MWC 2020 being canceled due to coronavirus fears led Huawei to hold a virtual event to showcase its latest product offerings. The Chinese giant today launched a successor to its first-ever foldable smartphone and it’s dubbed the Huawei Mate Xs. It was first shown off last year and arrives with an improved design, more durable hinge, and 5G connectivity support.
Huawei Mate Xs: Specs and Features
In terms of design, Huawei Mate Xs features an improved hinge design and durable new display technology to offer an even better experience to foldable phone users. Huawei is using a back-to-back Falcon Wing hinge design, which is the same as the Mate X, but it’s using Zirconium-based liquid metal instead of Titanium Alloy for improved sturdiness. We also get better protection against dust with the Mate Xs.
Talking about the display, the Huawei Mate Xs sports an 8-inch (2480x2200p) OLED display when unfolded. It transforms into a 6.6-inch (2480x1148p) phone when folded and the secondary display stands at 6.38-inches (2480x892p) in size. The company has taken cues from the screen breaking debacles and its foldable display is now protected with double layer optical polyimide, which Huawei says is 80% more durable than a single layer and costs 3 times more than Gold.
Under the hood, the Mate Xs is powered by Huawei’s in-house Kirin 990 5G chipset. The chipset bundles the company’s own Balong 5000 modem for 5G connectivity, offering download speeds up to 2.3Gbps. The company has swapped out the Kirin 980 chipset, its predecessor that was baked aboard the Mate X.
The device supports eight 5G bands as compared to 4 on its predecessor. This new 5G-enabled chipset is paired with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage to round up the kitty. Mate Xs packs in a new cooling system, which uses flexible bionic graphite that runs across both sides of the new hinge to keep the temperature low while you stream or play games.
Huawei Mate Xs runs Android 10-based EMUI 10 out-of-the-box but lacks support for Google services and apps. The Mate X too launched without any Google apps in tow, but you now get improved features, such as multi-window design (allowing you to drag and drop files between apps).
In the camera department, Mate Xs features a quad-camera setup with a primary 40MP (f/1.8) SuperSensing RYYB sensor. It’s coupled with an 8MP (f/2.4) telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom, 30x digital zoom, and OIS+AIS support. There’s also a 16MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide-angle camera and a 3D TOF sensor onboard as well. The device is capable of capturing macro shots, capture amazing night shots without the need for turning to a Night Mode feature.
Mate Xs comes equipped with a 4,500mAh battery pack with 55W fast-charging support. Huawei claims that you can juice up 80% of the battery in just around 30 minutes using the USB Type-C port. There’s no headphone jack aboard this foldable phone.
Price and Availability
Huawei Mate Xs has been priced at an exorbitant 2499 euros (around Rs. 1.95 lakhs or $2700) for the single 8GB+512GB variant. It comes only in a single blackish-blue color variant. There’s currently no word on the availability of Huawei Mate Xs but we will update this story once we learn of the same.
Huawei may have upgraded the design and durability with its second foldable but I would have been more excited to see a smaller, affordable variant instead of an even expensive successor to its first foldable. The company is taking the road opposite to Samsung, who tried to bring down the entry barrier for foldables with the Galaxy Z Flip.
