Huawei’s first 5G phone in five years is headed to South Africa

This week, Huawei is launching the Pura 90s series outside of China.

If the “s” at the end of the model name is confusing you, Huawei is seemingly using it to denote that these devices are made for its markets outside of China, but for all intents and purposes, these are the same phones.

Crucially, however, in terms of the internal hardware, the Pura 90s series will support 5G connectivity.

This is notable as the last device to support 5G in South Africa from Huawei was the Mate 40 Pro in 2021, which debuted locally a couple of days before lockdown was imposed, and the US government barred Huawei phones from accessing Google Mobile Services (GMS).

Now, 5G is back on the table, although Google is still only available via third-party applications like GBox on Huawei phones. This will still be the case for the Pura 90s series, but the return of 5G support is significant given how long it has been missing on the company’s flagship hardware.

As for what is powering the 5G experience, the processor in the Pura 90s series is the Kirin 9030S, per the Malaysian Huawei website. That region, which is where the global launch event took place today, also has the Pura 90s Pro and 90s Pro Max available to pre-order.

For South Africa, we will need to wait until 16th July for those details to emerge, as this is when the regional launch for Middle East and Africa will take place. We should also get recommended pricing for the new flagship lineup, and we can then see which colourways are slated for SA.

Whether the addition of 5G is enough to win over local flagship phone fans remains to be seen, as GMS is still an important part of that puzzle, and an element that other Android phone makers do not need to worry about.

Either way, it is an important step for a mobile brand which has stumbled in recent years owing to ongoing tensions with the United States government. Once vying for the number one spot in South Africa in terms of market share, the return of 5G is significant for Huawei, so it will be interesting to see if local consumers deem it important, too.

Specifications for the Huawei Pura 90s Pro and 90s Pro Max are as follows: