Huawei launches Mate X foldable phone
Huawei's first foldable phone hits both the 5G and foldable sweet spots.
Huawei effectively pre-announced the foldable Huawei Mate X, by stating that it would launch the device in Barcelona at MWC19. That's precisely what it has done, showing its first foray into the world of foldable phones at its press launch ahead of the start of the show proper on Monday.
The Huawei Mate X is an 8 inch tablet form factor device when unfolded, and a 6.6-inch smartphone when folded back into place. That means it's substantially larger than the Samsung Galaxy Fold announced at last week's Galaxy Unpacked event in its smartphone format.
The phone itself uses a release catch when in standard phone mode, so there's no risk of it opening up in a bag or purse when you don't want it to. On the camera front, there are three rear facing cameras, but the folding nature of the Huawei Mate X means that you can use the cameras while the screen is on, so portrait photo subjects can easily see themselves during photo shooting.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Huawei's flagship camera phone
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro combines the power of Huawei's own Kirin 980 chip, an exceptional battery and a class-leading triple camera array.
As expected, the Huawei Mate X will run on Huawei's own Kirin 980 processor, along with the company's own Balong 5,000 5G modem, capable of connection on both mmWave and sub-6Ghz frequency bands.
That will give it compatibility with Australia's 5G networks, even though Huawei itself is banned from producing network hardware for any of the country's emerging 5G networks. However, there's nothing to stop it producing fully compatible 5G handsets.
The Huawei Mate X will launch by mid-2019, with pricing given as EUR€2,299 for a model with 8GB of RAM and 512GB storage. At current conversion rates, that equates to a hefty $3,657, rather a lot more than the comparable Samsung Galaxy Fold.
Huawei's South Korean rival Samsung announced pricing for its Samsung Galaxy Fold that should see it hit the market here at around $3,000 by mid-2019.
For more news from MWC 2019, check out our MWC 2019 news hub.
Huawei Mate X specs
| OS | Android 9 |
|---|---|
| Display size (inches) | 8 |
| Display resolution (pixels) | 2200 x 2480 |
| Pixels per inch (PPI) | 414 |
| Processor | Kirin 980 |
| Height (mm) | 161.3 |
| Width (mm) | 146.2 |
| Depth (mm) | 5.4 |
| Weight (g) | 295 |
| Battery size (mAh) | 4,500 |
| Wireless charging | |
| Internal storage |
512GB |
| MicroSD expansion | 256GB |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes |
| RAM | 8GB |
| Water resistance | N/A |
| Rear camera (1) resolution | 40 |
|---|---|
| Rear camera (1) aperture | |
| Rear camera (2) resolution | 16 |
| Rear camera (2) aperture | |
| Rear camera (3) resolution | 8 |
| Rear camera (3) aperture | |
| Front camera (1) resolution | |
| Front camera (1) aperture | |
| Front camera (2) resolution | |
| Front camera (2) aperture |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac |
|---|---|
| Network category speed | N/A |
| NFC support | Yes |
