The Huawei Mate X2 is the pride of Huawei

The Chinese company's latest foldable, announced earlier this week, is an impressive technological achievement Compared to the current foldable leader, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2, Huawei's new offering is superior in almost every aspect on paper The few bad points, however, are so bad that they simply cannot compete

Let's look at the highlights of the Mate X2 For me, the most obvious improvement over other fallables is the camera, with four sensors, including two telephoto cameras, of the same quality as on the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, a conventional smartphone hailed as one of the best camera phones camera hardware Having all of these cameras in a foldable is not only a great feat of engineering, it is certainly the type of camera that a foldable should always have, given its price

The Mate X2 also outshines its rivals in display The Huawei has larger screens inside and out, both of which refresh at 90 Hz; the Z Fold 2's internal display has a higher 120 Hz refresh rate, while the external screen remains at 60 Hz

There is more to appreciate under the skin of the Mate X2 It has a powerful 5G-enabled Kirin 9000 chipset and 55W fast wired charging the Mate X2 runs on Android 10 rather than Android 11, but Huawei has made a number of improvements, including foldable-optimized apps, active and floating windows, and windows at the same time, and other enhancements that favor the foldable form factor

Speaking of form factors, Huawei is less proud to change the Mate X2's folding style When the original Huawei Mate X was launched, the handset maker stubbornly insisted that the foldable display on the outside was a superior design because it only required one display However, folding screens are very fragile, so the more fixed, book-style foldable with a primary internal display and secondary external display won out, and Huawei adopted it for the second-generation Mate X

One thing I can't decide, at least until I touch the Mate X2 myself, is the device's asymmetrical body Rather than making the phone uniform in thickness, Huawei has adopted a tapered design, with the side with the camera being the widest (to accommodate the periscope telephoto lens) and the other side being the thinnest Huawei claims this will make the phone easier to use with one hand, but it also seems likely that the Mate X2 will be horribly unbalanced and unwieldy when the phone is opened

Overall, the Mate X2 has many advantages At least outside of Huawei's home market, the Mate X2's chances of success will be eliminated

Huawei devices are not sold in the US, so the Mate X2 is not even an option for US readers But if you're in the UK, as I am, you might actually be tempted to buy the new foldable

Or so you might think until you see the price, remembering that the Mate X2 is priced at just under $3,000, based on its 17,999 yuan price in China That alone is enough to kill the Mate X2

You would be right to argue that the $2,000 it would cost to get the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is already too expensive Well, let's not forget that there are no Google apps on this phone either, due to US sanctions that forbid Google and other companies from cooperating with Huawei The next HarmonyOS could fix that, but we know so little about Huawei's Android replacement that we can't predict how it will affect the Huawei experience until it launches in April

In other words, buying the Mate X2 will leave a big hole in your bank account and no guarantee that you will even like or actually use the phone you just bought

Besides cost and software, its great design has a few flaws: according to a hands-on image on Twitter, despite Huawei's claim to have completely eliminated the problem with a specially designed hinge, somehow the display folds worse

The company has succeeded in making the display fold worse

Although trivial compared to the two large lines running through the display, Huawei also decided not to include a built-in front camera This means that the larger deployed display does not have to lose pixels for the camera sensor, but it also means that if you want to take a selfie, you will have to use the smaller outer screen

Smartphone design is iterative and companies borrow ideas from each other to stay competitive and improve their products That said, I hope the Mate X2 will serve as a template for future foldable phones

Samsung probably doesn't need to take inspiration from the fact that it offers several foldable phones But the world is waiting for Apple, Google, and other manufacturers to step into the world of foldable phones The rumored Google Pixel Fold and iPhone Flip would be wise to take inspiration from the Mate X2, given its generous spec list and clever design; it's a shame that Huawei can't really profit from its good work; it would be a shame to see the Mate X2 and the iPhone Flip, both of which have been rumored for a long time, take their inspiration from the Mate X2