
In fact, Yu suggests that consumers might not want to buy a 4G device due to the coming wave of 5G phones. Then again, if the U.S. trade ban against HUAWEI isn’t lifted, you might be forced to buy an older 4G deviceif you want pre-installed Google support.
Either way, 5G connectivity is slated to hit a variety of price points in 2020. Samsung’sExynos 980, set to land in phones from next year, offers an integrated modem for upper mid-range devices. Meanwhile,Qualcommhasannouncedthat it’s bringing 5G to Snapdragon 600, 700, and 800 series chipsets. So even without HUAWEI in the picture, it looks like cheap 5G phones will be available.
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