HUAWEI Mate X launches in China, costs more than the Galaxy Fold

Update, October 23, 2019 (01:17 PM ET): Today, HUAWEI announced that the HUAWEI Mate X is available to pre-order in the company’s home country of China (via CNET). The device costs 16,999 Chinese yuan (~$2,406) for the variant with 8GB of RAM, 512GB of internal storage, and 5G-connections, according to VMall.

That’s approximately $400 more than the other major foldable device launched this year, the Samsung Galaxy Fold.

Pre-orders will arrive to Chinese customers by November 15, which is when the device will go on general sale in that country.

As of now, there is no news on worldwide availability, but stay tuned for more details as we learn more.

Original article, September 6, 2019 (10:00 AM ET): The HUAWEI Mate X was originally scheduled for launch in June, but the company delayed the release in the wake of the Galaxy Fold defects. Now that Samsung’s foldable phone is ready for prime-time, it looks like HUAWEI is preparing for a potential launch in October.

HUAWEI consumer business group CEO Richard Yu told journalists at an IFA 2019 roundtable that the firm wanted to launch the device in August. However, there were several hurdles to overcome first.

First of all, Yu said the display needs some changes before large volume production. The tweaks weren’t disclosed, but it’s possible HUAWEI is following Samsung’s lead by strengthening the foldable screen. The first generation of foldable phones use plastic displays that could potentially be prone to scratches too, so this could also be another weakness to address.

Yu noted that app support was a second challenge to address on the HUAWEI Mate X, explaining they were talking to developers about making their apps more suitable for the screen size. Finally, the executive noted that 5G testing was still underway with network partners.

“So maybe next month we can start to sell it globally,” the HUAWEI executive told media. This isn’t the only Mate X news Yu had for us though.

“We are even considering to upgrade to a new chipset for this phone, the Kirin 990 (sic),” Yu said. He later clarified that the HUAWEI Mate X with the Kirin 980 could launch first, followed by a version with the Kirin 990.

Would you buy a foldable phone? Give us your thoughts in the comments!