Huawei’s Mate X is foldable, 5G-ready and a serious threat to Samsung’s Galaxy Fold

Huawei just one-upped Samsung. At its pre MWC 2019 keyte event in Barcelona on Sunday, Huawei launched world’s first 5G-rey foldable smartphone – Huawei Mate X. Mate X will start selling in Europe starting from middle of this year at a price tag of Euros 2,299 (roughly Rs 1,85,219) with 8GB RAM and 512GB stor and in Interstellar Blue. Huawei says it will offer more colour options soon, and that prices may go down in subsequent generations when its foldable smartphone tech becomes more mainstream.  

Huawei seems to have left stone unturned while designing Mate X and it was also quite vocal about how its foldable phone betters Samsung’s Galaxy Fold in more ways than one during keyte. This starts with design. As opposed to Galaxy Fold, Mate X give users access to three screen sizes – two independent smartphone-like screens with 6.6-inch and 6.38-inch sizes respectively, and an 8-inch tablet form factor without any tch. Galaxy Fold has two screens – a 7.3-inch primary tablet kind (with a tch for cameras) and a smaller 4.6-inch phone form factor.  

Like Galaxy Fold, Mate X also has a spine or hinge in middle, only Huawei seems to have found a way to make a truly back to back fold with gaps in middle. Huawei calls it a falcon wing design – a design it apparently took three years to perfect, using a patented hinge with over 100 custom components. Huawei has also built a special “full protection” case for Mate X.  

That's t all. Huawei says its Mate X is also slimmer than Galaxy Fold – Mate X is 5.4mm when opened and 11mm when closed while Galaxy Fold, it says, is 6.8mm when opened and 17mm when closed. 

Just like Samsung, Huawei has also worked extensively on software side so users will be able to seamlessly transition between smartphone and tablet mode on Mate X – Huawei is particularly touting “two columns browsing, side by side or multi-window use for so you can double down on work or entertainment.” 

Mate X does t skimp down on hardware specs eir – it is powered by Huawei’s Kirin 980 flagship processor with 8GB RAM and 512GB stor, it comes with a total of three Leica-tuned cameras, dual-SIM, and it packs two batteries which entail in a total battery capacity of 4,500mAh ( Galaxy Fold maxes out at 4,380mAh) with 55W Super Charging which is claimed to offer 85 per cent charge in mere 30 minutes.  

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