Huawei is not done with phones yet. Last week, the telecommunication equipment maker revealed its latest folding phone and it may not please crease haters. The three previous generations of folding devices, the Mate X, Mate Xs, and Mate Xs 2, adopted an off-centered folding with the main display doubling as a secondary display when folded.
However, with the newest iteration, the Huawei Mate X3, it now folds like most mainstream folding phones. So, yeah, the main display closes like a book on itself and relies on a secondary display for the close mode. The trade-off is obvious: the crease line is more obvious as opposed to Mate Xs 2.
But on the flip side, Huawei managed to squash down the thickness to a mere 5.3 mm when open, and only 11.08 mm when closed. That’s just a few millimeters thicker than the Google Pixel 7 Pro, btw. It is absolutely bonkers. It is super lightweight too, tipping the scales at about 239g for the PU version or around 241g for the glass model. To put the weight in perspective, an iPhone 14 Pro Max weighs 240g.
The Huawei Mate X3 is probably a good phone for power users who do not need Google Services and 5G because is powered by HarmonyOS and the Snapdragon 8+ that powers it is a 4G variant. Despite these two major handicaps, the Huawei Mate X3 folding phone isn’t cheap. It has a starting price of 12,000 yuan, or about US$1,745 today.
For this price, you’d be getting Huawei’s XMAGE-powered imaging system comprising a 50 MP main camera, a 13 MP super wide-angle camera, and a 12 MP periscope telephoto camera with OIS. The latter supports up to 5x optical zoom and up to 50x digital zoom. The tri-camera cluster is on a so-called Universal Porthole design that isn’t perfectly round. It looks like a camera lens with open covers.
It has two 8 MP front-facing cameras, both are hole-punched cameras on the 6.4-inch flexible OLED variable refresh rate (1-120 Hz) display (2,504 x 1,080 pixels) and the 120 Hz 7.85-inch flexible OLED main display (2,496 x 2,224 pixels).
It comes outfitted with a 4,800 mAh battery (or 5,060 mAh for the China market) which supports 66 W wired charging and 50 W wireless charging, and 7.5 W reverse wireless charging. Some of the improvements over the last gens folding device include the folding mechanism supporting multiple angles of adjustment, supports wet fingers touch, and Harmony OS on this device supports multi-windows, allowing you to enjoy a split screen (up/down in landscape, or side-by-side in portrait).
A few other notables include a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, USB 3.1 (Type-C interface), Kunlun glass, IPX8 water resistance, and bi-directional BeiDou satellite messaging that allows sending and receiving text messages even when there is no cell coverage.
The Huawei Mate X3 is available to order in China, starting at 12,999 yuan. It will be available to the rest of the world for around €1,840 but exactly when is unclear.
Images: Huawei.
