Review | Huawei Mate X2 review: foldable phone beats Samsung’s with a superb zoom camera and other hardware, even if there are no Google services
- Huawei’s latest foldable phone ticks the boxes for battery, camera, and body: it has the best hardware out there
- This has to be balanced against the lack of Google services and its forbidding price tag
Huawei’s smartphones have a reputation for exceptional hardware, and the Chinese tech giant’s latest foldable phone, the Mate X2, is no exception. But, as with every Huawei smartphone launched in the past year and a half, software shortcomings forced by the US government – as well as an eye-watering price tag – will ultimately limit the handset’s appeal.
Design and hardware
Ever since foldables made their debut two years ago, phone brands have had to choose a side: fold inwards (towards the user) like a book, or fold out (away from the user). Huawei chose the latter with its first two foldable phones, the Mate X and Mate XS.
But with the Mate X2, Huawei has jumped to the fold-in crowd, which in my opinion is the right choice. Unfortunately, Samsung chose this method first, so now the Mate X2 looks like a copy of the Galaxy Z Fold series.
Still, the Mate X2 is superior to the Z Fold 2 in four key areas.
Firstly, the Mate X2 folds completely flat, while the Z Fold 2 leaves a slight gap; secondly, despite the tighter fold, the Mate X2 screen does not show a crease, unlike Samsung’s phone, which has a noticeable crease down the middle of the screen.
Third, Huawei managed to cram a top-tier flagship camera system into the Mate X2, including a 10x optical zoom Periscope camera. (Samsung’s folding phones all had compromised camera systems that were not at the level of its non-folding flagship phones. The Z Fold 2, for example, does not use a Periscope zoom lens.)
The fourth superior feature is the outside display. Huawei’s Mate X2 packs a 6.5-inch OLED screen on the outside with an aspect ratio of 21:9. This is much closer in size and scale to a traditional smartphone screen; Samsung’s Fold 2 uses an unconventional tall and narrow 25:9 aspect ratio, which can make typing difficult for those with thicker fingers.