The $2,607 gear will launch in late 2019 and will rival Samsung’s recently revealed Galaxy Fold.
Chinese multinational conglomerate, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. has recently unveiled its first foldable smartphone called ‘Huawei Mate X’ which the company says is primed to support next-generation 5G mobile networks. Reportedly, the move comes just a week after Samsung revealed its first foldable smartphone called Galaxy Fold.
According to Business Line, Richard Yu, CEO, Consumer Business Group, Huawei Technologies, said that the company has been working on its folding screen segment for almost three years which though is expensive, however, comes with a lot of new technologies.
Yu said that the phone supports current and future 5G technology and will have two back-to-back displays which unfold to become an 8-inch tablet screen. Moreover, the Mate X would be able to download a 1GB movie in just three seconds but will also be priced at €2,299 ($2,607) when it goes on sale in late 2019, setting a new benchmark for consumer smartphones.
Sources claim that Huawei Mate X’s €2,299 price tag is slightly costlier than Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, which will cost €2,000 that will also be released in late 2019. However, with premium mobile phones costing well over $1,000 a piece, customers have been opting for cheaper alternatives, often made by lesser-known companies.
Reportedly, Huawei has rapidly grown as a leading smartphone manufacturer in the past few years. For instance, in 2018, the company surpassed U.S. tech giant Apple, Inc. to become the world’s second-largest smartphone maker. As per reports, Huawei sold around 206 million smartphones in 2018, significantly more compared to its over 150 million sold in 2017.
However, despite rapid growth, the company has been under intense scrutiny in the West over US-led charges of it enabling Chinese state spying, accusations which Huawei says are false.
