In terms of intuitive experience, the reporter believes that Huawei Mate X is a carefully polished and exquisite physical design product that is closest to people’s expectations for foldable mobile phones. The user experience of the mobile phone software, battery life, and durability of the display are waiting to be tested.

Design & Appearance

Mate X’s OLED display is plastic and not as glass as most smartphones today. This will be an inevitable feature of all future folding devices. However, the surface of the plastic material did not bring any trouble or worry to the reporter. Compared with ordinary glass phones, the phone’s friction and screen response are comparable to glass-based screens. The only problem is that the plastic is soft and may cause more scratches. Mate X’s screen viewing angle, contrast, color saturation, dynamics, and uniformity are just as good as those of most smartphones today. In addition, the reporter found that the reflective display of the plastic display is even less than the glass display.

The most important thing is that the reporter will not see or feel the creases caused by folding in the middle of the screen. “Of course, I didn’t have enough time to get started with Mate X, which is not enough to make this a clear statement, but it is definitely the flattest folding phone I have ever encountered. When the reporter first came into contact with Mate X, I was a little surprised by its weight because it was heavier than the ultra-slim look. This is very good, no one wants a mobile phone that sells for $2,600 to feel light. Mate X is equipped with a large battery of 4500 mAh, which may be the main reason for the weight of the phone.

From an ergonomic point of view, the unfolded tablet is very easy to operate with one hand, and it’s 8:7.1 aspect ratio means it still has both landscape and portrait orientation. During the experience, the reporter found that the expanded shape is best for browsing the web, but compatibility when watching YouTube videos or other widescreen content is poor. During use, you can open Mate X on a flat surface, and the rear screen becomes a stand. When folded up, Mate X works just like the current mainstream smartphone. When you flip the phone in a folded state, it switches quickly and accurately between the 6.4-inch rear screen and the 6.6-inch main screen.

The reporter believes that this is the worst part of the experience in Mate X. When you operate the hinge, you will feel a squeaky feeling and the smoothness is insufficient. Perhaps Huawei puts durability in the first place in the hinge design, because the hinge can feel great resistance when it is opened and closed, and it feels that it can withstand many times of opening and closing, but it is not smooth and smooth. Huawei installed a lock on the Mate X’s grip to lock the unfolded tablet. Mate X gives a beautiful squeak when the lock is engaged, and a button next to the lock can fold the phone again.

One of the things we did with Mate X was that what was not clear was what the lock system used to keep the screening firm when the phone was folded. As it turns out, just press a button on the back of the phone and the back of the screen will be released so that the phone can be unfolded into an 8-inch tablet. The front of the phone is actually a full-screen phone with a screen of 6.6 inches. This dwarfs the 4.6-inch external screen and the heavy border of the Samsung Galaxy Fold. Turning the phone over, the back is a 6.4-inch spare screen with a larger aspect ratio, which can be cool for watching a 21:9 movie, and activating the side display saves battery more than the front.

On the left side of the screen is a vertical bar, here is the location of the smartphone processor and the three-camera system. Huawei did not introduce too much about this. The power button on it is integrated with the fingerprint scanning function, and the bottom is equipped with a USB-C charging port. Since the price of the mobile phone is more than 2,000 US dollars, it is inevitable that the device will be damaged if it is held in the hand or operated. But Huawei expects us to let go of our hearts. Mate X’s screen has withstood 100,000 folds in laboratory stress tests. Huawei also showed us how its dedicated protective cover should protect it. Most importantly, Mate X feels very strong, albeit very thin. For us, the bigger worry is the lock that keeps the phone flat. Huawei mentioned to us that the current mobile phone needs to be fully flat and needs a snap ring, but perhaps in the next stage of development of its patented Falcon Wing system, it will be able to lock in place and fasten it?

Another major concern with usability is durability, especially for full-screen phones like this. After all, flexible displays are plastic and are more susceptible to scratching than glass. In this respect, the Samsung Galaxy Fold phone is likely to be stronger than the Mate X because it has less exposure to the flexible display and an external glass screen.

Cameras

We know very little about the camera on Mate X, only know that it is a three-camera system. We were not allowed to open the camera app to try it ourselves, but anyway, we saw some realities. First of all, Mate X does not have a front camera, only three cameras at the rear. The rear screen can also double as a viewfinder, which should actually make the selfie a better experience because the rear camera of the phone always performs better than the front camera.

The rear screen of Mate X can also be used to create a dual viewfinder. When taking photos with Mate X, you can display a preview image of the target object. This feature is quite interesting. Huawei has many reasons for keeping the camera specifications tight. On the one hand, this camera may contain future technologies, and the brand hopes to announce this in the Huawei P30 smartphone that will be launched at the end of March.

In addition, Mate X may not be equipped with a state-of-the-art camera system, given the potential for space constraints. Another possibility is that Huawei has not solved the imaging details of this product, and does not want to make a commitment before it is ready to go public. All of this is speculation, but Huawei will show off its own cards sooner or later.

Performacne & Battery

But one of the things that Huawei has talked about most is the battery. Mate X has a built-in high-capacity battery, or we should say that there are two batteries in it, and the total power is 4500 mAh. It has more total power than Samsung Galaxy Fold. But Mate X’s mobile phone screen is also larger, so the power consumption may be even larger. Huawei’s 55W supercharged SuperCharge technology not only exceeds the 40W fast charge used by Huawei Mate 20 Pro but also increases the mobile phone’s power from 0% to 85% in 30 minutes.

This phone has a built-in Kirin 980 processor and a Barong 5000 5G modem chip, which not only has a fast charging speed but also has a fast network transmission speed. It takes only 3 seconds to download a 1GB movie. Although the current mainstream network is unlikely to support such a fast download speed, from the perspective of data transmission speed, such a number does bring us some comfort, and the extremely expensive Mate X can be applied to the future data environment. In addition, Mate X is configured with 512GB of storage space and supports Huawei’s proprietary Nano memory, which can expand storage up to 256GB.

In Conclusion

Some might ask, “Is it worth $2,600?” It needs to be clear that Mate X is not a continuation of any existing equipment or design. Although it is based on existing smartphone and tablet technology, it is still a new form. For this reason, Huawei’s Mate X and Samsung’s Galaxy Fold phones must now create an exclusive market for devices, and must also recover a lot of research and development costs. Today’s early user prices reflect all of these factors, and it is unfair to judge the phone with current smartphone standards and prices.

although Samsung has pre-released the foldable smartphone Galaxy Fold, it is only a far-sighted view for most of us. Only Samsung representatives can truly experience this phone. We are excited about the technological advancement represented by Galaxy Fold, but we are not too excited, after all, we have never even played this device.

At the Huawei conference, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business, demonstrated Huawei’s 5G collapsible smartphone Mate X. Then we got a rare opportunity to experience it.

Also Read: Xiaomi Mi9 Review: The New Revolution is Here With Snapdragon 855 with Coupon

Price And Availability

Huawei’s Mate X debuted at the 2019 World Mobile Communications Conference. Its high price makes the Samsung Galaxy Fold look less expensive. Huawei, once associated with cheap equipment, is now beginning to change people’s past ideas.

Mate X is priced at 2,299 euros (about 2,605 US dollars). Although Huawei suggests that there will be other configurations, there are currently only 512GB of storage and 8GB of memory. This phone will be launched in the UK EE, Three, and Vodafone three telecom operators this year.