Huawei Mate X2 officially launches, Kirin 9000 5G and 100x zoom starting at $2,700

While Huawei has faced a lot of adversities in the past few years in their smartphone business, they have not been fazed one bit and is now doubling down with the new Huawei Mate X2. Its new foldable smartphone aims to refine the experience by offering better internals, performance, and overall design.

The Huawei Mate X2’s OLED display spans 8.01 inches and once folded, at around 6.45 inches with a resolution of 2700 x 1160. The brand is improving the hinge design with what the call a “multi-dimensional hinge,” which they claim allows the device to have a seamless look. The screens are faster as well increasing refresh rates from the pedestrian 60Hz to the more popular 90Hz.

Like most of its flagships in recent memory, the Mate X2 packs Leica lenses that lends to its proficiency in photography. Its rear quad camera setup is composed of a 50MP Ultra Vision main camera, a 16MP f/2.2 CineCamera Ultrawide, a 12MP f/2.4 telephoto zoom that can reach up to 3x optical zoom, and an 8MP f/4.4 SuperZoom lens.

Huawei claims that the new Mate X2 can use its cameras to take up to 100x digital zoom while still preserving details on the photo. It also has a few tricks up its sleeve at close proximities. While it does not have a dedicated macro lens, the brand claims that its cameras take close ups of up to 2.5cm.

It manages to pack in quite a lot in its thin chassis – 4.4mm at the thinnest part, in fact. The Mate X2 comes with a Kirin 9000 5G chip with 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. It also manages to hide a 4,500mAh battery charged via a USB Type-C connection with support for 66W Huawei SuperCharge.

The Mate X2 does not come with official support for the Google PlayStore but runs on Android 10 with EMUI 11 with access to the Huawei AppGallery. It seems that their HarmonyOS still has a few kinds to be resolved before it launches to the consumer market.

Pricing and Availability

The Huawei Mate X2 will be initially available in China in two variants, both of which are more expensive than other flagship foldable offerings in the market like the Galaxy Z Fold 2:

• Huawei Mate X2 12GB/256GB – CNY 17,999 (USD 2,800 or PhP 136,000)
• Huawei Mate X2 12GB/512GB – CNY 18,999 (USD 2,900 or PhP 143,000)

Huawei has not announced yet if they are going to launch the Mate X2 in other parts of the globe. We should get word if more countries will be receiving their latest foldable offering.