Huawei Mate X: Is this the future of the mobile device industry?

Just like any other new segment, the foldable phones are met with as much fanfare and curiosity as expected. It’s new! It’s unusual! It looks like a sci-fi dream come true! But seeing videos and pictures of it on the internet does not hold a candle to actually getting to see and feel the device. We’re lucky to get a few minutes with Huawei’s interpretation of the foldable device, the Mate X. It left us in awe but also with a bunch of questions we eventually want to get actual answers to.

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In theory, it’s a simple idea to grasp. The Mate X is built to go from phone to tablet, and vice versa. With the push of a button, it folds out to reveal its 8-inch display. If you just want to use it as a phone, you fold it right back and you are faced with an uninterrupted 6.6-inch main display. We say uninterrupted because the usual front camera doesn’t exist on this device. You flip the device and you’ll be greeted by a “smaller” 6.4-inch screen beside a triple-camera system. While it mirrors what you see on the main display, this secondary screen serves more as the display you use when you want to take selfies, or when you want the subject of your photo to see themselves as you take the shot (which is a very useful feature).

This seamless transition between made possible with Huawei’s patented Falcon Wing Mechanical Hinge. Movable parts are understandably a cause for concern. How long will these continue to work before you break it? Does it feel like you can easily destroy them?

We were pleasantly surprised that it feels solid and sturdy in hand, unlike our initial reservations that it was anything but that. It resolutely locks in place when you want the device in tablet mode. It’s kept in its place when used as a phone thanks to a locking mechanism you can unlock with the push of a button. This decision to design the Mate X this way has also kept the device as flat as possible when folded.

Huawei boasts of the thinness of this device. When it’s folded, it’s at 11mm thick. When it’s in tablet mode it’s a mere 5.4mm thick. And it’s at these points that this hybrid device starts messing with your mind. As expected, it feels chunkier than normal when folded. But then it feels so much lighter than it should be in tablet mode. It also feels like it has a smaller footprint, whether you’re using it in phone or tablet mode. One-handed use is easier with the grip at the side. We imagine spending extended periods of time reading or watching in tablet mode won’t be an issue.

One other feature that’s going to mess with your mind is the feel of the screen. With glass unable to bend (yet), Huawei is stuck with using a kind of polymer plastic display. The company cautions that this is one of the areas they’re still developing until the planned mid-year launch, so we reserve our judgment until then. For now, all we can say is after getting used to glass and its rigidity, this feels a bit off-putting and strange. It’s responsive, but at the same time, the texture doesn’t feel quite as right. The display is still readable, even in the brightly-lit hotel lobby where we saw the device, but you’ll also contend with a bit of glare.

Despite that, this pre-production unit feels more polished than we expected it to be. The device’s response to switching from one mode to another is fast. For example, to access the rear display—which is off when you’re using the main screen—you just turn the device. It almost instantaneously expands the app you’re using when you open the Mate X in tablet mode, giving you more display to work with.

The camera is also still being finalized. You’ve seen online news that it matches the camera on the P20 Pro, but Huawei won’t give final specs just yet, so we have to wait until the product launches to pass judgment on its camera, too.

One question we’ve been really mulling over about the Mate X is who it’s built for. Huawei talks about what possibilities this phone-tablet hybrid offers for users. You can have two apps running side-by-side. For example, you can easily drag photos from your Gallery into an email you’re typing. Or it expands how much you can see in a game. Or you get to watch your favorite show on a bigger screen. Beyond that, we’re still wondering what this form factor can offer.

Plus, the tablet version of Android needs a lot of work. And as much as the device itself needs to be polished, its software needs to catch up, too. Huawei said they are working with Google and developers to optimize apps for this unique form factor. And we’re hoping they stick to their word. At this moment, we remain cautiously optimistic for this to happen.

This device is going to be sold after all. It isn’t just a concept. We need to make sure the Mate X is worth its very expensive price tag (which is at €2,299 or around P137,000). But at the same time, we understand at its core that this device is a peek into the future, a look into what mobile devices could look like.

We can’t say much about how this device is going to work on a day-to-day basis. You can only draw so many conclusions or raise questions after spending just around 15 minutes with the device. We can’t speak yet about how the displays or even 5G capability of this phone will impact battery life. We can’t say if the promised speeds of the 5G connection will deliver (Huawei claims you can download a 1GB movie in three seconds) or if the battery can really charge in the shortest amount of time. We can’t even say with certainty if Huawei will even bring the device here. There are as we said, in the beginning, a lot of questions we need to be answered, but we know we aren’t getting them for now. We are amazed that we get to ask these questions now, though. Who would’ve imagined this would come this soon?