Huawei Mate X2 Folding Smartphone

Huawei has just revealed a new folding phone. The Huawei Mate X2, as it is called, is the third folding phone following the Mate X and Mate Xs announced in February of 2019 and 2020, respectively. This 3rd-gen of Huawei folding device sure has a lot to shout about.

Huawei Mate X2 Folding Smartphone

With this new Huawei Mate X2, it gets two displays: an internal 8.01-inch foldable flexible display and an external 6.45-inch flexible OLED display. The latter allows it be used as a regular candy bar smartphone with its hole-punch edge-to-edge display.

The 8.01-inch display has a “golden ratio” of 8:7.1, 2,480 x 2,200 resolution, and 180 Hz touch sampling rate, while the 6.45-inch item has cinematic ratio of 21:9, 2,700 x 1,160 resolution, and 240 Hz touch sampling rate. Both displays have 90 Hz high refresh rate.

Huawei Mate X2 Folding Smartphone

The internal tablet-size display touts a so-called “magnetron nano optical film” that promised less than 1.5% reflection rate that should read well even under the sun. But really, the biggest improvement here is perhaps in the overall folding design and the folding mechanism.

The device boasts a double helix “water drop” folding mechanism that cleverly hides the inevitable bump of the folded display inside. This result in a totally flat folded device. The new hinge design also claims to achieve a flatness rate of over 40%, achieving a new flat display when opened up.

Huawei Mate X2 Folding Smartphone

Moreover, the hinge is said to be 75% lighter – thanks to the carbon fiber composite on the supporting panels while Zirconium-based liquid metal in the central axis and super strong steel construction makes the hinge 3x harder and 2x stronger. The latter is said to be able to sustain over 2,100 Mpa of pressure. That’s on paper. I am sure nobody would put it to the test.

Another interesting design feature is the so-called double wedge design in which one side of the device is thicker than the other side. When viewed from the end, it appears to be two wedges (hence the name). The thick side is necessary to the new Leica camera system.

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When folded down, the double wedge design result in a regular rectangular block with no gap in between. Very clever design indeed. The thick-to-thin design also puts CG on the right hand for a balance hold, said Huawei.

Huawei Mate X2 Folding Smartphone

Under the hood, the device is powered by Kirin 9000, the “first” 5 nm SoC featuring octacore process that tops out at 3.13 GHz, along with “the world’s first” 24-core Mali-G78 GPU, 2 big core + 1 small core NPU and Quad ISP.

And then there’s the unique Dual SIM system that allows both SIM card to work simultaneously. This means one SIM could be in a call, while the other SIM can receive incoming calls, for example.

Huawei Mate X2 Folding Smartphone

Other highlights include an ultra-thin stereo speaker, 4,500 mAh battery, 55W quick charge, multi-tasking and multi-windows support, a 16 MP wide-angle selfie camera, and a Leica Quad camera setup comprising of a 50 MP “Ultra Vision” wide angle camera with OIS, a 16 MP Cine ultra-wide angle camera, a 12 MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and OIS, and an 8 MP SuperZoom camera with 10x optical zoom and OIS.

The new Huawei Mate X2 Folding Smartphone is offered in four colors (white, blue, pink and black) and with 8 GB RAM and a choice of 256 GB or 512 GB storage.

Sale of the Huawei Mate X2 will start on February 25 in China, with the 256 GB going for 17,999 yuan (around US$2,787) and the 512 GB model costing 18,999 yuan (about US$2,941).

Huawei Mate X2 Folding Smartphone

Each device will come with a special case with integrated stand as well as a dedicated smartphone holder for in-vehicle use.

And oh, it will run EMUI 11.0 based on Android 10 out-of-the-box. But not for long. During the launch event, Huawei also announced that HarmonyOS will start to roll out this April to Huawei’s flagship devices and the Mate X2 will be the first to get the new OS. Finally.

All images courtesy of Huawei.