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This phone has an in-screen fingerprint sensor, four cameras

The Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS phone also has crazy amounts of internal storage and wireless charging.

Aloysius Low Senior Editor

Aloysius Low is a Senior Editor at CNET covering mobile and Asia. Based in Singapore, he loves playing Dota 2 when he can spare the time and is also the owner-minion of two adorable cats.

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Aloysius Low

March 27, 2018 10:14 a.m. PT

2 min read

porschedesignhuaweimaters1 — Huawei has a top-of-the-line phone with crazy specs -- including an in-screen fingerprint reader.
Huawei

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If you thought Huawei's P20 Pro brought the heat with three cameras on the back, the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS ups the ante with a fingerprint reader built into the display.

That makes this mouthful of a phone the second to boast a trio of cameras on the back (after the Mate P20 Pro) and the first non-Vivo device to host an in-screen fingerprint reader (see: this awesome Vivo concept phone). Oh, and if you're wondering, the Mate RS stands for "Race Sport".

A fingerprint sensor embedded into the display makes more room on the phone face for the screen because it doesn't drop a physical button beneath the display, unlike the Mate P20 Pro. (Some Android phones solve for this by putting a fingerprint sensor on the back.)

The three cameras, co-designed with high-end camera brand Leica, include a 40-megapixel main camera, a 20-megapixel monochrome lens and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens, as in the Mate P20 Pro.

Watch this: Huawei P20 Pro is the first phone with 3 rear cameras

02:45

These next-generation features demonstrate Huawei's desire to innovate. The world's third-largest phone maker currently trails behind Apple and Samsung -- it needs to lead rather than follow if it wants to grow past its two global competitors.

But Huawei faces an uphill battle gaining new audience in key countries like the US. Concerns over spying have prompted the US government to recommend that people avoid buying Huawei phones. AT&T and Verizon were said to both back out of carrier deals due to political pressure, as has retailer Best Buy.

porschedesignhuaweimaters2 — The Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS also features wireless charging.
Huawei

The Porsche Design Mate RS takes the Huawei P20 Pro and adds that in-screen fingerprint reader, mega-storage (there are 256GB and 512GB options) and wireless charging, plus those Porsche Design aesthetics.

You also get a 6-inch, curved 18:9 OLED display with 2,880x1,440-pixel resolution. Like the P20 Pro, this phone crams in a 4,000 mAh battery with an IP67 rating for water and dust-resistance. It's powered by Huawei's Kirin 970 chip and runs Android 8.1.

However, the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS has an eye-searing price tag. You'll have to fork out the starting price of 1,695 euros, which converts to $2,100, £1,500 or AU$2,700, for the model with 6GB RAM and 256GB of storage.

The limited edition Mate RS is set to launch on April 12 in China, Hong Kong and Macau, followed by France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Switzerland. Australian availability was not announced, but the Mate RS is expected to launch in the middle of May in Southeast Asia, according to Malaysian tech site Lowyat.