Huawei won’t be announcing a follow up to its flagship P series until after 2019 Mobile World Congress (MWC), but to the surprise of everyone (or not), it has chose to unveil a ‘surprise’ device, a foldable smartphone called Huawei Mate X. Hot after Samsung unveiling of its first foldable smartphone last week, the Chinese telecom giant’s handset arm is quick to follow up with its own iteration of foldable smartphone in a MWC pre-briefing, becoming the third handset maker to have a foldable phone with a price and availability. But more on that later.
Like Samsung’s fanciful Dynamic AMOLED Infinity Flex Display, Huawei also can’t help but to get fancy with giving a name to its flexible display technology, calling it “Falcon Wing” design. But really, it is just a stretchable hinge that is necessary for folding to happen. It is bigger than Samsung’s iteration, however, with the phone form factor coming in at 6.6-inch and opens up to an 8-inch tablet. Also different from Samsung is, it technically has one display, as opposed to 2 found on the Samsung Galaxy Fold. When looking at the display in tablet form, the display folds back, turning the large display into two displays: one serving as the main display while the other, the back of the device.
Another difference is, Mate X does not folds exactly at the center. It is kind of off-set, allowing the back of device to come together with the “wing” thingy which houses the camera modules and sensors. In tablet form, it offers a 8:71 aspect ratio with 2,480 x 2,200 pixels and in phone mode, the main display has a longish 19.5:9 aspect ratio with 2,480 x 1,148 resolution while the rear has an awkwardly narrow aspect ration of 25:9 (2,480 x 892 pixels). As for profile, it is 11 mm thick when folded, but becomes just 5.4 mm thin when open.
In the imaging department, it does not has as many cameras as the Galaxy Fold. It has a total of four camera, with the main shooter being a Leica three-camera setup comprising of a 40 MP wide-angle lens, a 16 MP ultra-wide angle lens, and a 8 MP telephoto lens, and there is a lone camera that will be activated later. Not sure what that means, though. Like Samsung’s, the device will allow multi-tasking and seamless transition of display and apps between the two forms, and also, it is a 5G device, powered by the world’s first 7 nm 5G multi-mode modem, Balong 5000, while clockwork is afforded by Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin 980 SoC.
There is no fancy under display fingerprint though; instead it is integrated into the power switch located to the side. And finally, the Mate X will get a 4,500 mAh from a two-pack setup with support for Huawei’s 55W SuperCharge that will take the battery from naught to 85 percent with 30 minutes of recharging.
Now, for the awesome (or not) news. Huawei said the Huawei Mate X Foldable Smartphone will land sometime in June or July in Europe, obviously, and at an account-busting €2,300 which works out to a grand 2,609 American dollars. Shocking, indeed.
Images: Twitter (Huawei).
