Looks like the fight for foldable phones is indeed on. After many patents and rumors, Huawei now launches its Mate X to steal the thunder by presenting itself as a fold above the rest. Huawei’s first foldable 5G smartphone is here. Samsung announced its Galaxy Fold last week, and within a week, Huawei entered the race showcasing a foldable phone with minimal bezels.
Huawei describes the Mate X as a product that will redefine the smartphone space, the future of design, and the future of technology, all in one. The Huawei phone has two OLED FullView Display panels on the outer body that help transform the hardware into an 8-inch tablet.
With Huawei Mate X, we bring the future of design and the future of technology – Richard Yu, CEO, Huawei Consumer Business Group
In the configuration, the main screen measures 6.6-inches and has a 2,480 x 1,148-pixel resolution. Huawei makes a point of calling this the main screen and says it’s the part of the phone people will use most often, hence the size. The Samsung Galaxy Fold’s outer screen is 4.6-inches, for comparison. On the back of the Mate X is a 6.38-inch, 2,480 x 892-pixel resolution screen.
We have seen the Huawei Mate X close-up, but have not held or interacted with the phone yet. The unfolding process is facilitated by what Huawei calls a Falcon Hinge, which hides beneath the curvature of the screen, ensuring both sides of the phone lay flat when folded. This results in a very slim profile of just 11mm thick.
The Mate X uses the Kirin 980 processor with the new 5000 5G modems, plus a quad 5G antenna inside. Huawei boasted about testing its 5G modem on live 5G networks and said it has twice the performance of Qualcomm’s old X50 chip with an integrated fingerprint sensor for additional security and a 4,500mAh battery.
There are three camera lenses on the Mate X; selfies are taken with the same camera lenses that you’d use to shoot regular photos. Though much is not known about the camera, Huawei said it is a brand new camera built with Leica. The company is said to activate another fourth camera later.
The novelty has been priced at EUR 2,299 (roughly Rs. 2, 09,400) for the 8GB RAM/ 512GB storage variant. The smartphone will go on sale from the middle of 2019. It comes in a single Interstellar Blue color option initially.
