Meet the Huawei Mate X: innovative foldable cell phone

The launch was the main highlight of the Chinese manufacturer at MWC 2019, a mobility fair that takes place annually in Barcelona. The arrival in stores, however, should only occur in the middle of the year – there is still no forecast of availability in Brazil. Learn about the main details already disclosed about the device.

Despite the similar proposal of foldable phone, the approach of Huawei is different from Samsung: While the Korean model brings a display  "fixed " on the outside and a flexible on the inside, the Chinese phone uses only a continuous panel for all occasions.

This solution brings at first glance at least two benefits to the user. One of them is the thickness, which is discreet for a phone that folds in half. There is also a positive point for those who like photography: As the smartphone can have screen in front and back, it is possible to use the main camera to take selfies.

Visual

The simplest way to describe the Mate X is like a tablet that doubles in the middle: a single panel bends backwards and creates two screens when it's convenient, one on the front and the other on the back. The phone comes to erase the display in the bending areas to give a sense of uniformity at the edges.

With the panel closed, the Mate X measures 11 mm thick and has a front screen of 6.6 inches and 6.38 inches back. When opening, the device turns into an 8-inch tablet with only 5.4 mm thickness, slightly thinner than an iPad Pro 2018.

One side is thicker and has double-function: In addition to facilitating the footprint, it houses components that do not fit in the flexible part of the device, as the set of cameras. The photographic sensors are always positioned backwards, in tablet or mobile modes.

Screen

Open, the Mate X has an 8-inch panel with high resolution of 2,480 x 2,200 pixels and practically square format. When closing, the front screen takes the measurement of 6.6 inches with 2,480 x 1,148 pixels and takes almost the entire viewfinder of the cell, in an elongated ratio of 19.5:9. On the rear, the phone gets a narrow display of 6.38 inches with a resolution of 2,480 x 892 pixels and even longer, of 25:9.

Cameras

Recognized in the world of smartphone photography since the success of the Huawei 20 Pro, Huawei brings a powerful suite of triple camera to the Mate X. The phone has a 40 MP sensor, a 16 MP second with wide-angle lens and a third of 8 MP with Teleobj lens tive, to assist in portraits.

The phone doesn't have a front camera. At the time of taking a selfie, simply close the device by pointing the rear camera to itself, with the rear screen.

Performance

Huawei often uses its own manufacturing processors on their mobile phones, and is no different with Mate X. The foldable device brings the Kirin 980 chip, a 7 nanometer-built component as well as Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855, and the Apple A12 Bionic. The RAM is 8 GB.

Another highlight of the hardware is the presence of the Huawei Balong connectivity chip, compatible with 5G Internet which, according to the company, is the fastest so far. Connected to a fifth generation network, the phone can download a 1gb movie in just three seconds.

The smartphone also has 512 GB of storage for storing files and supports expansion via Nano Memory Card, the same size as a nano SIM card.

Battery

The Mate X has two power cells, one on each face of the folding screen, which add up to 4,500 mAh capacity. Huawei did not disclose an estimation of the device's autonomy, limiting itself to highlighting the performance of the charger that comes in the box: with 55 W of power, it supposedly can replenish 85% of the phone's battery in just 30 minutes.

Android version

The Huawei foldable phone comes with the most current Android 9 (Pie). In addition, the phone arrives at the market with the EMUI interface, from the manufacturer itself.

Price

Huawei will charge a high value for those who want to try Mate X in mid-2019, when the mobile phone should reach the market: 2,299 euros, equivalent to approximately R $9,740, without considering taxes. The price exceeds in about 1,760 euros of the Galaxy Fold, one of the few competitors in the luxury market of folding phones. There is no prediction of launching mobile phones in Brazil.