Huawei Mate X Hands-On Preview

By Alex Choros

Last updated 28 February 2019

My first attempt at unfolding the Huawei Mate X was a potent cocktail of joy and fear. Phones aren't meant to do that, which is both exciting and terrifying. There's a certain thrill in trying out a genuinely new piece of tech for the first time, but there's also apprehension - especially in this case. What if it doesn't live up to expectations? More importantly, what if you're the guy who breaks the $4,000 phone by folding it a little bit too hard? Fortunately, I managed to avoid destroying a Mate X and came away impressed from my initial experience with the phone.

Want to know about the Huawei Mate X? Read this!

After I realised I wasn't going to damage the Mate X by doing what it was literally designed to do (dumb, I know), I couldn't stop folding it and unfolding it. It's weird, it's new, it's satisfying. The process starts by tapping a button under the cameras to unlatch the screen, which leaves you free to bend it. You have to use a little bit of force, but you're not fighting the device. It's kind of like opening a laptop. The upshot of this is that the Mate X won't unfold on itself when in tablet mode, even if you're flailing it around. Which was a very brave move by the product demo guy, to be honest.

There's three different ways to use the Mate X. As a tablet, as a phone, and a slightly skinnier phone. Unfolded, you've got an 8-inch screen. Folded down, the "front" screen is 6.6-inches, and "back" display measures in at 6.38. It's a little skinnier, because the camera (and other component) "wedge" sits alongside it.

If you're using the Mate X as a phone, you'll primarily be using the front screen. When you're doing so, the rear screen stays off. Reversing the Mate X will automatically change which display is active thanks to a gyroscope. The main reason you'd flip it around is for taking a selfie, as there's no front-facing cameras. You can also fire up the rear screen when taking a photo of someone else, which lets them see how they look and your framing.

Opening up the Mate X seamlessly expands whatever app you had open to account for the full screen, and closing it shrinks its back down. From a technical perspective, the device does so by alternating between an app's "phone mode" and "tablet mode". This means developers won't need to do any extra work to ensure existing Android apps work seamlessly on the Mate X, providing there's already a tablet mode.

No matter how you're using the Mate X, it looks and feels great. It's a little heavy for a phone, but light for a tablet. Even unfolded, it's feels balanced when you're using it one handed. The wedge gives the otherwise razor-thin device a good grip, but I found just holding it by the screen worked just as well.

The screen itself looks lovely - it’s just as bright and vibrant as the kind of panel you'd find in any other high-end smartphone, with the same kind of wide viewing angles. Making the Mate X foldable doesn't seem to have resulted in display quality compromises, although you can occasionally notice a slight crease in the centre. This is only really evident when viewing at off angles on light backgrounds, however. Running at a resolution of 2480x2200, the Mate X display is almost square, which can result in sizeable black bars when watching full-screen video. In terms of physical build, the screen is covered in plastic - because glass doesn't bend - but it certainly didn't feel cheap.

Huawei promised us a foldable phone, and on the face of it, has delivered a polished first attempt. Even though the Mate X isn't quite ready to go on sale, the device I handled felt as good as any other flagship phone. But as hyped as I am, there's still a lot of questions that need answering.

For me, the most important one is what the day-to-day experience feels like after initial excitement wears off. Just how meaningful is having a tablet and a smartphone in one device? How often do you actually unfold it? After all, there's no point to a Mate X if you just end up using it like any other phone.

I've got a few less existential questions too. How durable is the display? Plastic tends to scratch and scuff easier than glass, which could leave the device looking worse for wear. What's the battery life like? Larger displays are more demanding. What's the go with the cameras? Huawei has yet to say anything about the three camera configuration.

And of course, there is the question of cost. Locally, you'll probably spend $4,000 or so. At that kind of price, it's almost impossible to compare the Mate X to standard smartphones. At $4,000 it's clearly bad value from the traditional perspective. You could buy both a top tier smartphone and a top tier tablet for less. Much less. The Mate X isn't a rational purchase. But assuming the Mate X lives up to even half of hype, you're not buying a typical smartphone, you're not buying a typical tablet, you're buying a taste of the future.