Introduction
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G has a new rival, as Huawei's Mate X2 foldable phone has just launched. As the Mate X2 has been unveiled, so now we know all about Huawei's third-generation foldable smartphone, including its specs and design. Succeeding the original Mate X and the Mate Xs, this foldable is a relatively impressive device from Huawei. It comes with a new folding design that differs it from its siblings. It also has Huawei’s most powerful processor, two high refresh rate displays, and a Leica-branded camera setup.
Price and release date
Huawei gives the price of the Mate X2 as 17,999 yuan for the 256GB version and 18,999 yuan for the 512GB variant. Converted to USD, that comes to $2,784 and $2,939 respectively. The phone will go on sale in China on February 25 and will come with a Huawei SuperCharge charger, a Type-C data cable, a pair of Type-C earphones, and a leather protective case included inside the box. In addition, Huawei also announced a bunch of accessories for the Mate X2.
Design and display
The Huawei Mate X2 is a 'book-style' foldable smartphone, meaning it opens up from a 'standard' smartphone to turn into a tablet-style device. At the launch, Huawei made a point of describing the hinge - it's supposedly very small, so when you fold the phone closed, there's no gap between the two sides. Huawei says it used zirconium-based liquid metal for the hinge system. The Mate X2 comes in one of four colors: Crystal Blue, Crystal Pink, White, and Black. The Huawei Mate X2 features a 6.45-inch OLED external display that has a pill-shaped punch hole at the top left corner for selfie camera. The display offers a 2700 x 1160 pixels resolution (456 ppi), a 90Hz refresh rate, and a 240Hz touch sampling rate. The primary display is 8-inches in size when unfolded and offers a 2480 x 2200 pixels resolution (413 ppi) and a P3 wide color gamut. It is also an OLED panel and has a 90Hz refresh rate. The Huawei Mate X2 comes with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, stereo speakers, and a USB 3.1 GEN1 Type-C port.
Front and rear cameras
The Huawei Mate X2 has six cameras in total - four on the back panel, and two selfie sensors in a pill-shaped cut-out in the external display. The four main snappers are a 50MP primary with f/1.9 aperture, 16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, a 12MP f/2.4 telephoto camera with OIS, and an 8MP f/4.4 RYYB periscope camera that also has OIS and brings 10x optical zoom. The phone also has 100x digital zoom and a 2.5cm super macro mode. There are another two cameras on the front in a pill-shaped punch-hole cutout. These are a 16MP primary camera and a color temperature sensor. If that's not enough for your selfie needs, the quad cameras can be used as front cameras, too, by opening the phone and checking the shot in the external display. Huawei Mate X2 records 4k and Full HD videos at 30/60fps. The camera, however, only records Full HD videos.
Software, processor, and battery
The Mate X2 foldable phone draws power from Huawei's Kirin 9000 SoC, a 5G-enabled processor first seen on the Huawei Mate 40 Pro and 40 Pro+. It offers roughly similar performance to the Snapdragon 888 chipset found in the Samsung Galaxy S21 series. That's accompanied by 8GB of RAM, and either 256GB or 512GB of storage, depending on the version of the phone. The Mate X2 also has dual-SIM capabilities. The phone runs EMUI 11 based on Android 10 out of the box. Alongside unveiling the Mate X2, the company announced the rollout of its own HarmonyOS operating system. The Mate X2 is one of the phones eligible for this upgrade. Of course, we can't ignore the fact this phone won't have Google apps built-in, because of the US ban. However, Huawei says that it's offering its new HarmonyOS operating system for its phones from April. Under the hood, the Mate X2 packs a 4500mAh battery with support for 55W fast wired charging. Unfortunately, there is no support for wireless charging.