Huawei Will Launch Its Mate X Foldable Phone Next Month
Huawei demoed its first folding phone, the Mate X earlier this year, but it didn’t promise any specific launch date. Samsung famously had to delay its Galaxy Fold review for months after some early hardware failures. Huawei seemed to hang back and watch the mess unfold, but now it’s going to launch the Mate X next month. However, the company has only promised a China release so far.
The Mate X has one large screen instead of two like the Samsung Galaxy Fold. It folds outward to reveal a tablet-like 8-inch display. If you want to use the Mate X in “phone mode,” the flexible display folds around the back, and the back half turns off. That leaves you with a phone form factor with about 6.6-inches of usable screen on the front of the device.
Samsung says one of the reasons it went with the inward folding design was to protect the delicate plastic-covered OLED. We’ve seen just how fragile that display can be, too. It had to redesign the Fold over the summer to address durability issues, and some units have still failed because people put too much pressure on the flexible display while closing it. The Huawei mate X leaves the flexible display exposed on the outside of the device at all times.
The Mate X has Huawei’s custom Kirin 980 ARM chip and a Barong 5000 5G modem inside. Huawei says its launch plans revolve around carriers, and it has Chinese partners lined up to sell the 16,999 yuan (around $2,400) device starting on November 15th. The company notes that it is open to launching the Mate X internationally, but that depends on carriers that can support its preferred 5G bands.
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