Huawei's Mate X3 arrives with waterproof lightweight body

23 March 2023

The Huawei Mate X3 is official and it's impressive on a number of levels.

For starters, the Mate X3 is much lighter than its competitors. It's just 239g (the Feathered Sand model is 241g), which is 24g less than the Galaxy Z Fold4. And Huawei manages the low weight without meaningful compromises in other areas - it has bigger displays, a bigger battery, and a periscope zoom camera. Impressively, when unfolded, the Mate X3 is only 5.3mm thick.

The book-style foldable has two 120Hz-capable displays. The cover screen measures 6.4 inches, and offers 2504x1080px resolution and 20.9:9 aspect. Inside you get a 7.85-inch panel with 2496x2224px resolution and near-square 8:7.1 aspect.

The Huawei Mate X3 is water-proof to the same IPX8 standard as the Galaxy Z Fold4. This is the first non-Samsung folding phone to achieve water resistance. Huawei also offers two-way satellite communication on the Mate X3.

The new hinge design tucks the folding dispay in on itself and as a result, the Mate X3 can close down flat. There's also the usual no-crease talk, but we'll have to judge it for ourselves. Despite its impressively slim waistline, the hinge supports the phone in multiple angles for those no-tripod selfies. There's also a split-screen mode for video calls and video watching, and a new nightstand mode that shows the weather and time.

The Huawei Mate X3 packs a triple camera on the back, and two 8MP selfie cameras - one on each screen. The 50MP f/1.8wide camera is joined by 13MP f/2.2 ultrawide and 12MP f/3.4 5x telephoto shooters.

The Mate X3 runs Harmony OS 3.1. The chip of choice is the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, and it's packaged with 12GB of RAM. The Mate X3 tops out at 4G connectivity though, as the company is banned from purchasing 5G modems.

Inside there's a large 4,800mAh battery with 66W wired and 50W wireless charging support.

The Huawei Mate X3 will be China-only with no word on global availability. It starts at CNY 12,999 ($1,999, converted) for the 256GB model. Double the storage costs CNY13,999 ($2,050), while the top 1TB trim is CNY15,999($2,340).