Huawei unveiled the Mate 70 Air, its thinnest smartphone to date, intensifying competition in the premium segment with a model priced at nearly half the cost of Apple’s iPhone Air.

At 6.6mm thick and 208 grams light, the Mate 70 Air is slightly bulkier than Apple’s latest handset but includes a larger 7-inch OLED display, stereo speakers and a substantial 6,500mAh battery, making fewer trade-offs than the e-SIM only iPhone Air.

Powered by the company’s in-house Kirin 9020 chipset, the Mate 70 Air runs on HarmonyOS 5.1 and offers up to 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The camera system includes a 50MP main sensor, a 12MP telephoto lens and an 8MP ultra-wide macro lens, alongside a Red Maple primary colour camera for enhanced colour accuracy.

Available for preorder in China, the device is priced at CNY4,199 ($590), coming in well below Apple’s $999 model.

The release comes as Chinese manufacturers intensify efforts to challenge Apple in the high-end segment after the US company introduced the Air branding to its smartphones for the first time with the iPhone 17 series launch in September.

However, the iPhone Air faced regulatory delays in China, with sales beginning more than a month late after authorities approved eSIM trials for the country’s three major operators.

Earlier in July, Huawei reclaimed the top spot in China’s smartphone market for the first time in more than four years even as the overall market contracted.

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