Huawei unveiled it’s latest flagship foldable smartphone, the Huawei Mate X2 with an inward folding design similar like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2. The overall phone is shaped like a wedge. The thickest point is at the camera and it gradually slims down to 4.4mm on the other end. This is the first foldable smartphone with a periscope zoom lens, so that is a first! The overall design seems very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2, both the devices share many similarities which we will discuss later in our comparison.
So the Huawei Mate X2 has 2 screens, the bigger one which folds inwards and a smaller outer display. The inner foldable display is an 8″ one and has an aspect ratio of 8:7.1 (pretty squarish) with a resolution of 2480 x 2200. The outer display is a 6.45″ one with a 21:9 aspect ratio. Both the inner and outer displays are OLED screens with a 90Hz refresh rate (not 120 Hz like the competition). The inner display has a touch sampling rate of 180Hz whereas the outer display bumps it up to 240Hz. The inner screen has the industry’s first ‘magnetically-controlled nano optical layer’. It is a technology that Huawei developed for reducing light reflection and glare. There is no ultra thin glass like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2.
Huawei also has a hinge similar to the Galaxy. But it can be closed seamlessly without a gap unlike the Galaxy. The OLED panel closed inside like a teardrop shape to reduce visible creasing (just like the motorola razr foldable). Huawei used Zirconium-based liquid metal and carbon fiber panels to make the hinge that helped to minimize the weight of the phone. But the overall weight of the phone is still 296g. But we can close it easily with one hand because more weight is on the thickest part of the phone. So the phone should offer a better feel in hand when compared to the Galaxy.
For the cameras, it is a flagship level one. There is a quad camera setup with a 50MP main sensor with 1/1.28″ sensor size and RYYB configuration. It has a f/1.9 aperture with OIS. The same high quality 50MP sensor can used for selfies too using the second screen. Then there is an 8MP 10x periscope zoom lens with an f/4.4 aperture, OIS and can be used for 20x hybrid zoom and 100x digital zoom. There is also another zoom lens with 12MP resolution which offers 3x optical zoom. It is of f/2.4 aperture with OIS. The last sensor is an ultrawide one with a 16MP resolution that can also be used as a macro camera if needed.
The Mate X2 is powered by a Kirin 9000 chipset. It is a 5nm chipset that makes it more advanced than the competing chipsets from Snapdragon and Exynos. It is an octa core chipset with up to 3.13 GHz clockspeeds. The phone is equipped with 8GB of RAM with 256GB and 512GB storage versions. The phone is also 5G ready. It has a 4500 mAh battery capable of charging at super fast 55W with the included charger. There is also a USB-C cable and also a USB-C headset inside the retail box. The Mate X2 will be available in China starting from February 25. The base phone will cost around $2780 in China.
