Remember how Huawei tried to sell its 4G flip phone-style folding phone for an exorbitant amount? Clearly, that’s not for everyone. The good news is that if you are on a budget, the China telecommunication equipment maker has a tad affordable option (by folding phone standard, that is), the Huawei Pocket S. More on the pricing in a bit.
Anyhoo, I guess not riding on the P-series branding allows Huawei to go light on the sticker. Likewise, though, don’t expect the Huawei Pocket S to have blazing performance and oh, yeah, it is still 4G.
Aesthetically, it shares a similar design but is less flashy than the P50 Pocket. The external round camera module and the small circular external OLED display (1.04-inch, 340 by 340 pixels) are carried over from the original Pocket too. Huawei did not emphasize much on the folding mechanism but it did say it was certified for 400,000 folds.
The Pocket S is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 4G chip paired with Adreno 642L GPU. Strangely though, RAM wasn’t advised. However, we read that it has 8 GB. Though we can’t find it on the official spec sheet. Meanwhile, the ROM is offered in 128, 256, and 512 GB capacities, and the device also supports expandable storage (up to 256 GB).
When open up, the Pocket S boasts a 120 Hz 6.9-inch OLED FHD+ (2,790 x 1,188 resolution) display with 1.07 billion colors. The main camera is a dual-camera setup comprising a 40 MP main camera and a 13 MP ultra wide-angle camera, while the front is a 10.7 MP wide-angle camera.
It comes outfitted with a 4,000 mAh that supports 10V/4A Huawei super fast charging. Though there is no mention of wireless charging. Save for the lack of 4G, whatever a modern smartphone has, the Pocket S has it, including Wi-Fi 6E, BT 5.2, NFC, GPS L1+L5, along with A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, GALILEO, QZSS.
At this point, the new Harmony OS 3.0-powered Huawei Pocket S is only available in China with starting price of 5,988 RMB (or about US$842 today). At 5,988 RMB, it beats the new Motorola Moto Razr’s China starting price by a teeny weeny bit, making it the cheapest folding phone in the market.
Speaking of the third-gen Motorola Moto Razr, it is available in Europe for €1,199 and in the U.K. for £949.
Images: Huawei [CH].
