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Mate Xs Opens to 8+” OLED Display
May 31, 2020
Huawei went back to the drawing board to upgrade its first foldable phone, the Mate X, even before it had the chance of release outside China. The upgrade comes in the form of the current Mate Xs that flaunts enhanced hinge and display cover, as well as boosted specs. A 6"+ phone when closed, a veritable 8" tablet when opened and Huawei still managed to keep things relatively thin and small. Performance is snappy, pictures and video are good, and the tailored-for-foldables interface has some new layout ideas.
Figure 1: Mate Xs. Folded and Unfolded
May 31, 2020
Huawei went back to the drawing board to upgrade its first foldable phone, the Mate X, even before it had the chance of release outside China. The upgrade comes in the form of the current Mate Xs that flaunts enhanced hinge and display cover, as well as boosted specs. A 6"+ phone when closed, a veritable 8" tablet when opened and Huawei still managed to keep things relatively thin and small. Performance is snappy, pictures and video are good, and the tailored-for-foldables interface has some new layout ideas.
Figure 1: Mate Xs. Folded and Unfolded
Source: Company
At the announced price of $2,775, (2,499 EUR) only the most dedicated fans would get one anyway.
Key Mate Xs specs and features:
- Dimensions: 6.35 x 5.76 x 0.43" (161.3 x 146.2 x 11mm) open / 6.35 x 3.08 x 0.43" (161.3 x 78.3 x 11/5.4mm) closed
- Display size(s): 8" 2480 x 2200 pixels when opened, 6.6" (front) or 6.4" (back) when closed
- Memory: 8GB RAM/512GB storage
- Processor and 5G connectivity: Kirin 990 with integrated Balong modem, global 8-band 5G support
- Camera(s): 40MP (main) + 16MP (wide) + 8MP (telephoto) + ToF sensor
- Battery and charging: 4500mAh, 65W charger
- OS: EMUI 10.1 on AOSP Android 10 with App Gallery
Huawei Mate Xs display(s) and design
- The 'out-folding' design delivers on the foldable phone promises better than the other form factors.
- With the case bumper, this is one of the thickest and heaviest phones in a while.
- The hinge is very sturdy but a bit creaky and hard to push completely open.
- The screen 'bump' can be felt during swipe-typing but doesn't really detract much from the viewing experience.
- The display is somewhat dim and prone to smudges but not scratches.
- The side-mounted finger scanner is very fast and accurate to unlock.
The closed Mate Xs is shorter, slightly wider and thicker than the Galaxy S20 Ultra, but much heavier. The bumper case provided in the box additionally changes the ergonomics equation, and the Mate Xs becomes a bit too chubby and solid piece of machinery to lug around comfortably in a jeans pocket. The included bumper wrapper itself comes with adhesive plus installation guide, and is not meant to be something you can constantly slip on and off at will. The updated "Falcon Wing" hinge with zirconium-plated mechanism ensures durable operation, but perhaps precisely because it's made solid, we found it relatively hard to push completely open after the initial press of the release button on the back. The hinge emits some noise upon opening if you listen for it, too, but so do those of the Galaxy Fold or Flip, the price of having a moving mechanical component below that soft display, it seems.
The sheer hinge tightness suggests not applying rapid pressure to open the phone completely. The flexible 8" OLED display provided by BOE is now protected with a dual layer of optical transparent polyimide (PI), similar to the Razr and Fold. Huawei didn't miss the chance to brag that the PI material is more expensive than gold, too, and is on record saying that foldable displays and R&D around bendy handsets are so expensive that the phone literally sells at cost. The Mate Xs has screen protection against scratches and Huawei has replaced the BOE screen with a Samsung display.
The CPI display cover smudges easily, though, and must be wiped more often than a glass oleophobic coating.
Figure 2: Huawei Mate Xs Falcon Wing out-folding design
Source: Company
Huawei expects some elevation and wrinkling at the ridge in the middle but, apparently, that's the price to pay for unfurling the future, as the Galaxy Fold also has a similar warning in its manual. The slight bump when the phone is opened doesn't really detract from the viewing experience as much as we expected, and with time we even got so used to it that we forgot it's there except for the purpose of explaining it for this review. The only time we actually felt the ridge was when we were doing swipe typing in open state, before we split the keyboard for thumb operation which turned out to be more comfortable for the tablet-sized format.
The display's minimum brightness and its white balance presentation are excellent, but the screen leaves something to be desired outdoors as the peak brightness is about average.
Table 1: Display measurements and quality
Source: PhoneArena
Huawei Mate Xs software interface and performance
The Mate Xs interface is Huawei's latest EMUI 10.01 plastered on top of AOSP Android 10 with App Gallery for downloading software. Transferring all your apps from another phone is a breeze with the company's Phone Clone app which also moves most of your settings like alarms and even the home screen layout if it is another EMUI handset.
The 7nm Kirin 990 chipset under benches Snapdragon 865 or the A13 a bit, but is power-efficient, comes with integrated multiband 5G modem, and the 8GB RAM suffice for anything you might want to do with the handset, while the dual SIM tray offers your choice of 5G/4G/memory card combo.
Huawei Mate Xs camera and audio
The phone sports a rather respectable camera kit, with a large 40MP main sensor, a 16MP camera with ultrawide angle lens for group photos or landscapes, and an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, not to mention the depth-sensing time-of-flight unit. The main sensor sports Huawei's movel RYYB yellow pixel arrangement that is supposed to soak in more photons than the standard one with green pixels.
The camera app has the typical Huawei modes and features, such as Portrait, Night mode, Panorama, and a manual mode that allows you to shoot in the full 40MP resolution, even in RAW format. When you tap the selfie camera icon, the phone prompts you to flip it over, as the selfie camera kit is actually the main camera kit - one advantage of Huawei's ingenious Mate Xs design, so you can have prettier than usual self-portraits.
- Apps that have tablet versions switch to the productive tablet layout when the Mate Xs is opened.
- The stock foldable interface only covers the basics in split-screen functionality.
- Google apps can be side-loaded, or alternatives found, but apps that probe for Google services won't function well, including some games and payment.
- The squarish aspect ratio of the opened display means you very rarely use the full screen during video playback.
The Mate Xs interface is Huawei's latest EMUI 10.01 plastered on top of AOSP Android 10 with App Gallery for downloading software. Transferring all your apps from another phone is a breeze with the company's Phone Clone app which also moves most of your settings like alarms and even the home screen layout if it is another EMUI handset.
The 7nm Kirin 990 chipset under benches Snapdragon 865 or the A13 a bit, but is power-efficient, comes with integrated multiband 5G modem, and the 8GB RAM suffice for anything you might want to do with the handset, while the dual SIM tray offers your choice of 5G/4G/memory card combo.
- AnTuTu
- GFXBench Car Chase on-screen
- GFXBench Manhattan 3.1 on-screen
- Geekbench 5 single-core
- Geekbench 5 multi-core
- Jetstream 2
Huawei Mate Xs camera and audio
- Versatile camera kit does well in most situations.
- Excellent selfies taken with the main camera.
- Colors from the main camera are a bit subdued as is typical for RYYB pixel sensors.
- The 3x optical/5x hybrid zoom photos are clear and with pleasing colors.
- The ultrawide angle camera distorts the edges a bit too much.
- 4K video is an option but 1080p 16:9 is recommended.
- Continuous autofocus works great.
- The mics record very good audio and noise-reduction improves call quality.
- The earpiece serves as a second speaker, but stereo sound is only available in landscape mode.
The phone sports a rather respectable camera kit, with a large 40MP main sensor, a 16MP camera with ultrawide angle lens for group photos or landscapes, and an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, not to mention the depth-sensing time-of-flight unit. The main sensor sports Huawei's movel RYYB yellow pixel arrangement that is supposed to soak in more photons than the standard one with green pixels.
The camera app has the typical Huawei modes and features, such as Portrait, Night mode, Panorama, and a manual mode that allows you to shoot in the full 40MP resolution, even in RAW format. When you tap the selfie camera icon, the phone prompts you to flip it over, as the selfie camera kit is actually the main camera kit - one advantage of Huawei's ingenious Mate Xs design, so you can have prettier than usual self-portraits.
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