The Huawei Mate X was supposed to launch globally on June this year but it has been postponed for later this year. The foldable phone joins Samsung’s Galaxy Fold that was pushed for beyond July after coming across issues with its display.
Huawei Mate X
Huawei says that it is conducting additional tests to ensure the device is ready for consumers. Yes, it will ship with Android as it was announced before the US Trade Ban instead of HongMeng/Ark OS – its own OS which according to tests performs 60% relatively faster than Android.
Huawei wants to make sure its foldable phone doesn’t encounter the same display problems that the Samsung Galaxy Fold had. US Telecom company AT&T has already canceled pre-orders for the Galaxy Fold. The Chinese tech giant is also conducting tests with carriers globally(its Huawei’s first 5G Device) plus app developers.
With all that is going on with Huawei, it’s not surprising that they taking extra steps not to ruin their reputation when they launch a device with imperfections. Huawei Mate X is going to come with Android out of the box but unless the Trade Ban restrictions get eased up and Huawei is let off the hook by the US government, the device will not get any updates.
If the Huawei Mate X goes live, it will start at $2600 – Ksh 281,000 local price.
Samsung Galaxy Fold
Late last week, Samsung hinted that they were going to launch the foldable in July but looks like it had been pushed to beyond next month. This presumably means that the Samsung Note 10 might be available before the foldable phone.
Other companies have continued patenting their own versions of foldable phones. OPPO patented their own version that combines both a foldable and a dual pop-up camera system.
For now, first-generation foldable phones are a collector’s item and only for first adopters who are the only ones interested and they should be skipped and hopefully, its other tech advancements trickle down to our regular candybar smartphones.
