Huawei Unveils the Mate X, a Foldable 5G Smartphone That Costs $2,600 (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The world's fastest growing mobile company has long had a chip on its shoulder when it comes to Apple and Samsung. For too long, the company has had to go out of its way to remind the world that it's capable of being every bit as innovative as those better established brands, a concept very much at the heart of the Mate X. The device lives right at the cross section of the year's biggest forward looking trends -- foldables and 5G, and unlike some of the concepts we've seen to date, the product does so with panache.

The device is thin, as far as tablets go, at 5.4 mm, unfolded. Closed, it's nearly double that, at 11 mm. Not thin, exactly, but still a heck of a lot easier to slip into your pants pockets than the 17mm Galaxy Fold. More impressive is what the company's been able to do with its displays. The screen is very much the thing on these products, and yet the Fold's outside screen only measures 4.6 inches. The Mate X, meanwhile, sports a pair of outward-facing displays, the larger of which measures 6.6 inches at 2480 x 1148 pixels, with a 19:5 aspect ration. The flip side is 6.38 inches, allowing for space for the camera bar -- a chin that folds over to meet the display. The system features a Leica lens and the design is such that photo subjects can see themselves on the outward-facing display as a shot is taken. On the device's side is a combo fingerprint reader/power button. The phone uses a proprietary "Falcon Wing" hinge to unfold and turn into a full 8-inch tablet. The report does note that there is "a visible crease in the middle of the phone." Inside are a pair of batteries that add up to 4,500mAh of power, as well as a Kirin 980 processor.

In a separate article, TechCrunch says the Mate X is expected to retail for about $2,600, proving that there is certainly a pricing premium with foldables and 5G phones.

Comments

I like this foldable phone trend

[SuperKendall]

Some may say this new category of folding phones are too expensive, but I really like the idea of these things - it seems like a great combination of a phone which you always have, plus a better media/reading/creating surface to work with.

I am super curious to see how these turn out and eagerly await the comparison of models like this with the Samsung to be coming out... I really wonder how the folding action will feel (the Samsung sounded nice in theory).

Re:I like this foldable phone trend

[ShanghaiBill]

Some may say this new category of folding phones are too expensive

Apple has clearly demonstrated that all the profits in mobile are at the high end of the market.

Apple has raised prices, seen their market share sink, and their profits rise.

This is a smart move by Huawei, I can easily see my spouse buying one of these.

Re:I like this foldable phone trend

[oic0]

I don't look forward to having my screen show wear from repeatedly being flexed. I would rather two separate panels with a hairline seam unfolded

Re:I like this foldable phone trend

[AmiMoJo]

You'd have to assume that Samsung put theirs through a 100,000 fold/unfold cycle on a sample of a few thousand of these displays before going into production with them. I'd have thought that the hinge would probably fail first.

Prototype for people with too much money

[gweihir]

Nice idea, needs more time.

Or... for the same price

[technosaurus]

You could buy 50 $50 phones and some duct tape to get a giant redneck foldable super computer tablet.

Re:Or... for the same price

[Bradmont]

If the women don't find you high-tech, they should at least find you handy.

Not thin?

[Solandri]

Closed, it's nearly double that, at 11 mm. Not thin, exactly, but still a heck of a lot easier to slip into your pants pockets than the 17mm Galaxy Fold.

This was my PDA in the late 1990s. It was 25mm thick closed. It fit in my pocket perfectly fine.

My last two phones were 8.5mm and 6mm. They were actually too thin - I kept dropping them when I tried to hold them by the edges. I ended up buying cases for them not to protect them, but to make them thicker so I wouldn't drop them so often. I really wish they'd just put a bigger, multi-day battery into these and make them closer to 10-15mm thick. That would also alleviate most of the complaints about the battery being non-replaceable. You could limit the charge/discharge cycle to between 10%-90% or 20%-80% (like they do on EVs), increasing lifespan from around 600 cycles to closer to 2000 cycles before the battery wears to half its capacity when new.

Re:I am not impressed!

[PolygamousRanchKid]

The question though is this: Where is APPLE?

There's nothing really new about a folding phone that morphs into a pad. Various folks have been talking about this for a long time.

I wouldn't be surprised if they even built prototypes and evaluated them internally. That fact that Apple has not even hinted at such a critter probably means that they decided that the product wouldn't be a big hit.

Time will tell if others have success with their models . . .

Scratchy

[Vanyle]

In order to flex like this I can guarantee they do not have anything nearly as protective as glass on that screen. I would much rather have mine on the inside where it is protected with a smaller glass-shielded screen on the outside.

Stay away from Huawei

[nightfire-unique]

I recently bought a MediaPad m5 only to learn that Huawei's official new policy is to lock the bootloaders on all of their devices, and they refuse to provide the bootloader unlock code to device owners.

If you give money to Huawei in exchange for a telephone, just be aware that you aren't actually buying anything, but rather borrowing their property for an unspecified period. The device obeys them at all times; they can remotely monitor you, install/uninstall whatever they want, fall behind on security patches, stop supporting the device entirely...

I'd recommend everyone do what I did: email their sales organization, and let them know that due to the anti-ownership provisions they've adopted, you'll be purchasing devices from their competitors. They're the ones most able/likely to correct the company's behavior.