Around two years ago, China’s Huawei followed Samsung in launching a foldable phone. The Mate X was followed a year later by the similar looking but faster Mate XS, and now the company has launched the Mate X2, which adds another display into the mix.
The original Mate and the Mate XS that followed later both rocked an 8-inch display when in tablet mode, and it was the back of this tablet that folded inside so that the touchscreen folded over the hinge on the outside and then presented a 6.6-inch display to the front and a 6.4-inch display on the back.
The Mate X2 launched earlier today still offers an 8-inch tablet screen, but that display folds inward this time, and Huawei has added another 6.45-inch touchscreen that’s brought around front when the device is folded. The phone is reported to feature a new hinge from Huawei that ” creates a water drop-like cavity for stowing the display when the device is folded” for a “near imperceptible gap.”
The interior OLED screen has a resolution of 2,480 x 2,200 pixels (413 ppi), 90-Hz refresh rate and a touch sampling rate of 180 Hz. The exterior screen comes in at 2,700 x 1,160 pixels (456 ppi), also has a 90-Hz refresh rate but boasts a touch sampling rate of 240 Hz.
Inside, the handset has octa-core processing brains from the company’s own Kirin 9000 5G chipset, together with 24-core Mali-G78 graphics, neural processing units, 8 GB of RAM and either 256 or 512 GB of internal storage. There’s 802.11ax Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.2, and a USB-C port that also serves as a headphone connection (no 3.5-mm jack here folks). The battery capacity is rated at 4,400 mAh and supports 55-W fast charging. And the phone runs EMUI 11.0, an operating system based on Android 10.
There’s a four-camera Leica array around back: a 50-MP wide-angle unit with f/1.9 aperture and RYYB color filter; a 16-MP “Cine” camera with f/2.2 aperture; a 12-MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and f/2.4 aperture; and an 8-MP superzoom with 10x optical zoom, f/4.4 aperture and hybrid autofocus support. All of the rear cameras come with optical image stabilization to help compensate for shaking hands. And there’s a 16-MP wide-angle selfie camera to the top of the external display too.
“With some of the best software and hardware innovations at its core, Huawei Mate X2 represents a giant leap forward and sets the bar for future foldable devices,” said Richard Yu, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Consumer BG. “While the Huawei Mate XS was largely regarded as the best-in-class foldable device, we continued to push for new ways to further improve the foldable experience. The Huawei Mate X2 represents the future of smartphone technology, with pioneering innovations and a truly fantastic user experience across the board.”
The Mate X2 goes on sale in China on February 25 for a starting price of ¥17,999 (about US$2,785). There’s no word on availability in other markets at this time.
Huawei swaps to inward fold for Mate X2 foldable phone [New Atlas]