The last time I really got to attend a proper tech event was as Huawei launch at Mobile World Congress. While MWC was cancelled, Huawei still had an event to launch some of their laptops and smartphones. One of the phones was their first folding phone, the Huawei Mate X. Huawei recently launched their new folding phone, the Mate X2. It’ll likely never hit Irish shores, but here’s what we know about it to date.
What’s New With The Huawei Mate X2?
With just 12 months between the two phones, you might imagine not much has changed. But this is the folding phone market and it’s moving quickly
Design
The new Huawei Mate X2 does make significant departures from the first folding phone created by the Chinese manufacturer. I need to highlight, I’ve not tested this phone out, so I’m just weighing in with opinion on some things I’ve seen.
Huawei has left their original outward folding design, instead opting for a more typical inward design seen on the Samsung Galaxy Fold. I’ve got to say I think this is a mistake by Huawei. Getting hands-on with both of the folding phones left me feeling like The Mate X only fell down in the software department. The hardware was perfect. At the time I honestly believed far superior design minds in China had smashed it, while the South Korean Samsung teams were second best.
Yet, here we are a year later and Huawei is following Samsung’s lead. I’m extremely surprised. Their swap to the inward folding design means the Mate X2 will have a small gap in the phone when closed.
Open the phone and you get to see the phone’s 8-inch tablet screen. From other reviews I’ve read, the verdict is that the display is fantastic with the crease being almost invisible. There’s no camera cutouts or loss of screen real-estate on the inside.
Overall though, from a distance, the design looks great. Essentially, the Mate X2 is a thicker P40 Pro that you can open with a tablet in the middle. The front and rear of the phone is almost identical to the P40 Pro.
Cameras
The design decisions have knock-on impacts for the camera setups on the Mate X2. For some reason, Huawei has included a cut-out selfie camera. I don’t fully get this given that the front-facing camera is inferior to the rear-facing camera and you can take selfies with the primary camera when the phone is open.
Now, I have a theory here. The rear and the front of the phone looks so much like either the P40 Pro or P40 Pro+ that it’s entirely possible some parts are being reused. I might be way off and haven’t been able to closely inspect the phone to verify, but that’s my theory.
Without getting hands-on myself, and kind of assuming this phone will never hit Irish retailers, I’ll concede this article might be the only bit of writing I do on the Mate X2. It’s not a review, but more the observations I’ve made from watching other reviewers. The most in-depth I’ve seen to date is from MKBHD, so give it a look and see what you think yourself!
If you’re interested in this phone, hit the bell in the bottom left corner. In the event this comes to Ireland and I have news, I’ll update this article and you’ll be first to know.
