Huawei Mate 80 Pro Max has the world’s brightest phone screen

Huawei has just launched its Mate 80 series in China, and the top-spec 80 Pro Max stands out for a dual-layer OLED display that Huawei says can hit an unmatched 8,000 nits of peak brightness. The Mate 80 phones are joined by a new Mate X7 foldable with IP59 dustproofing.

There are four Mate 80 phones, but the Pro Max is definitely the most exciting. Its 6.9-inch dual-layer OLED screen is said to be exceptionally bright at up to 8,000 nits — more than the 7,000 nits boasted by Realme in its recent GT 8 Pro, and far above the 3,300 nits claimed by the Pixel 10 Pro. There’s a big caveat to that: peak brightness figures only reflect how bright part of the screen can get in certain conditions, and don’t necessarily reflect real-world usage. But it still means you’d expect this panel to get brighter than most, which is important if you live somewhere sunnier than I do, and Huawei says the contrast should be excellent too.

All of the Mate 80 phones have moved to flat screens and squared-off sides, continuing a trend that’s seen almost every phone company move away from curves. The designs are interesting otherwise, with a prominent circle on the rear to highlight where the phone’s wireless charging coils are, which combines with the round camera module to resemble an eight.

The three phones are powered by Huawei’s own Kirin chips, and go up to 20GB of RAM in the Mate 80 RS Ultimate Design, which is mostly the same phone as the Pro Max, but with some design flourishes to justify an even higher price tag. Curiously, Huawei hasn’t followed its domestic rivals in the big battery race, capping out at a relatively modest 6,000mAh in the Pro Max. The cameras remain a selling point though, with dual periscope lenses in the top model, plus support for an add-on telephoto extender kit, which seems to be all the rage these days.

The new Mate X7 foldable, Huawei’s Galaxy Z Fold rival, also got an announcement. Its biggest upgrade is IP58 and IP59 dust and water protection, almost matching the IP68 dustproofing of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. It’s also been upgraded with a larger 5,600mAh battery, bigger screens, and the usual upgrades to chipset and camera specs.

This was a big launch for Huawei. Alongside the five phones the company announced new products across smartwatches, tablets, laptops, earbuds, TVs, and routers. They’re all only available in China for now, though some products are likely to get limited international launches in the future.