Huawei introduces Mate X fold-able smartphone

It has 8-inch flexible screen that folds all the way round the outside of the phone.

The Chinese smartphone maker Huawei unveiling a 5G phone with a folding screen called the Mate X with a price tag of $2,599 (£1,995).

The Mate X uses what Huawei calls a "Falcon Wing" design with a stretchable hinge that allows the smartphone to transform from a 6.6-inch OLED smartphone to an 8-inch OLED tablet, making it bigger than Samsung's recently launched Galaxy Fold.




Launched at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Sunday, the Mate X has a flexible OLED display that covers both the front and back of the device, and which unfolds outwards to become an 8-inch tablet screen. 

Richard Yu, the chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business, said the Mate X represented “a voyage into the uncharted”. “As a new breed of smartphones, Huawei Mate X combines 5G, foldable screen, AI and an all-new mode of interfacing to provide consumers with an unprecedented user experience,” he said. The Chinese firm, which has been at the centre of a political storm, was pipped to the post by its South Korean rival with the launch of its Galaxy Fold smartphone last Wednesday.

With a 0.4-inch thickness Mate X also has a solid strip on one edge that sits flush with the rear screen when folded over, acts as a handle and contains a quadruple Leica camera system. The phone also features a fingerprint sensor built into its power button, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, a large battery and a new 55W version of the firms SuperCharge technology that can reach 85% from zero in 30 minutes.