Huawei's foldable phone: What we know so far

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Huawei's answer to the foldable competition is named "Mate X," the company's head of consumer business Richard Yu announced at the MWC 2019 in Barcelona, Spain.

Holding the phone in his hand, Yu told the press conference that Mate X has some unique advantages over its competitors, which include Samsung's new phone Galaxy Fold.

The new Huawei Mate X device /VCG Photo

Similar to Flexpai's design, the screen faces outward when the phone is folded. This is different from Samsung's approach, which folds the screen inward and puts a smaller second screen on the back of the phone.

Mate X has an 8-inch, nearly square-shaped screen that's larger than Apple's iPad Mini tablet.

Screenshot from Huawei

When folded, the front part of the screen is 6.6 inches with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, which is common among mainstream all-screen phones.

It's worth noting that the Mate X's black "bezels" around the screen seem thinner than those of its rivals, and there is no additional annoyance like a "notch" or "chin."

The other part is 6.38 inches in size and is a bit more stretched.

The phone measures only 5.4 mm thick when unfolded, thinner than the new iPad Pro which is 5.9 mm and other foldable phones of 6.9 mm.

The mobile signal chip in Mate X, named Balong 5000, is made by Huawei and can be used on 5G networks, in both phase 1 and 2.

Screenshot from Huawei‍

This is particularly important as other chips available now are not compatible with phase 2 5G networks.

Yu claimed the 5G network is so fast that Mate X can download a 1-gigabyte movie in three seconds, which is about 100 times faster than regular 4G speed.

Screenshot from Huawei

More security, better interaction

With their ID encrypted, users can be protected from having their identity stolen, and the 5G technology can provide an integrity protection mechanism for the communication between users and the network.

The new foldable smartphone also brings brilliant interactive experiences, for both split-screen browsing and dual-screen manipulation.

Huawei's foldable Mate X supports multi-task operation. /Huawei Gif

Previously, if a user wanted to send an email with an attachment on their phone, they had to go back and forth in the same window several times, while with the dual screen, they can directly drag and drop pictures or text to email attachments.

It also supports multi-window operation, enabling multi-task interaction for users, like watching a movie when chatting with friends on social media platforms.

Huawei boasts the best selfie experience by its Mate X foldable smartphone. /CGTN Screenshot

For selfies, "we can say that, this phone, the Huawei Mate X, has the industry's best selfie," said Yu, "because we are using the rear camera for the front selfie."

It can even save one who is always blamed for poor photography skills. With the aid of the innovative dual-screen design, people can see their portrait in real time from the other screen when taking a photograph.

Ultra-fast charging technology

Huawei once amazed the world with its 40W fast charging function, while this time, it has improved to the world's fastest 55W supercharge.

"It is an unbelievable speed," said Yu.

Charge for 30 minutes, and you can get your phone 85 percent charged, 600 percent faster than iPhone Xs Max.

Thin as it is, Mate X has two batteries inside of 4500 mAh capacity, which lasts for a whole day.

The Mate X will sell for roughly 2,600 U.S. dollars and goes on sale by midyear.

Richard Yu, CEO of the Huawei Consumer Business Group, presents the new Matebook X Pro laptop. /VCG Photo

The giant also unveiled its latest MateBook X Pro and 5G CPE Pro (Customer Premise Equipment), featuring many of the world's leading technologies.

For the full content of Huawei's press conference at the MWC, click here to watch CGTN's livestream.

(CGTN's Gao Yun also contributed to this story.)