Huawei has launched its 5G foldable phone at the MWC in Barcelona. The new Mate X from Huawei was formally announced at the pre-MWC conference. The phone features two OLED FullView display panels on either side that can be unfolded to transform the device into an 8-inch tablet. The Mate X also comes with a 2-in-1 camera that is powered by Leica optics. Further, the device is powered by HiSilicon Kirin 980 SoC and supports 5G carriers to deliver faster data access with low latency.
Huawei has launched the Mate X as a direct competition to the Samsung Galaxy Fold which has an Infinity Flex display. Nevertheless, unlike the Galaxy Fold, the Mate X comes with a Falcon Wing design and offers FullView display without a notch.
Other companies like Xiaomi and Oppo are also reportedly working on their respective foldable devices.
Huawei has priced the Mate X at EUR 2,299(₹2,09,400 roughly) globally for the 8GB RAM/512GB storage variant. The smartphone is slated to go on sale in the middle of 2019. As of now, the Mate X comes with Interstellar Blue color variant. The company has also brought a Full Protection case to ensure the protection of the device.
Huawei is primarily giving the Mate X to different carriers for 5G testing. The company has also announced that it will be bringing a 5G variant of the Mate 20X.
In terms of specifications, the Mate X comes with two FullView display panels compromising of a 6.38-inch and a 6.6-inch FullView display that can be unfolded to bring an 8-inch FullView display. The device, when folded, offers a 6.6-inch FullView display at the front with a resolution of 1148×2480 pixels and 19.5:9 aspect ratio.
The folded display of the Mate X is touted to be apt for one-handed usage. Nevertheless, Huawei, at its conference, showcased that the 6.6-inch display is larger than the displays on iPhone XS Max and Samsung Galaxy Fold–when folded.
At the back, the Huawei Mate X has a 6.38-inch display with 892×2480 pixel count and 25:9 aspect ratio. The back display can also be used to capture selfies. When unfolded, the Mate X offers an 8-inch display with a 2480×2200 pixels resolution along with an 8:71 aspect ratio. Huawei also took a stab at Samsung by showcasing that the Mate X, when unfolded offers an 8-inch display without a cut-out, whereas Samsung Galaxy Fold provides a 7.2-inch display when unfolded with a cutout for the selfie camera.
“With Huawei Mate X, we bring the future of design and the future of technology,” Richard Yu, CEO, Huawei Consumer Business Group, at the pre-MWC conference.
According to Huawei, the Mate X has a patented hinge design with over 100 components that took its engineers three years to finalize.
When unfolded, the Mate X has a thickness of 5.4mm that is thinner than the 5.99mm thickness of iPad Pro and 6.99mm of “other foldable phone”. The phone, when folded, comes with an 11mm thickness over the 17mm “other foldable phone”.
The device is powered by HiSilicon Kirin 980 SoC coupled with an 8GB of RAM. Huawei has included the Balong 5000 5G chipset, that comes as the world’s first 7nm modem and delivers up to 4.6/ 2.5Gbps downlink/ uplink speeds on Sub-6GHz. On mmWave, the chipset can deliver up to 6.5/ 3.5Gbps downlink/ uplink speeds. The phone has also included a quad 5G antenna that comes integrated into the device. Moreover, Huawei claimed that the Mate X is capable of supporting not just the initial NSA network architecture but also the SA architecture that would debut in the future.
At the camera front, the device features a 2-in-1 front and rear camera setup that is powered by Leica optics. The camera setup includes three cameras compromising of a 40-megapixel sensor (wide-angle lens), 16-megapixel (ultra-wide-angle lens), and an 8-megapixel sensor (telephoto). The rear display can also be used as a mirror that lets users show the preview of what they’re capturing to others.
The Huawei Mate X comes with 512GB onboard storage that can be expanded up to 256GB using a microSD card. Connectivity options include 5G, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS/ A-GPS, NFC, and a USB Type-C port. Also, the phone packs two battery packs that jointly offer 4,500mAh of capacity. Huawei Mate X supports 55W SuperCharge wireless charging technology that is rated to deliver 85 percent of power in 30 minutes of charge.
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