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Huawei has gone ahead with their product launch in Barcelona, to a much smaller crowd than had originally planned due to the cancellation of MWC and the Coronavirus. The product launch includes the new Huawei Mate Xs upping the ante from last years model and getting a global launch

Last year, Huawei joined Samsung with introducing a foldable device with Huawei arguably offering the superior design with the Mate X. Both phones launched with massive prices, both were delayed, then Samsung was plagued with another PR disaster following reports of broken screens. Huawei had their own issues with the US preventing them from releasing new phones with Google Play Services.

The Mate X did launch in China, and Samsung eventually released the Fold. Samsung has not followed up on the fold yet but instead opted for the Samsung Galaxy Flip.

So what’s changed and could the Huawei Mate Xs be your next flagship device?

Display

The launch was brief on details, but it looks like large parts of the device have been left the same. This includes the 8.0-inch single display which runs at 2200 x 2480 pixels but then folded over dropped down to 6.6-inches running at 1148 x 2480 pixels.

The Samsung adopted a two-screen design with the large foldable screen folding in on itself. This is a 7.3 inch display running at 1536 x 2152 pixels. It then has a second display which is 4.6-inches running at 720 x 1680 pixels

Chipset, RAM and Storage

Huawei has upgraded the chipset to the latest Kirin 990 5G which should comfortably outperform the Snapdragon 855 on the Samsung Galaxy Fold.

Both phones come with 8GB RAM/512GB storage. Samsung uses UFS 3.0 but Huawei didn’t mention anything, I wouldn’t expect it to also use UFS 3.0.

Camera

The Huawei has a similar spec as last year with:

  • 40 MP, f/1.8, 27mm (wide), 1/1.7″, PDAF
  • 8 MP, f/2.4, 52mm (telephoto)
  • 16 MP, f/2.2, 17mm (ultrawide)
  • TOF 3D, (depth)

However, the 40MP lens is the supersensing RYYB lens similar to the one you find on the Huawei P30 Pro giving you exceptional low light photos.

Both Mate X models lack a selfie camera because you can use the main camera for selfies.

The Samsung has:

  • 12 MP, f/1.5-2.4, 27mm (wide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS
  • 12 MP, f/2.4, 52mm (telephoto), 1/3.6″, 1.0µm, AF, OIS, 2x optical zoom
  • 16 MP, f/2.2, 12mm (ultrawide), 1/3.1″, 1.0µm

Samsung has a weird notch on their display which gives you:

  • 10 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1/3″, 1.22µm
  • 8 MP, f/1.9, 24mm (wide), 1.22µm, depth sensor

The notch on the Samsung makes it look much less impressive than the Huawei display.

Google Apps

The Huawei will not be launched with Google apps due to the ongoing issues with the US. Huawei is launching the new Huawei Mobiel Services which replaces most of the apps you miss from Google. It also has the AppGallery app store and you can install apps from many third-party app stores and use phone clone to copy over apps from existing Huawei devices.

Price

Last year the Mate X was announced for 2299-Euros, even though it didn’t see a European launch in the end.

You can currently buy the Samsung Galaxy Fold for £1900, and the new Flip is £1299.99

The Huawei Mate Xs has gone up in price to 2499-Euros making it far more expensive than most people would ever be willing to pay. It is tough to justify that price, but it is a remarkable bit of engineering, and I would hope future generations drop in price as the technology is perfected.

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