Huawei P Smart Z to be its first popup camera phone

While Huawei leads the way in smartphone cameras, it is slower to jump on trendier features. You'd have to look to Honor for things like sliders and punch-hole cutouts. That could be changing really soon with what has been named the Huawei P Smart Z. While a mid-range phone at heart, it will try to make its case by being the first Huawei-branded phone to come with that popup camera design.

You could say that Huawei is very late to the game. Most manufacturers have moved on from popups and sliders, although OPPO, one of the first in that game, just recently announced the OPPO Reno with what has been dubbed a "gum stick" (formally a "Pivot Rising Structure") camera. In contrast, the P Smart Z will be Huawei's first.

The image provided by LetsGoDigital at least presents a comforting picture. In exchange for that odd mechanism, you do get a large 6.59-inch 2340x1080 screen with almost no bezels on any side. The rising camera itself houses a 16 megapixel camera with an f/2.0 lens, nothing exactly special aside from the large sensor.

The Huawei P Smart Z is pretty much a mid-range phone through and through. Android 9 Pie runs on a Kirin 710 paired with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. There is a large 4,000 mAh battery that could very well last more than a day given those specs. There are only two cameras on its back, a 16 megapixel f/1.8 main sensor and a 2 megapixel camera probably for depth sensing.

There is no word yet on when this Huawei P Smart Z will launch but when it does, it could have a 210 EUR ($234) price tag. That could make it a rather tempting handset, then, and yet another treat that US consumers won't be able to get.