Huawei has unveiled its latest foldable flagship, the Mate X2, and (as expected) it comes with an inward folding design. Remarkably, the phone is wedge shaped – it’s thickest near the camera module and it gradually slims down to just 4.4 mm on the other end. The camera end has the thickest portion and for good reason – this is the first foldable phone with a periscope lens.

Huawei Mate X2 launched

Huawei Mate X2 Specs and Features

Design and Display

But let’s talk screens first. The inner display measures 8-inch in diagonal and has a square aspect ratio of 8:7.1 and a resolution of 2480 x 2200. The external screen is 6.45-inch in diagonal and has a 21:9 aspect ratio.

Both screens are OLED panels with 90 Hz refresh rate. The internal panel supports DCI-P3 colors, the external one does not. The external one wins out in terms of touch sampling rate, 240 Hz vs. 180 Hz.

Huawei Mate X2 design and specs

The inner screen boasts the industry’s first “magnetically-controlled nano optical layer”. That’s a fancy way of saying it minimizes light reflection and glare (reflectivity is below 1.5%, compared to 5% or higher for the Galaxy Z Fold2). There’s no ultra thin glass, however.

The hinge design allows the phone to be closed seamlessly (i.e. without a gap). Inside, the OLED panel forms a teardrop shape to minimize creasing. Huawei used advanced for its hinge design – Zirconium-based liquid metal and carbon fiber panels – which helped reduce weight. The whole thing is still pretty heavy at 295g, however. Still, most of that weight is at the thickest part, so you can still comfortably hold the phone without it tipping over. You can close it with one hand.

Huawei Mate X2 1

Cameras

The quad camera on the back (co-developed with Leica) is built around the 50 MP main module with a 1/1.28” RYYB sensor. It has an f/1.9 aperture and supports OIS and can record 4K video. Thanks to the second screen, it can be used to shoot selfies too.

Next up is the 10x periscope lens (f/4.4) with OIS and an 8 MP RYYB sensor. It offers 20x hybrid zoom and up to 100x digital zoom. There’s also a mid-range zoom module with a 12 MP sensor, 3x optical magnification, f/2.4 aperture and OIS.

An ultra wide-angle module is available too with a 16 MP sensor. It doubles as a macro camera as well (2.5 cm distance). The exact focal lengths for the lenses are 17 mm, 23 mm, 70 mm and 240 mm.

Huawei Mate X2 Cameras

There is only one “front” camera and it is on the secondary display. This means that the large inner display is free of holes and notches, but also that you can’t use it for video calls. Also, there’s a fingerprint reader mounted on the side, which is handy if you need biometric authentication while the phone is opened.

Hardware and Software

The Huawei Mate X2 features the Kirin 9000 chipset. Unlike the competing Snapdragon and Exynos chips, this one is fabbed at TSMC’s 5 nm foundry. It has four Cortex-A77 cores (one of which runs at 3.13 GHz) and four A55, plus a Mali-G78 MP24 GPU.

Interestingly, the official specs list the OS as EMUI 11.0 based on Android 10. We were expecting HarmonyOS out of the box. Anyway, the phone has 8 GB of RAM plus 256 or 512 GB of storage.

Huawei Mate X2 running HarmonyOS

And a 5G modem, of course. Huawei carefully planned the antenna placement so that you get a strong signal regardless of how you hold the phone (and whether it’s closed or opened). In typical Huawei fashion, this is a dual SIM phone where the second SIM slot can accept a NM memory card.

The 4,500 mAh battery supports Super Fast charging at 55W using the supplied adapter. The retail package is actually pretty well stocked with a USB-C cable, USB-C headset (there’s no 3.5 mm jack), a leather protective case and screen protectors pre-applied on both screens.

Huawei Mate X2 launched 1

Huawei Mate X2 Specifications

Network Properties

  • 2G bands: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 – SIM 1 & SIM 2
  • 3G bands: HSDPA 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100
  • 4G bands: LTE
  • 5G bands: SA/NSA
  • Speed: HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE-A, 5G

Launch

  • Announced: 2021, February 22
  • Status: Exp. release 2021, February 25

Design

  • Dimensions:
    • Unfolded: 161.8 x 145.8 x 8.2 mm
    • Folded: 161.8 x 74.6 x 14.7 mm
  • Weight: 295 g (10.41 oz)
  • Build: Glass front, glass back, aluminum frame
  • Colors: Black, White, Light Blue, Rose Gold
  • SIM: Hybrid Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

Huawei Mate X2 in Colors 2

Display

  • Type: Foldable OLED, 90Hz
  • Size: 8.0 inches, 206.0 cm2 (~87.3% screen-to-body ratio)
  • Resolution: 2200 x 2480 pixels (~413 ppi density)
  • Cover display: 6.45″, OLED, 90Hz, 1160 x 2700 pixels, 456 ppi

Operating System

  • Android 10, EMUI 11, no Google Play Services

Hardware

  • Chipset: Kirin 9000 5G (5 nm)
  • CPU: Octa-core (1×3.13 GHz Cortex-A77 & 3×2.54 GHz Cortex-A77 & 4×2.05 GHz Cortex-A55)
  • GPU: Mali-G78 MP24
  • RAM: 8GB
  • Internal Storage: 256GB, 512GB
  • Memory Card slot: NM (Nano Memory), up to 256GB (uses shared SIM slot)
  • UFS 3.X

Cameras

  • Main Camera: Quad
    • 50 MP, f/1.9, 23mm (wide), 1/1.28″, 1.22µm, omnidirectional PDAF, Laser AF, OIS
    • 12 MP, f/2.4, 70mm (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
    • 8 MP, f/4.4, 240mm (periscope telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 10x optical zoom
    • 16 MP, f/2.2, 17mm (ultrawide), AF
  • Features: Leica optics, LED flash, panorama, HDR
  • Video: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS
  • Selfie Camera: Single – 16 MP, f/2.2, (wide)
  • Features: HDR, panorama
  • Video: 1080p@30fps

Multimedia

  • Radio: No
  • Loudspeaker: Yes, with stereo speakers
  • Audio 5mm jack: No

Connectivity

  • WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
  • Bluetooth: 5.2, A2DP, LE
  • GPS: Yes, with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS, NavIC
  • NFC: Yes
  • Infrared port: Yes
  • USB: USB Type-C 3.1

Features

  • Sensors: Fingerprint (side-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, color spectrum

Battery

  • Battery Type and Capacity: Li-Po 4500 mAh, non-removable
  • Charging: Fast charging 55W
  • Huawei SuperCharge

Huawei Mate X2 Price and Availability

The Huawei Mate X2 will be available in China from February 25.

  • 256 GB version costs CNY 18,000
  • 512 GB version costs CNY 19,000

It will be available online and in brick and mortar stores. No word on whether it will be available outside of China, however.

Huawei Mate X2 in Colors

A number of accessories will be available for the X2. One is a protective case with a built-in kick stand, another is a clever car mount that can hold the phone in both folded and unfolded states.

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