Huawei Reveal ‘Mate X’: Targets ‘Galaxy Fold Issues’ (Official Specs Here)

Android powerhouse, Huawei answered Samsung’s ‘Unpacked’ event at a Mobile World Congress pre-brief. Huawei Mate X is slated to launch “mid-2019” at an eye-watering €2,299.

Walter Ji with the Mate X – journalists were allowed to handle the device

While Samsung showed the ‘first’ foldable phone that will make it to market, Huawei chief Richard Yu acknowledged the ‘Galaxy Fold’ before taking jabs at the device.

Mate X Full-Frontal

“No gap and no notch in unfolded mode – unlike our rival. Our device is 7mm thinner than our rival. Our Mate X comes with 5G – something our rival will not have. And an 8″ full-screen mode beats our rival again – Mate X is the fastest, thinnest 5G foldable smartphone.”

Feature Heavy

With 3 years of R&D on the clock, Huawei have something usable. It feels solid, it feels like something I could and would use. For starters, the 11mm thickness while folded is close enough to a standard handset – 5.5mm per side isn’t much to grip so the Mate X has an as-yet-unnamed ‘bar’. An 11mm thick handle that houses cameras, chipset, charging port and makes it much easier to work with while unfolded.

The rear of the Mate X shows the bar

A 4,500mAh capacity is split across two batteries within the device. While this isn’t a huge upgrade over the current Mate 20 Pro, the Mate X will feature 55W SuperCharge. This will charge the handset from 0-85% in just 30 minutes. Huawei now feel that charging throughput is adequate to power laptops and handsets from the same standard Supercharger.

Confirmed Specifications

AMOLED 6.4″ screen while folded, 8″ in tablet mode – 2,200 x 2,480 (unfolded)

Balong 5000 + Kirin 980 – ‘world’s first 5G chipset’ – Octa-core (2×2.6 GHz Cortex-A76 & 2×1.92 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A55)

8GB RAM, 512GB on-board storage

55W SuperCharge

4,500mAh battery

NR+4G downlink – up to 7.5Gbps

40 MP, f/1.8, 27mm (wide), 1/1.7″, PDAF + 16 MP, f/2.2, 17mm (ultrawide) + 8 MP, f/2.4, 52mm + TOF camera