Huawei launched its Mate X at 2 PM February 24 local time in Barcelona, Spain, before the Mobile World Congress kicks off.
Huawei’s Mate X is the world’s first foldable 5G phone and is being introduced just four days after Samsung unveiled its first foldable phone, Galaxy Fold, being a main competitor to it.
The Mate X features a 6.6-inch screen when folded and an 8.0-inch screen when open to a book-like screen. This design is different than Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, whose unfolded screen is hidden inside of the phone. The Mate X has a slightly curved screen that can open outward to a larger screen from a single display. The Mate X only has one screen instead of the two separate screens that the Galaxy Fold comes with.
The Mate X’s rear screen is 6.4-inches, a little bit smaller than the front one because it leaves the left side of the edge on the back for three cameras using various lenses.
The Mate X also supports multitasking, allowing users to split the full screen into two and listen to music while searching for information, or to drag attachments while writing emails. The folded thickness of the Mate X is 11mm (0.4-inch), thinner than the Galaxy Fold that comes in at 17mm thick.
Even in such a thin phone there is a 4,500 dual battery system that fills both sides of the phone, supporting all-day-long use. Additionally, the Mate X offers 55W fast charging, charging the phone to 85% in 30 minutes–the fastest ever in a mobile device.
A big difference for the Mate X is that it comes with the Kirin 980 chipset and Balong 5000 5G modem that are capable of 4.6Gbps download speeds, ten times faster than current 4G. According to tests from Huawei, the phone can download a 1G movie in as little as 3 seconds.
The Mate X will start at a price of €2,299 ($2,607) for the 8GB RAM + 512GB storage model, much higher than the Galaxy Fold’s $1,980 for the 12GB RAM + 512 storage model.
The Mate X will not be available until mid-2019 with no exact date announced. There will be another launch event in April and more information will be available then.
