Huawei Mate 30 Doesn't Use American Parts

Huawei's Mate 30 smartphone announcement was overshadowed by a political storm going on around it. The Trump administration had banned US companies, including Qualcomm and Intel, from doing business with the Chinese manufacturer and many speculated whether the company would even be able to produce future devices at all.

That question has now been answered. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Mate 30 was built using no parts from the United States, according to an analysis by UBS and Japanese technology lab Fomalhaut Techno Solutions, which dismantled the phone to examine its components.

Before the trade ban, Huawei used a number of American companies to provide power management chips, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips, audio and power amplifiers, and antennas. Now, it's looking elsewhere, or bringing production in-house using HiSilicon, the company's chip design company. Audio chips previously sourced from Cirrus Logic have been provided by NXP from the Netherlands, while semiconductors are produced by Taiwanese company MediaTek.

In a statement to the Journal, a Huawei spokesman said it's the company's "clear preference to continue to integrate and buy components from US supply partners. If that proves impossible because of the decisions of the US government, we will have no choice but to find alternative supply from non-US sources."

While Huawei has not completely removed American companies from its business, its Y9 Prime and other Mate smartphones have a reduced number of US chips used. Phones launched since May have had US chips "eliminated." iFixit and Tech Insights have reportedly looked into the internals of the company's smartphones and come to similar conclusions.

A lack of American chips was not the only concern consumers had about the Mate 30. It also infamously launched without access to Google Play Services, meaning no access to Google's array of popular services such as YouTube, Google Maps, and the Play Store.

Huawei offers its own app store, called AppGallery, to provide alternatives to the apps that are missing on its smartphones, but many of the top-ranking apps are poor imitations and would not inspire confidence for new users. The company is also developing its own operating system based on open-source Android called HarmonyOS, but is keeping its cards close to its chest about the development of the software.

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For a time, the trade ban was predicted to impact other areas of Huawei's business. Microsoft had previously pulled Huawei laptops from its online store raising questions about whether the Chinese company would be able to use the Windows 10 operating system, especially when devices were reportedly running Linux. Last month, however, the US Commerce Department granted Microsoft a license to once again "export mass-market software" to Huawei.

Huawei P30 Pro