Huawei Pura X clamshell foldable arrives with a revolutionary design idea

What would happen if you combined a book-style and clamshell foldable design? The answer is the Huawei Pura X, a brand-new smartphone that was just announced in China. It features a 6.3" display with a 16:10 ratio and a portrait orientation, while the cover panel accommodates three cameras and a 3.5" square display.

Huawei designed the new phone to be rotated when unfolded and used as a regular, if very wide clamshell. But when folded, the hinge should sit on the side.

When unfolded, the Pura X measures 143.2 mm in height and a whopping 91.7 mm in width, making it short but way wider than any smartphone in recent memory. Once folded, its dimensions become 91.7 mm by 74.3 mm, which is still uncommon yet probably usable.

Huawei Pura X

Both sides feature LTPO OLED panels with a 120 Hz refresh rate. The folding screen supports a peak brightness of 2,500 nits.

Huawei Pura X Collector's Edition

The cover screen provides a variety of wallpapers, including live options with customizable animations. It also lets you use the camera and access messaging and health-related apps, calls, and music players without opening the phone.

And yes, you are meant to take calls in its folded state. The earpiece sits right beside the LED flash, meaning the cover screen is positioned towards the face of the user.

Huawei Pura X

Huawei Pura X has three shooters aligned in one row. There is a 50 MP wide cam with f/1.6 aperture, RYYB sensor and OIS, and a 40 MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera with another camera with RYYB sensor. There's also an 8 MP telephoto shooter with 3.5x optical zoom that also has OIS. Next to them is the spectral image sensor that debuted in the Mate 70 Pro series.

Video calls are designed to be done when the Pura X is unfolded, and Huawei added a 10 MP camera inside the punch hole of the main screen.

The hinge is a classic teardrop design, using 1900 MPa-strong space-grade components. Huawei launching Pura X in China means the device supports satellite connectivity, but only with Chinese satellites. Also, the feature is limited to certain memory models.

Huawei Pura X

The Pura X has a 4,720 mAh battery split into two cells. It supports 66W wired and 40W wireless charging. The Pura X also comes with heat-dissipating elements, including a graphite plate, able to provide 2000 W/m.k thermal conductivity.

As usual for Huawei these days the chipset remains unannounced. Huawei officially declines to comment on the chip situation, and its stance is unchanged with the Pura X. The OS is HarmonyOS 5.0, which is Huawei's in-house operating system, built on a self-developed kernel.

The foldable has a regular version and a Collector's Edition. The latter features special two exclusive panel designs and is available with 16 GB RAM.

Huawei Pura X has three regular colors – Black, White, Silver - alongside the Pattern Green and Pattern Red Collector's edition options. Prices start at CNY 7,499 ($1,035/€955) for the base 12/256 GB version, and go to CNY 7,999 ($1,105/€1,020) for 12/512 GB. Next up, CNY 8,999 ($1,240/€1,145) buys you the 16/512 GB version, and CNY 9,999 ($1,380/€1,270) gets you the most powerful variant with 16 GB RAM and 1 TB storage.

The phone will start selling in China tomorrow, March 21. There is no information on whether it will hit international markets.

Source (in Chinese)