Huawei might just revolutionise the tech industry, once again. For those of you in the dark, the Chinese company has always offered top quality products on the bleeding edge of design and innovation. From its telephoto cameras to its foldables, Huawei has time and again set the bar when it comes to both consumer tech as well as concepts.
One such product was the Huawei Mate X, the company's first proper foldable, which was also available to consumers. As of Wednesday, the company has announced the launch of the Mate X's successor, the Huawei Mate X2. Here's why we think the company is going to break its own standards with the same.
Before we begin, we need to discuss the Mate X2's predecessor, the one that started it all, the Mate X and how it was leaps and bounds ahead of what the competitors had to offer, fueling our expectations of the second version of Huawei's foldable repeating the same leap forward.
Huawei Mate X: Light-years Ahead
The Mate X was the embodiment of what a foldable should be, at least as per Huawei. When the competition was stuck with either big, dated bezels or a design that looked far too similar to a late 90's phone, the Mate X was light years ahead.
The main competitor, featuring a slightly similar method of folding, the Samsung Galaxy Fold (first gen) featured massive bezels to the front of the display, with the inside of the smartphone, which housed the main panel featuring a sizeable notch to the top, that too in a weird position, making it that much harder to ignore it whilst enjoying content or even during a spot of light reading. Meanwhile, the alternate style of folding displays, which resembled flip phones of the past offered better innovation, in the form of a small punch-hole on the Z Flip from Samsung and the visible yet less intrusive Motorola Razr (2020)
This is where the Mate X truly showcases why we write Light-years ahead as part of the heading of this segment. The Mate X took the alternative route when it came to the book like opening style of folding designs. Rather than open like a book, where the user was to take one side of the screen and fold it flat to provide access to the entirety of the display, the Mate X did the exact opposite.
It required the user to pull the display closer to themselves so as to access the larger footprint and, once the user was done with using the larger panel, the user would need to fold a part of the display to it's back, much like one would do to a book. This allowed for many additions, but, this also posed a threat to the phone, since when the device would be in its compact shape, a sizeable amount of it would be exposed, making it susceptible to scruffs and scrapes, with the chances of the display being ruined higher than a typical foldable such as the Fold, which used up a tiny amount of the front when the device would be folded.
All of this being said, the method used by Huawei was quite striking, offering a foldable with a design that truly seemed like a piece of the future, with the prices being in line with this thought, with the device retailing for $2,400 dollars or 16,999 Yuan.
Why the Mate X2 Will Build on this Innovation
As of the day of writing this article, Huawei has announced that it will be unveiling the successor to the Mate X, the Mate X2 on Feb 22nd, making the waiting period quite short and, causing some buzz in relation to what it might have to offer this time. As per a leakster on Weibo, the Mate X2 will come featuring an improved design, a 5nm chipset, and a new, impressive kind of technology.
What set the Mate X apart from the crowd was its display, which at the time of it's launch was leaps and bounds ahead in comparison to the competition. That being said, two years have passed since the Mate X was originally slated to launch and, in these two years, we have seen consumer tech taking a radical shift. Consider, for example, Samsung.
They went from a mediocre product, in the form of the original Fold to a product that has made such strides in comparison to its predecessor that the shift was almost unbelievable to some. All major aspects of the device were fixed and improved, resulting in a great successor to a mediocre first try.
Things have taken a turn this time in terms of the leaks, meaning we are not as aware of what the X2 might bring to the table as we were during the Mate X's launch. However, as mentioned earlier, tech changes and, in this fast-paced world, one needs to innovate and make changes so as to ensure that it can sustain its business and stay in the market.
We might not see a radical shift, but, what we will see is an improvement, much like Samsung, where the product that was capable of dropping jaws but not cash has become so radically different and improved that customers are willing to spend as much as required. This change might come in the form of the hinge, a common issue when it comes to foldables in general, or in terms of the camera since Huawei's name is held highly in terms of cameras.
All this having been said, the time for the unveil is approaching, albeit slowly and we will at the end of the day have to say what changes Huawei has made, so as to attract potential customers and helping the foldable market grow, much like Samsung has been able to achieve with its foldable lineup.
