While Huawei’s Mate S smartphone will likely never make its way to Canada, it’s still an interesting device for a variety of reasons.
The first one is that it includes Force Touch, a feature that will sound familiar to Apple Watch and MacBook users. Like the similarly named vibration that is a significant part of the Apple Watch, and set to also be added to the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus in the near future, Huawei’s implementation of Force Touch measures how much pressure the user applies to their phone’s touchscreen.
The Android-based device features a 5.5-inch AMOLED display, a full metal back and front, an upgraded finger print scanner, and perhaps most interestingly, the ability to switch between apps through a technology Huawei is calling “Knuckle Sense,” allowing users to jump between applications by rapping their knuckles on the Mate S’s display. Oh, and it also doubles as a scale. Why? We’re not entirely sure.
It’s unclear why someone would want the ability to weigh a product with their smartphone, but those with creative (and possibly illicit enterprises) will likely find a purpose. To demonstrate the technology Huawei actually weighed an orange on stage. Yes, you read that correctly.
Similar to Apple’s Force Touch technology, the Huawei Mate S is able to detect how much pressure is applied to the screen, allowing for various functionalities like the ability to zoom in on photos, multitask and even close applications. What will make or break the feature is how many third-party app developers actually take advantage of the technology.
Huawei says it has no plans to launch the Mate S in the United States or Canada. The grey and champagne 3GB of RAM with 32GB of storage version of the handset is priced at €649. The premium gold and pink Mate S with 64GB of storage is priced at €699. The device is set to launch in the U.K. on September 15th.
Igor Bonifacic helped contribute to this story.
[source]Engadget[/source]
