You'll have to answer a quiz about the Mate 30 Pro if you want to register your interest

If you can get past the fact that you won’t be able to use Google apps and services (the loophole’s closed too, sorry), then by all means, get Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro. 

Folks in Singapore will soon be able to purchase Huawei’s latest flagship smartphone for the flagship price of $1,298. But there are some caveats you should know about before you can even get your hands on what is officially the best smartphone shooter.

First off, there’re only a limited number of Mate 30 Pros available — only 200 customers will be chosen to be part of an exclusive group who’ll be able to test out and purchase the phone in a private event. 

And if you do want to be one of the lucky few invited, you’ll have to first register your interest for the Mate 30 Pro on the Huawei website before Oct 16.

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“200 successful registered users, as determined by Huawei, will be invited to attend a VIP tasting relating to HUAWEI Mate 30 Series to be held on Oct 25 and )ct 26,” wrote Huawei in its description. Applicants will receive a call or email between Oct 16 and Oct 24 if they've been picked. 

Oh, and you can't just key in your email address and be done with it — you really have to be interested in getting Huawei’s latest and greatest. Customers have to run the gauntlet of answering questions about the Mate 30 Pro, including its battery capacity, digital zoom capability, and video-taking frame rates, among other tech specs. 

To be fair, they’re all multiple-choice questions, and the answers are easily searchable on Google. But when the registration form includes questions like your current smartphone model and if you’ve ever recommended Huawei devices to others, you can’t help but suspect that the company’s trying to weed out the casuals from longtime fans. 

Interestingly enough, the page even requires customers to tick a checkbox that states their understanding that the Mate 30 Pro uses Huawei Mobile Services instead of Google’s equivalent. 

There is a perfectly understandable reason for Huawei to make it a little bit harder for people to register for the event though. Successful Mate 30 Pro buyers will be entitled to a respectable gift package that includes a phone case, a wireless car charger, a supercharge power bank, and DJI Osmo’s latest smartphone gimbal — all of which are worth $463 in total. 

Applicants who fail to be picked but still want to purchase the phone will only be able to do so later this year, after Huawei increases the supply of its units.

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It shouldn’t be surprising either that the Chinese tech giant is being cautious about its cache of Mate 30 units. On a technical aspect, publications like Wired and Android Authority have lauded the phone’s pure power in performance and camera capabilities. But reviewers have found it hard to recommend for purchase for the average user because you can’t install or use Google apps and any other apps you can typically download from Google Play store.

ilyas@asiaone.com