Huawei launched its third foldable, the Mate X2 in China on Monday. While its first foldable Mate X, and the Mate XS that followed it with some improvements, were out and out radical products, the Mate X2 seems clearly inspired from Samsung’s Galaxy Fold. Like Samsung’s foldable, the Mate X2 also has a screen that unfolds from the inside. Both the Mate X and Mate XS had outward unfolding screens.
The revamped design means the Mate X2 gives you access to two ‘distinct’ screens (rather than three), a large tablet-kind on the inside with an 8-inch display and a smartphone-kind on the outside with a 6.45-inch display. While the inner screen has a resolution 2480 x 2200-pixels, the outer screen has a resolution of 2700 x 1160-pixels. Both use OLED panels and have a refresh rate of up to 90Hz.
Only the outer screen has a punch hole cut-out, while the inner screen is, virtually, all-screen. Like its past foldables, Huawei is once again highlighting the Mate X2’s no-gap hinge mechanism which is obviously getting an upgrade in this generation (with hopefully sturdier materials). The whole thing is slim too with it being 4.4mm at its thinnest point when unfolded.
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Under the hood, the Mate X2 has Huawei’s 5nm Kirin 9000 processor paired with 8GB RAM and up to 512GB storage. Software inside the phone is Android 10-based EMIUI 11 without any Google Play Store and Google services. Huawei says the Mate X2 will be among the first wave of phones to get its own HarmonyOS software in April and with it the company would be hoping to break into international markets again.
Elsewhere, the Mate X2 has four cameras on the rear including a 50MP main, 16MP ultra-wide, 12mp telephoto (3x optical zoom), and another 8MP SuperZoom camera (10x optical zoom). There is also a 16MP camera on the outer screen that should qualify as a selfie camera.
Fueling the package is a 4,400mAh battery with 55W fast charging support.
Huawei has launched the Mate X2 in China at a starting price of CNY 17,999 (roughly Rs 2,01,747). It will be available for buying there from February 25. Global availability and pricing are yet to be announced.
