Huawei Unveils New Foldable Phone

Huawei presented its latest product line, led by its new foldable smartphone Mate Xs. It will be available across most markets from March at a whopping price of €2,499. Besides foldable smartphone, Chinese vendor also unveiled new 5G tablet, MatePad Pro, new laptops from MateBook X and D series, and two Wi-Fi 6+ enabled connectivity solutions; WiFi AX3 and 5G CPE Pro 2.

CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group Richard Yu also provided a business update. He said that the company spent €15 billion on R&D in 2019, as it attempts to look to grow hardware sales at home in China, and across Europe. Yu added that Huawei consolidated its position as the world’s second-largest smartphone manufacturer, shipping 240 million smartphones in 2019, representing a 16.8 percent year-on-year growth.

New foldable smartphone, the Mate Xs, features a full view display spanning 8-inches, reducing to a 6.6-inch main screen when the phone is folded and a 6.38-inch secondary screen. The main difference with the new device lies in its foldable hinge, which has an improved Falcon Wing featuring more than 100 interlocking parts, and has been made to be more durable, the company said. The device features an upgraded processor, Kirin 990 5G chip, which supports full 5G spectrum bands.

The Leica SuperSensing Quad Camera makes a return on the Mate Xs. Comprised of a 40MP SuperSensing camera, a 16MP ultra wide angle camera, an 8MP telephoto camera and a 3D Depth Sensing camera, the camera system is playing the role of both front and rear cameras to support wide range of photographic use cases. There have also been numerous software upgrades. Unlike the Mate X, which was only sold in China, Yu said the Mate Xs will be sold across all of its markets. It will run EMUI 10 and use Huawei’s in-house App Gallery in place of Google’s Play Store.

Yu highlighted the portability of its new tablet, with a 14.6mm thickness and weight of 1.33kg. Available in four colours, it has a full view display, spanning 13.9 inches and supports up to 3K resolution. The line also includes a 5G option. MatePad Pro has a starting price of €1,499 and will be available from April. The company also launched two new laptop lines: the MateBook X Pro and the new MateBook D Series.