Amid controversy around the durability factor of foldable smartphones, Huawei has launched its latest foldable flagship smartphone, Mate Xs. The Chinese smartphone maker was supposed to launch the smartphone at the MWC Barcelona event, but since the event got cancelled, Huawei had to unveil the device through a separate event.
The Huawei Xs is a successor to its last year's Mate X. As expected, the Mate Xs comes with an improved hinge structure and a better cooling system while keeping many of its specs unchanged. The Mate Xs flaunts a 6.6-inch display with 19.5:9 aspect ratio while unfolded.
Besides, the smartphone packs an 8-inch foldable plastic OLED display with an aspect ratio of 25:9 and a resolution count of 2480x2200 pixels.
The smartphone lacks a selfie camera, but in case you want to click one, the primary camera of the smartphone helps you do it. The Mate Xs flaunts a 40 MP f/1.8 primary sensor, combined with an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto sensor with OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) and a 16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide shooter. The smartphone packs a ToF module to offer better edge detection and great-looking bokeh shots.
The Huawei Mate Xs runs on an open-source edition of Android 10 powered EMUI 10. As expected, the smartphone lacks all the Google-developed tools and apps. To compensate, Huawei has incorporated its Huawei-Mobile-Service or HMS in the device.
Powered by home-brewed chipset Kirin 990, the Mate Xs come with 5G connectivity and would come in 8 GB RAM memory and 512 GB inbuilt storage. The device, however, would come at 16999 yuan which roughly translates to SGD 3,390 or $2,420.
In contrast, Samsung's latest foldable smartphone Galaxy Z Flip comes at a starting price of SGD 1,998, which almost half of the Mate Xs. However, the Xs has two big displays, while the Z Flip has one standard and a minuscule display. The Z Flip comes with Google's official Android support which might be an advantage for non-Chinese users.
Huawei is also set to launch its 2020 flagship smartphone P40 at an event in Paris on February 26. The P40 series of devices too would come with HMS instead of Google apps.
