Huawei Mate X6 review

EMUI 15 is the international version of Harmony OS 4.3

EMUI 15 is what Harmony OS 4.3 is called outside China. It is the latest version of the Huawei OS. It includes new, improved lockscreen customization, better multitasking, and new gestures and emojis. Introduced with EMIU 14 and here to stay are the interactive and magazine themes, new and improved features for Celia assistant, better security, better Health app, and support for Ark Engine.

The global EMUI 15 includes an Android (12) core inside. The OS still supports APK installations via Huawei's AppGallery, APK Pure, or similar, and Gbox works just fine if you want to run Google apps. It's similar to the EMUI-labeled builds from the company too.

EMUI looks quite familiar as it has not changed drastically over the years. It includes neat little things like large folders and cards - another name for the widgets that you can add for in-house apps, indicated by a bar under the app icon.

Air gestures and smart sensing are supported on the Mate X6 - a familiar capability also found on previous Huawei and Honor models.

Huawei offers a lot of default apps to get you started. There is Huawei's Gallery, Music, Video, and Health apps. A File Manager app is available, as well. There is also Smart Remote - you can turn your phone into a universal remote thanks to its IR blaster.

You also get Petal Maps, Petal Search and Huawei's own Browser.

Huawei's AppGallery handles the app installations by default, and it seems the advertisements and pop-ups have been drastically lowered since EMUI 14.

You can install other app repositories, and they work just fine.

The best solution for making most of the Google-dependent apps working on the Mate X6 is GBox. It's a small virtual machine based on the latest Android version, and it contains all Google services. You have a list of apps you can install right away, but you can also install other apps from the integrated Play Store if you'd like (just hit back on any of the suggested apps). Updates via the Google Play Store update are also possible.

The GBox creates app shortcuts on your homescreen. Notifications are supported, of course. We had no issues running Google Maps, Google Drive, Chrome, or YouTube.

Some apps would still not work, no matter what you do. Google Gemini for instance, was a no-go. OpenAI's ChatGPT app too. Video streaming quality will also be limited by what the GBox emulation layer supports.

Finally, let's talk about multi-tasking. Naturally, the big screen offers a lot more estate for work and play. EMUI 15 has a great multi-window implementation with intuitive actions and both horizontal and vertical splits with a relatively wide ratio adjustment range (not just 50/50), plus floating windows.

Transitions between the cover and inner screen, and vice versa, are smooth and hassle-free.

As for AI features, you will find the usual Smart Remove feature in the image gallery editor. There is also AI Messaging, which will keep notifications hidden when your phone detects that someone is looking at your screen and will show you the notifications on your Huawei wearable instead.

There is also AI Noise Cancellation during calls to intelligently filter out surrounding noise to ensure your voice comes through crystal-clear to the other side.

Overall, EMUI 15 is a powerful system that can be easily tweaked and tinkered with, but it still has its limitations, which are not present in regular Android phones.

Performance and benchmarks

The Mate X6 employs Huawei's new Kirin 9020 chipset. It is an improved version of Kirin 9010 inside the Pure 70 series.

Kirin 9020 packs an 8-core CPU - 1x 2.5 GHz Taishan Big + 3x 2.15 GHz Taishan Mid + 4x 1.53 GHz Cortex-A510 cores. It is manufactured on an SMIC 7nm node, known as N+2 locally in China, like the Kirin 9000s inside the Mate 60 series. It also contains the HiSilicon Maleoon 920 GPU.

Huawei Mate X6 comes with up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB of UFS storage in China. Ours packs 12GB RAM and 512GB storage - the single model that is going to be available in the global markets.

The Kirin 9020 inside the Mate X6 has a noticeable jump in CPU performance compared to the Kirin 9010. It scores nicely on Geekbench and AnTuTu, but its GPU performance is still in the mid-range category with uninspiring fps (for a flagship) and lack of modern features like raytracing.

The sustained performance is a mixed bag on the Mate X6, like it's on most foldables, really. When opened, the Mate X6 scored 51% for CPU and 78% for GPU. In the closed state, the phone scored 30% for CPU and 48% for GPU. Obviously, the phone throttles big time to prevent overheating when you are using it closed, but the situation in open state does not improve as we would have hoped for.

CPU • GPU • CPU • GPU

The Kirin 9020 chip is a notable improvement over the Kirin 9010, and there is a good chance Huawei will catch up with the competition much faster than anticipated by the regulators. We did not observe lag or stutter on the X6, no matter how many apps we opened on it, and it never got unpleasantly hot, not even under long stress tests.