Huawei joins the fold, launches Mate X

Last night, Huawei unveiled its take on the foldable device with the debut of the Mate X. This phone/tablet hybrid can be differentiated from the Samsung Galaxy Fold instantly.

Advertisement

One, the display folds outwards, if you want to go from phone to tablet. It’s able to do so thanks to Huawei’s patented Falcon Wing design, its hinge that has over 100 components. From the looks of it, the company manages to keep the Mate X as thin as it could be. When spread out, it’s just 5.4mm thick, which is even slimmer than the iPad Pro. When folded, it is 11mm thick. Thanks to its design, it remains flat when in phone mode.

You get three different displays, so to speak. When in tablet mode, it’s an 8-inch display with an 8:7.1 aspect ratio and 2,480 x 2,200 resolution. The main phone screen has a 6.6-inch display with 19.5:9 aspect ratio and 2,480 x 1,148 resolution. And the other display in the back is a 6.4-inch screen with a 25:9 aspect ratio and 2,480 x 892 resolution.

Another difference is you get a grip at one side of the device, which houses some major components. There is a three-camera system that Huawei hasn’t specified yet; the power button, which houses a fingerprint sensor; and the USB-C charging port. Just like the Galaxy Fold though, there doesn’t seem to be a headphone jack in sight.

Huawei didn’t place cameras at multiple points. By keeping it in one place, it doesn’t cut out into the display. It’s also easier to take selfies as well as photos of others. You just need to turn it to the screen at the back to see how your selfies look while you shoot. If you’re taking a photo of someone else, they can see how they look from that rear display, which means they can’t blame you if the photo comes out bad.

The Mate X is powered by the Kirin 980, which is the same processor as the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Honor View 20. As the company has been boasting, it has Huawei’s Balong 5000 5G modem and quad antenna array, which means it is capable of twice the speed of the Snapdragon X50 mode at 4.5Gbps (as compared to Qualcomm’s 2.3Gbps speeds). In actual use, this means you can download a 1GB movie in just three seconds. Now, when compared to 4G, it’s 10x faster. While 5G isn’t something we have completely rolled out at the moment, this does assure you that it’ll be ready for the network when it comes.

The Mate X has a 4,500mAh battery, and what sets it apart from Samsung’s is that Huawei is bundling a 55-watt SuperCharge charger with this device. It promises to get you up to 85 percent in 30 minutes.

It also has 8GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. The Mate X will support Huawei’s smaller nano memory cards.

One worry about this device is the durability of the display. Huawei promises it’ll have a cover case to protect the screen. Another concern is the durability of the hinge mechanism, but that’s something we’re going to discover when this device eventually comes out. And you also have to worry about how Huawei will implement software for this device. Right now all the talk is centered around its hardware.

All this technology comes at a hefty price, though. The Mate X will be available in the middle of the year for €2,299, which is around P135,000, and it’ll only be available in Interstellar Blue.