Huawei’s foldable Mate X just leaked, and it puts the Galaxy Fold to shame

[艹艹艹]

Oppo

The Chinese manufacturer—part of the same electronics conglomerate BKK than Vivo and OnePlus—announced today that it will ship this spring (second quarter of 2019) a 5G phone powered by Qualcomm's X55 modem as well as another phone with a three rear-cameras including a 10X "lossless" telephoto lens, 48 megapixels main camera lens and a 120 degree ultra-wide lens.

Oppo’s 10x optical zoom system really works
Going from 16mm to 160mm inside your phone

By Vlad Savov@vladsavov Feb 23, 2019, 8:05pm EST
Photography by Vjeran Pavic

Oppo has come to Mobile World Congress this year not with a phone, but with a promise. That promise is a lossless 10x optical zoom that you’ll be able to obtain from a new triple-lens cameraphone system the company just unveiled. I tried it out from myself, and while I wouldn’t say that the results are quite as pristine as having a dedicated camera with a true optical zooming system, this is definitely the closest we’ve yet come to conquering the seemingly insurmountable challenge of injecting real zoom into the tight confines of a smartphone.

The key component to Oppo’s system is a periscope setup inside the phone: light comes in through one lens, gets reflected by a mirror into an array of additional lenses, and then arrives at the image sensor, which sits perpendicular to the body of the phone. That’s responsible for the telephoto lens in Oppo’s array, which has a 35mm equivalence of 160mm. Between that lens, a regular wide-angle lens, and a superwide-angle that’s 16mm-equivalent, you get the full 10x range that Oppo promises.

On the prototype device Oppo offered for testing, the camera software was locked down to allow only simple stills photography. I couldn’t try out any video shooting, though it’s encouraging to note that Oppo has added optical image stabilization (OIS) to both the main camera, which will feature a mighty 48-megapixel resolution, and the telephoto lens. The tighter the zoom the more necessary OIS becomes, so this is a must. I also enjoy the fact that Oppo’s telephoto OIS is done by wiggling the mirror by fractions of a millimeter in response to unintended hand movement from the user.

Even with OIS on board, previewing photos through the telephoto lens produces an unpleasant jelly-like wobbling effect to the image. So any time I moved the camera around during my testing, the picture wobbled a little. There’s also quite a long minimum focusing distance for shooting with the telephoto: it’s mainly intended for grabbing some fine architectural detail when sightseeing cityscapes or focusing in on a particular spot in some vast landscape.


Building on the development work that Oppo showed off two years ago at MWC — it was a 5x periscope zoom at the time and the phone was noticeably chunkier than average — the new prototype is better in every way. More zoom, more lenses, more sophistication, reduced bulk and weight, and, importantly, a planned released window. Oppo says that a retail device featuring the 10x lossless zoom system will be out in the second quarter of 2019.

 

[Zibago]

The long term durability of folding phones is still a question mark

Huawei is dying due to US sanction and will be really dead when tariff is 25%. Hwei also run out of idea, so now , they only can make this stupid phone wt high price but almost useless.

Wt Tab 7inch,11 inch, its enough for ppl to enjoy the games and movies, but ppls mainly buy Ipad when they nid big sreen cos its good and fashioned.

Folbable phones only show that Ssung and Hwei r dying in Tablet market, so they have no choice but making stupid F.phone.

Highly doubt it they are still growing in most markets

 

[艹艹艹]

The long term durability of folding phones is still a question mark

As time goes on, this technology will grow more and more mature

Highly doubt it they are still growing in most markets

The friend from Vietnam need a psychological doctor

 

[Zibago]

As time goes on, this technology will grow more and more mature

The friend from Vietnam need a psychological doctor

Moving parts do break i am not sure about its durability
Will see when it actually comes out

 

[MultaniGuy]

Lovely looking phone a job well done Huawei.
But the price tag is a little high though.

But better than the price Apple offers though.

I never buy Apple products because of the expensive price they put on it.

Whether it is Apple Laptops or Iphones.

I just don't like their operating system.

 

[艹艹艹]

I think foldable phones will replace all kinds of "pads" in the future.

 

[rott]

Huawei is dying due to US sanction and will be really dead when tariff is 25%. Hwei also run out of idea, so now , they only can make this stupid phone wt high price but almost useless.

Wt Tab 7inch,11 inch, its enough for ppl to enjoy the games and movies, but ppls mainly buy Ipad when they nid big sreen cos its good and fashioned.

Folbable phones only show that Ssung and Hwei r dying in Tablet market, so they have no choice but making stupid F.phone.

@ZeEa5KPul, your step son is at it again.

 

[cirr]

Huawei’s Mate X foldable phone is a thinner 5G rival to the Galaxy Fold

A foldable that folds without a gap

By Vlad Savov@vladsavov Feb 24, 2019, 8:45am EST

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold announcement isn’t even a week old yet, and we already have a competitor that is thinner, has a bigger screen, and folds flatter. Say hello to the Huawei Mate X. Launching this very moment at MWC 2019, the Mate X has an 8-inch wraparound OLED display, a folded thickness of a mere 11mm, and a formidable spec sheet highlighted by 5G, a 4,500mAh battery, and Huawei’s in-house Kirin 980 processor.

The single OLED display of the Mate X actually serves triple duty. When the device is folded, you essentially have a dual-screen smartphone, with the second display on the rear allowing you to shoot selfies with the main camera or to share what’s on your primary display with a person on the other side. Open up the Mate X, and you get an almost square (but not quite) tablet that has minimal bezels on three sides.

One of the sides is reserved for a thicker grip section that houses the three cameras, their accompanying flash, and a push-button latch that secures the folded tablet in a closed position. This approach keeps the thickness of the main chassis down to an impressively thin 5.4mm. Even when folded, the Mate X measures just 11mm in thickness, thanks in large part to the fact it has no gap in its fold. That’s the inherent advantage of folding a screen around the outside rather on the inside: you don’t have to fear creasing the beautiful display.

When open, the Mate X offers an 8-inch tablet display, and when closed it turns into a 6.6-inch smartphone.

In functional terms, here’s all the displays you’re getting from this tablet:

• 6.6-inch (19.5:9 aspect ratio, 2480 x 1148 resolution) main display, when folded.
• 6.4-inch (25:9, 2480 x 892) rear display, when folded.
• 8-inch (8:7.1, 2480 x 2200) main display, when unfolded.

If, like me, you’re questioning why Huawei couldn’t make this phone-tablet hybrid that extra little bit wider in order to deliver a perfectly square display when fully open, I don’t yet have a good answer for that. In fact, as is the trend with all foldables right now, there’s more left unknown about the Huawei Mate X than has been revealed. Is the Mate X’s camera system on par with the one Huawei has put in the Mate 20 Pro smartphone? It carries the same Leica branding, but we don’t know its specs yet. Huawei’s head of global marketing Clement Wong told me today that the Mate X’s camera will be “on par” with the Mate 20 Pro’s performance. It’s not quite the same as saying they’ll be identical, but the Mate X will still have three lenses covering varying levels of zoom.

Here are the specs we do know: the processor at the heart of the Mate X is Huawei’s Kirin 980, the same one as in the Mate 20 Pro and the Honor View 20 that I recently reviewed. Both are superbly quick and responsive phones. Alongside that chip is Huawei’s own Balong 5000 5G modem, making for a pairing of 7nm chips with as much performance as early 2019 allows for. 5G isn’t yet a thing for anyone to be excited about, but its inclusion underscores the Mate X’s positioning as a device from the future. It has a dual-SIM card slot, or you can add one of Huawei’s Nano Memory Cards.

There’s an impressive 4,500mAh battery inside Huawei’s new device, but we don’t know how far that will stretch in terms of everyday use. It’s accompanied by an upgraded 55W version of Huawei SuperCharge, which will top up the Mate X to 85 percent in 30 minutes. The power key on the side of the Huawei Mate X also houses a fingerprint sensor.

I got to see, but not touch — again, this is a theme with foldable devices so far, no touching— the Mate X up close at MWC, and the most immediately impressive thing for me was how casually the demonstrator was handling it. There was no white-gloves tenderness about his use of the device: he unfolded and folded the Mate X quickly and naturally, and I got no sense of any fragility about the slate. My overriding concern about foldables is that they’ll fail to be perfectly flat when actually opened up, but the Mate X again stands up to scrutiny. Though I can still see small bits of unevenness where the hinge resides, those don’t seem like deal breakers.

Should you be impressed by the Huawei Mate X design? Hell yes. pic.twitter.com/SyEMVO8NZe

— Vlad Savov (@vladsavov) February 24, 2019
Huawei has proudly branded its hinge, giving it the title of Falcon Wing design. The company’s engineers have been working on this for three years, according to Huawei consumer group chief Richard Yu, and the design has more than 100 components and has been patented. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see a headphone jack on the Mate X, which is an omission it shares with the Samsung Galaxy Fold.

Huawei is pricing the Mate X at €2,299 with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, and releasing it from the middle of this year.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/24/...hone-mate-x-price-release-date-specs-mwc-2019

 

[nang2]

rich people, please, buy it enough so its price will go down to the level of my affordability.

 

[ZeEa5KPul]

@ZeEa5KPul, your step son is at it again.

Step son????!!!! Hold up!
Don't ever say anything like that again! Not even as a joke. I nearly vomited.
I just sent some charity money for victims of Agent Orange poisoning, that's it.

 

[Frank Martin]

While I like the Huawei mate X with

• Large display without any cut off
• Thinner than the iPad when fully unfolded (just over 5 mm)
• The primary cameras can be used for selfies
• 55 Watts fast charger which the company claims will charge the phone to 85% in just 30 minutes
• The camera housing helps holding the device in one hand

The device folds outside, opposite to the Galaxy fold, exposing both the displays which can result in scratches to the screens. Remember there is no Gorilla glass to protect it. Also, the folding lines are visible on the screen if you look closely. But, I hope it won't hamper the viewing experience. Not to forget that it is costlier than the Galaxy Fold by 300

 

[ZY-CN-CA]

cool

 

[Jlaw]

While I like the Huawei mate X with

• Large display without any cut off
• Thinner than the iPad when fully unfolded (just over 5 mm)
• The primary cameras can be used for selfies
• 55 Watts fast charger which the company claims will charge the phone to 85% in just 30 minutes
• The camera housing helps holding the device in one hand

The device folds outside, opposite to the Galaxy fold, exposing both the displays which can result in scratches to the screens. Remember there is no Gorilla glass to protect it. Also, the folding lines are visible on the screen if you look closely. But, I hope it won't hamper the viewing experience. Not to forget that it is costlier than the Galaxy Fold by 300

Yeah true. Not sure why they made it that way.

 

[hunter_hunted]

I ran out of kidneys im on last leg

 

[Menthol]

I'll wait for several generations later.

When the tech is matured, and the price dropped to the redmi note 7 price...

May be a decade later...