Amid lots of Oscars drama last night, Huawei not-so-quietly released the Mate X. In doing so, it has ‘started what a few people in the tech world have dubbed ‘the foldable phone’ era.
Samsung released its Galaxy Fold (an eye-wateringly expensive smartphone that does just that) late last week, prompting Huawei to pull the wraps off its own foldable smartphone at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
They won’t be the only foldable smartphones of 2019, either. Rumour has it that Apple has something special in development (which makes sense, as iOS runs just as well on tablet as it does on smartphone), and there’s a slew of Chinese manufacturers already touting new foldable phones as we speak.
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Huawei’s Mate X is certainly looking like the foldable to beat. It’s a slick 6.6-inch device when folded, which morphs into an 8-inch tablet. Unlike the Galaxy Fold – which has some awkward looking hinges – the Mate X’s screen has little to no bezels.
In smartphone mode, the Huawei Mate X sits at 11-millimetres (which is a tad thick considering traditional smartphones) but when unfolded is just 5.4-millimetres thick.
Elsewhere you get Leica designed cameras, USB-C charging, Huawei’s latest processor and a 5G modem. Huawei is really pushing 5G technology, which makes sense. The other B2B arm of the company is currently trying to flog new 5G antennas to most of the world’s telecoms.
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You also get 512GB of internal storage, 8GB of RAM and a decent 4,500 mAH power battery with quick charge (it can go from 0 to 85% in just 30 minutes). Other snazzy features include a power button on the side that doubles as a fingerprint reader.
The Huawei Mate X then is widely considered to be superior to Samsung’s Galaxy Fold in just about every way (except for the fact that when Huawei unveiled the device, they wouldn’t let any journalists actually touch it – which is a tad worrying for anything supposedly hitting the market within the month). But all that space-aged technology doesn’t come cheap.
Samsung’s Fold X smartphone debuted at US$1,980 (AED7,270) when it was launched last week. The Mate X is even more expensive: US$2,600 (AED9,540).
That is a huge chunk of change to throw at a yet untested piece of all-new technology.
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