Huawei Mate Xs hands-on review

Hardware and new features

As we've already pointed out earlier in the hands-on, one of the main changes in the phone is the chipset. Now employing the successor Kirin 990, you can expect even better performance coupled with an all-in-one solution for 5G connectivity supporting SA and NSA. For now, the Kirin 990 5G is the only chipset offering an all-in-one solution for the next-generation mobile network as Samsung's Exynos 990 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 both rely on an external 5G modem. That's a big advantage if you are planning on using the handset in 5G area, at least battery life-wise. Huawei promises 21% battery life gains compared to its predecessor in heavy usage and as far as 5G goes, it can now run on 8 bands instead of 4 like before.

The downside is that the Kirin 990 doesn't have the needed certification for Google's services so you are stuck with Huawei's HMS (Huawei Mobile Services). However, the company's new strategy of developing its home-grown HMS is spreading to the Mate Xs as well and it has to replace Google's Mobile Services.

The camera setup remains the same - 40MP main one with Quad-Bayer and f/1.8 aperture. The telephoto unit is 8MP with f/2.4 aperture and it's optically stabilized and the ultra wide-angle camera is 16MP and has f/2.2. The 3D ToF sensor is used for better bokeh and additional features requiring depth mapping capabilities.

A 4,500 mAh battery powers it all and on contrary to the previous rumors, the same 55W SuperCharge tech is on board. The 55W-capable brick is included in the retail box.

Moving away from the hardware, we were told about some neat changes in the UX. The new EMUI 10 runs smoother and changes formats quicker than on the first iteration of the device. A centerpiece software feature is the so-called App Multiplier - it helps you get the most out of the screen real estate. It can open a single app in two instances side by side. For example, we were shown the Booking.com app in action - on one side of the screen we had the hotel listings and on the other, we had the map of the hotels. There's also a feature that works with two different apps as well and windowed mode is also supported. Huawei says that the Multi-Window UI and the App Multiplier features is supported by hundreds of apps and more will be able to take advantage of the feature in the future.

Wrap-up

It is apparent that the actual update cycle of Huawei's foldable Mate-series is going to be in Q3 or Q4 each year. That doesn't mean that the Mate Xs wasn't a necessary and unexpected update. The Mate Xs is a logical release as it's now more refined than its predecessor and also bringing fresh hardware to compete with the rest of the foldable alternatives. After all, the Kirin 990 5G offers top-notch performance and uncompromising 5G connectivity.

On the other hand, even if Huawei launched the Mate Xs to be able to compete with more up-to-date hardware, the handset is still lacking Google Services, which in turn makes the smartphone hard to sell. And once again, Huawei has a great piece of tech, which you can't have outside of China without caveats. But if you don't mind using Huawei Mobile Services, you can get the phone for €2,499 internationally in about a month.