Huawei was one of the first manufacturers to offer a foldable phone, and the company’s latest bendy device has been introduced in the brand’s home country. The device is called the Mate Xs 2, and it is currently limited to China, but we may see it launched in other markets later. It’s a refined version of the Mate Xs, and while the differences are not super obvious at first glance, this seems to be an exciting addition to the market for foldable phones.
Do not confuse this with the Huawei Mate X2, which was launched in early 2021 with a fold-in screen. Instead, this is a follow-up to the company’s outreach design handset. Quietly, Huawei has become one of the most productive manufacturers of foldable phones with as many choices as Samsung right now. They’re just not as easy to buy as Samsung’s Fold or Flip series.
The Mate Xs 2 has the same outward-facing design as its predecessor, but this time it has a 7.8-inch OLED screen when you unfold it. It has a resolution of 2,480 x 2,200, while inside you will find a 6.5-inch 19: 9 screen. Huawei claims that its new hinge technology means it does not leave a visible crease on the screen, and so far the marketing materials make it clear. We will test the device before we know for sure that it is not visible.
The camera is remarkably different on this model with a 50MP f / 1.8 primary shooter, an 8MP f / 2.4 telephoto with 3x optical zoom and a 12MP 120-degree ultra-wide-angle field of view camera. The selfie camera on this handset is on the main screen so you can use it once you have unfolded the larger screen. It is a 10 MP f / 2.2 hole in the upper right corner of the screen.
Other specifications include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 4G chipset inside with the choice of either 8GB or 12GB of RAM. The former model comes with 256 GB of storage and a 4,600 mAh battery, while the latter comes with 512 GB of storage and a larger 4,880 mAh battery. Both phones have 66W charging and there are no wireless charging features.
As is often the case with Huawei phones, this phone does not have a 5G connection. This is due to trade restrictions in everyday speech known as the Huawei ban, which also affected the company’s use of Google Mobile Services. This handset also includes the company’s own Harmony OS 2 software.
In China, the Mate Xs 2 is cheaper than its previous handset, with the lowest model costing 9,999 Yuan, which is equivalent to about $ 1,500. Even the highest spec model comes in at under $ 2,000, far less than the cheapest version of the original Mate Xs, which sold for around $ 2,500. It’s unlikely that we’ll see this phone in many other markets, but Huawei sold the original Mate Xs in the UK and other parts of Europe. We could see this handset coming outside of China, but it is unlikely that it will ever come to the US.
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