Huawei Mate X6 review

The competition

The foldable segment is not oversaturated, but the competition is still quite fierce - Samsung, Google, vivo, and Honor all have some solid offers in the segment, each with its own strengths.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 • Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold • Honor Magic V3 • vivo X Fold3 Pro

Huawei phones come with a few inherent shortcomings due to the limitations the brand is facing in global markets. There are viable workarounds for the lack of Google Services, but not having flagship-grade gaming performance or 5G connectivity is something you'd have to contend with should you choose the Mate X6.

At the same time, the Galaxy Z Fold6 will offer excellent performance, an all-around connectivity package, solid cameras and great screens.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold will lure you with a high-end design, solid camera quality, Google's latest AI features and a promise for 7 major Android updates.

The Honor Magic V3 is a very similar device to the Mate X6 but with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 5G chipset and all Google apps and services.

And the vivo X Fold3 Pro is another foldable with great performance, awesome cameras, under-display fingerprint readers on both screens, fast charging and great battery life.

Our verdict

The Huawei Mate X6 is expected to retail for over €1999, which is quite a hefty sum for a phone with no 5G and offers mid-range gaming performance. But it is an impressively thin and premium design, with large and bright screens and flagship-grade multi-purpose cameras.

In fact, the most interesting aspect of the Huawei Mate X6 are its cameras, both rear and selfies, and we found them offering excellent photo quality at all times. The telemacro capabilities of the zoom camera are particularly impressive, and the consistency of the photo processing across all cameras is commendable. We were not thrilled by the video quality, though the video stabilization works incredibly well.

Yes, the Mate X6 packs the screens to impress, the speakers are nice, the charging is fast, and the cameras did very good. The OS limitation and lack of proper flagship hardware is not for everyone though, not at that high price.

If you are a fan of the Huawei brand and like where the maker is going with its phones, you will certainly find the Mate X6 a solid offer. There is a special charm in EMUI/Harmony, the magic touch of Huawei on the camera is still present, and the Mate X6 build is something special. But if these do not mean anything to you, you should probably look for a Samsung, Google, or Honor foldable phone.

Pros

• Durable build, thin design, IPX8.
• Bright 120Hz LTPO OLED screens.
• Fast charging.
• Excellent photo quality across the board.
• Great video stabilization.
• You can get not-supported Android apps to work easily via workarounds such as Gbox.

Cons

• Missing Google Mobile Services (GMS) means some Android apps will not work no matter what (and video streaming quality will be limited in the ones you get to working).
• EMUI doesn't have any AI-based productivity features.
• No 5G.
• Uninspiring battery life.
• Mediocre GPU performance.
• Average video recording quality.
• Expensive at launch.