Huawei Mate Xs launches foldable smartphone with Kirin 990 5G SoC, durable display and redesigned hinge

Almost a year after Huawei first gave us the Mate X, the Chinese tech giant is back with a successor to its first foldable smartphone. The Huawei Mate Xs just arrived in China with a somewhat similar design, upgraded specs and according to the company, a more durable display and revamped hinge.

The Mate Xs arrives without Google apps and services because of the company’s ongoing software struggles from the US and China trade war. Huawei has updated the Mate Xs with the Kirin 990 5G system on chip (SoC).

The Mate Xs is equipped with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Huawei’s second foldable smartphone also gets a 4,500 mAh battery with 45W fast-charging support.

Huawei’s Mate Xs brings a new Falcon Wing hinge that the company claims should be more durable. The phone runs on EMUI 10 based on the open-source version of Android 10. Huawei’s mobile services replace Google services on the Mate Xs.

The Mate Xs features a 2-layer structure with what Huawei says is a “quad-layer” construction for the screen. The top two layers are made of polyamide film and stuck together using a clear adhesive with a flexible OLED display below that. Additionally, there’s a softer polymer layer that acts as a cushion, and another layer to connect it to the main body of the foldable phone.

When folded, the Mate Xs features a 6.6-inch screen with a 19.5:9 ratio, while the back features a tall 25:9 screen. The Mate Xs sports an 8-inch display when unfolded with a resolution of 2480 x 2200 pixels. However, unlike the Galaxy Z Flip, the Mate Xs boasts an all-plastic construction.

In terms of optics, the Mate Xs is equipped with a 40-megapixel, f/1.8 primary shooter, 16-megapixel, f/2.2 ultrawide lens and an 8-megapixel, f/2.4 telephoto sensor. Additionally, there’s a ToF module for portrait shots and no front cameras. Instead, you can take selfies with the main camera setup using the display on the back as a viewfinder. The Huawei Mate Xs is priced at 2,499 Euros (approx Rs 1,95,500), and will be globally available sometime next month.