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 keynote event in Barcelona on Sunday, Huawei launched the world’s first 5G-ready foldable smartphone – the Huawei Mate X. The Mate X will start selling in Europe starting from the middle of this year at a price tag of Euros 2,299 (roughly Rs 1,85,219) with 8GB RAM and 512GB storage 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 no stone unturned while designing the Mate X and it was also quite vocal about how its foldable phone betters Samsung’s Galaxy Fold in more ways than one during the keynote. This starts with the design. As opposed to the Galaxy Fold, the 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 notch. The Galaxy Fold has two screens – a 7.3-inch primary tablet kind (with a notch for the cameras) and a smaller 4.6-inch phone form factor.  

Like the Galaxy Fold, the Mate X also has a spine or hinge in the middle, only Huawei seems to have found a way to make a truly back to back fold with no gaps in the 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 the Mate X.  

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

Just like Samsung, Huawei has also worked extensively on the software side so users will be able to seamlessly transition between smartphone and tablet mode on the 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.” 

The Mate X does not skimp down on hardware specs either – it is powered by Huawei’s Kirin 980 flagship processor with 8GB RAM and 512GB storage, 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 (the 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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