Farewell to the physical SIM: Huawei Mate 80 Air is ready to make the leap to beat the iPhone Air

The smartphone market is witnessing a new trend focused entirely on the slimness of design, inaugurated in 2025 with the debut of the first Air models. Although giants like Apple and Samsung have faced several commercial difficulties with this new product category, Huawei managed to reverse the trend with the success of its Mate 70 Air, capable of selling 120,000 units in just twelve days from the launch.

Following this milestone, the latest rumors confirm that the Chinese company is already at work on the next generation, the probable Huawei Mate 80 Air, which promises to address the previous limitations.

Huawei Mate 80 Air will aim to challenge the iPhone Air with an even thinner and lighter design

The real heart of the debate around the upcoming Mate 80 Air concerns the definitive removal of the physical SIM card. Although rumors indicated a total transition already for the previous model, Huawei Mate 70 Air arrived on the market maintaining the traditional physical slot.

The result of this choice is a thickness of 6.6 mm and 208 grams, compared to the 5.64 mm and 165 grams of the iPhone Air. Therefore, to obtain an even thinner and lighter design, it will be necessary to fully embrace the eSIM support, just as done by the Cupertino model.

For the upcoming model this year, leaked information suggests Huawei is preparing big surprises on the eSIM technology front. It is very likely that the company will decide to eliminate the mechanical bulk of the SIM slot in favor of digital, to obtain an internal structure even more optimized and slim.

The Mate 80 series was launched in November in China while Mate 80 Pro will arrive in Europe on 26 February. At the moment it seems that the international debut is set for a single model, so it remains to be seen whether there will be room (in the future) also for an Air variant.