ALLPCB
Overview
Laboratory tests using a radio communication test set were performed on the smartphone. The device supports 5G, and the modem appears to be entirely China-made, which has not been seen previously in similar devices.
5G Capability Testing
Laboratory testing of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro used a radio communication test set to evaluate its 5G performance. The modem supports only 3GPP Release 15, whereas by late 2023 many new phones supported Release 17. Unless a firmware update is provided, the Mate 60 Pro modem will not be compatible with Release 17 features, which may also affect RF front end (RF FE) behavior. Compared with 2023 flagship smartphones, the device may lag in certain areas. The modem through RF front end and antenna radio appears likely to be 100% China-made, which is unusual compared with prior devices.
For 5G performance verification, a Rhode & Schwarz CMW/CMX500 BTS simulator was used. Results indicate the phone operates as a 3GPP Rel.15 device. Most contemporary smartphones now support Rel.17. The RF FE section appears to use components designed and manufactured in China.
Air Interface — RF Front End
The Huawei Mate 60 Pro’s RF front end appears to be built entirely with China-made components. This includes new power amplifier (PA) modules from vendors such as OnMicro. The transmit and receive paths use China-made system-in-package (SiP) modules and RF integrated circuits (RFICs), including SAW filters, showing a high level of integration and a compact overall design.
Mate 60 Pro uses only four types of RF FE SiP designs, which suggests limitations in supported band combinations and carrier aggregation (CA) that align with 3GPP Release 15 requirements. A new FR1 XCVR supports MIMO and the 5G bands n41, n78 and n79 (UHB). These China-produced FR1 transceivers are relatively uncommon and appear in variants around Unisoc themes, which hints at an evolution of a HiSilicon Hi6365-style design. Recently introduced signal trackers (ET/APT) also play a key role.
The RTFQ1B7s5 / 6631 FR1 XCVR die
Two-Way Satellite Communications
The Mate 60 Pro is marketed with mature two-way voice and data satellite communication functions, a first for mainstream smartphones. This satellite feature is not compatible with 3GPP non-terrestrial networks (NTN) Rel.17. The device is designated as a "satellite mobile device" rather than a conventional "digital phone", reflecting its satellite-focused design.
Two design options are provided: a single combined device (BB and XCVR IC), or a two-chip solution using AL80 and AL00 variants (BB IC and RF XCVR IC).
The satellite service connects to China Telecom’s Tiantong-1 satellite network and is limited to China Telecom SIM cards. This differs from Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen2 SoC approaches, which include dedicated hardware and processors for these functions that are not integrated into the baseband processor (BB) and therefore require additional components.
NFC SoC
Initial evaluation of the near-field communication (NFC) SoC indicates a China-made device is used rather than the typical NXP, STMicroelectronics, or Infineon NFC SoCs. The Mate 60 Pro adopts distinctive technical choices in its NFC implementation.
Die image from the NFC SoC module
Power and Battery
The battery model is ATL HB507181EHW-11, similar to the Honor Magic 5 Pro, but with slightly lower energy density performance (296 Wh/kg versus 306 Wh/kg for the Honor device). The Honor phone uses a pure graphite anode rather than a graphite and silicon-oxide mix. The wireless charging solution is centered on China-made integrated circuits, and the power management IC (PMIC) matches HiSilicon devices previously observed.
Other Features and Limitations
Support for 5G network-specific features is limited to those present in 3GPP Release 15. Available RF bandwidth and data throughput are constrained to 100 MHz, compared with Release 17 carrier aggregation capabilities up to 320 MHz. Support for several advanced features is limited or absent, including cellular IoT, advanced 5G positioning services, integrated access and backhaul, advanced V2X, 5G NR in unlicensed spectrum, dynamic spectrum sharing, improvements for industrial IoT and uRLLC (no time-sensitive networking support), and progress in 5G network slicing for standalone deployments. As a result, the phone operates in non-standalone modes that rely on LTE anchor channels and uplink paths.
Conclusion
The Huawei Mate 60 Pro includes several notable technical developments, especially in 5G RF front end design and two-way satellite communications, and illustrates advances in components manufactured in China. At the same time, the device exhibits technical limitations tied to its 3GPP Release 15 baseband, which should be addressed in future revisions.
