HUAWEI Mate Xs Foldable Smartphone : Hands-On Preview!

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We recently had access (for a limited time) with a few HUAWEI Mate Xs foldable smartphones, and here is our hands-on preview!

We will also share with you EVERYTHING you need to know about the HUAWEI Mate Xs, including its specifications and price!

 

HUAWEI Mate Xs : Hands-On Experience!

Let’s start with our hands-on experience with the new HUAWEI Mate Xs foldable smartphone. Be sure to check out how the Falcon Wing mechanism works, and look at how flat the display looks after it’s fully unfolded!

The only buttons you will find on the Mate Xs are located along the right edge – the Power button which doubles as the fingerprint sensor, and the Volume control buttons.

The HUAWEI Mate Xs comes with a dual-slot hybrid card tray at the top. It supports two nano SIM cards, or a single nano SIM card and an NM card (for additional storage of up to 256 GB).

Even though it comes with a substantial camera bar on the right side, there is no 3.5 mm audio jack. Only a USB Type C, which supports USB 3.1 Gen1 – basically USB 3.0.

There is no “front camera”, because of its foldable design – you can just flip it over and use the back display and the “rear cameras” for selfies. This gives you great flexibility because the Leica quad camera system offers :

  • a 40 MP main camera, with f/1.8 aperture
  • a 16 MP ultra-wide camera, with f/2.2 aperture
  • an 8 MP telephoto camera, with f/2.4 aperture, and
  • a Time of Flight camera, with f/2.2 aperture

But its main killer feature is the ability to unfold the display to create a large, tablet-like 8-inch OLED display!

When folded, the front display is 6.6-inch in size, while the rear display is 6.38-inch in size.

 

HUAWEI Mate Xs : Improved HUAWEI Mate X!

The HUAWEI Mate Xs is basically an improved version of their first foldable smartphone, the HUAWEI Mate X.

It features the same design, with an external 8-inch foldable display, and a Leica quad-camera system. But there have been some changes internally.

New 5G Mobile Platform

Instead of pairing the Kirin 980 mobile SoC with the Balong 5000 5G chip, the HUAWEI Mate Xs uses the new Kirin 990 5G mobile SoC, with a triple-tier architecture :

  • two ARM Cortex-A76 high-performance cores at 2.86 GHz
  • two ARM Cortex-A76 sustained performance cores at 2.36 GHz
  • four ARM Cortex-A55 low-power cores at 1.95 GHz

It also comes with a powerful 16-core ARM Mali-G76 GPU, and a new Da Vinci neural architecture with 2 big NPUs and 1 small NPU.

Improved Cooling

Keeping the Kirin 990 5G cool is a new flexible bionic graphite cooling system that folds with the display, and dissipates heat through both sections.

Improved Falcon Wing Mechanism

While it uses the same foldable design and foldable OLED display, the Falcon Wing mechanism has been improved somewhat.

Leica Quad Camera System

The Leica quad camera system which works as both front and rear cameras offer great flexibility due to its mix of cameras :

  • a 40 MP main camera, with f/1.8 aperture
  • a 16 MP ultra-wide camera, with f/2.2 aperture
  • an 8 MP telephoto camera, with f/2.4 aperture, and
  • a Time of Flight camera, with f/2.2 aperture

 

HUAWEI Mate Xs vs Mate X : Specifications

In this table, we compare the specifications of the new HUAWEI Mate Xs against its predecessor, the HUAWEI Mate X.

Specifications HUAWEI Mate Xs HUAWEI Mate X
Display 8-inch OLED display : 2200 x 2480 pixels
Folded main screen : 6.6-inch (1148 x 2480 pixels)
Folded secondary screen : 6.38-inch (892 x 2480 pixels)
Operating System EMUI 10.0.1 EMUI 9.1.1
System Platform HUAWEI Kirin 990 5G HUAWEI Kirin 980
Processor 2 x Cortex-A76 (2.86 GHz)
2 x Cortex-A76 (2.36 GHz)
4 x Cortex-A55 (1.95 GHz)		 2 x Cortex-A76 (2.6 GHz)
2 x Cortex-A76 (1.92 GHz)
4 x Cortex-A55 (1.8 GHz)
GPU ARM Mali-G76 MP16 ARM Mali-G76 MP24
NPU 2 x Big Core + 1 x Tiny Core 2 x Big Core
RAM 8 GB LPDDR4x
Storage 512 GB internal storage
NM Card slot (Up to 256 GB)
Front Camera None
Rear Cameras Leica Quad Camera System
– 40 MP main camera (f/1.8)
– 16 MP ultra-wide camera (f/2.2)
– 8 MP telephoto camera (f/2.4)
– ToF camera (f/2.2)
Connectivity 5G NR : Sub 6 GHz
4G : LTE
Wi-Fi : 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (dual band)
Bluetooth : BT5.0
USB : USB 3.1 Gen1 Type C
Fingerprint Sensor Yes, Side Mounted
Other Sensors Gyroscope, Compass, Proximity,
Gravity, Hall, Infrared, Ambient Light,
Barometer, Colour Temperature
Battery 4,500 mAh battery
55W fast charging
Dimensions 78.5 mm wide
161.3 mm tall
11 mm thick
Weight 300 g

 

HUAWEI Mate Xs : Price + Availability

The HUAWEI Mate Xs is available in select countries, with these recommended retail prices :

  • Malaysia : RM 11,111
  • Australia : A$4,099
  • Europe : €2,499

That works out roughly to US$2,699 / £2,899 / S$3,699.

Here are some online purchase options :

 

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