Huawei Mate X Foldable Phone with 5G announced at MWC 2019

Huawei at MWC 2019 just announced the Mate X, a foldable phone and the first of its kind with 5G connectivity. Samsung also unveiled its foldable smartphone called the Galaxy Fold this week, and I’m also expecting other companies to release their foldable smartphones this year. The Huawei Mate X costs 2,299 EUR (that’s 185,300 INR in India) and releases in mid-2019. This is 30% more expensive compared to the Galaxy Fold, but you do get 5G Connectivity. While 5G is far off from being mainstream, it will be supported in some countries early and definitely makes the phone more futuristic.

Huawei FullView Display that folds with a Falcon Wing Design

The Huawei Mate X features a main 8-inch display that folds from the outside into a smartphone with two screens, one on the back and one in the front. The entire phone when folded is 11mm thick, and Huawei says their Falcon Wing design is firm and durable. This approach does seem to be more appealing compared to the Galaxy Fold, which folds from the inside and has a main 7.3-inch display (with a notch on the top right) and another 4.6-inch display when unfolded.

Tech Specs of the display

1. Primary 8-inch display with 2480×2200 resolution
2. Front 6.6-inch display with 240×1148 resolution
3. Rear 6.4-inch display with 2480×892 resolution

All of these displays have unconventional aspect ratios. Still, it does look better compared to the Galaxy Fold, that has a notch on the top right corner of the main display and a rather small 4.7-inch secondary display when unfolded. Huawei seems to be using some software optimization to use a more traditional aspect ratio to the display when folded.

Like I said previously when I discussed the Galaxy Fold & S10 Lineup released by Samsung, software optimization will be highly important to make this entirely new category of smartphones successful. Samsung partnered with Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and other companies for better compatibility of their popular apps with the Galaxy Fold, but Huawei didn’t announce any such partnerships. This could mean that apps won’t be as optimized and developers will have to work harder to make their apps optimized for the Mate X.

While many technology analysts will say that it’s an illogical smartphone, what they don’t realize is that this new category of smartphones will take time to mature and be succesful. Marques Brownlee also pointed this out in his recent video, where he talked about how foldable smartphones aren’t ready yet.

– from Samsung Galaxy Fold and S10 Lineup announced at UNPACKED 2019

Performance, Battery, and Cameras

The Huawei Mate X has the Kirin 980 processor, built on a 7nm manufacturing process with great performance for anything you throw at it. Playing games like PUBG Mobile and Life Is Strange has been really great on my iPad Pro, and looks like playing on the Mate X will be a similarly great experience. It has 8GB of RAM and 512GB storage, and the phone doesn’t have a headphone jack just like the Galaxy Fold.

The Mate X doesn’t have a notch on the main tablet display like on the Galaxy Fold, which does make the display less intrusive.

It has a 4500 mAh battery which charges up to 85 percent in 30 minutes, thanks to Huawei’s 55W SuperCharge tech. The power button has a fingerprint scanner for unlocking the phone. As for cameras, the Mate X has three cameras with Leica tech, but we don’t have any info about its specs. Clement Wong did tell the press that the Mate X will have camera performance on par with the Mate 20 Pro.

The Huawei Mate X is another great foldable phone, but this new category of smartphones will take time to mature. What do you think about the Huawei Mate X? Do you think it’s worth the expensive price-tag? Let us know in the comments.