Huawei Mate X2 hands-on By CNET

So far, the promise of foldable phones has been more beta than blockbuster, although Huawei is making a stronger case for these bendy gadgets, taking the movement a step closer to the mainstream. With the recent launch of its third generation foldable you're, looking at the mate x2, it costs nearly three thousand dollars and was launched in China only earlier this year after using it for a week, I can say it's probably the best foldable phone hardware around. It has some excellent cameras too, along with other top shelf specs, but going beyond that. It demonstrates the potential of foldable phones and where it might take the industry. Admittedly, it's not perfect, but I'll get into that later on for those watching my videos for the first time, some housekeeping know that Huawei sent me the mate x2 on loan and by the time you're watching this video it will have been sent back or to another reviewer. Now, let's start with the most obvious part the design and displays this year, Huawei put the mate x2 through a Samsung inspired redesign.

The device opens and closes like a book instead of folding outwards. Like last year's mate x, the switch and design also means mate. X2 has two screens instead of one starting with the 6.45 inch outer panel, which also has a notch housing, two front-facing cameras, it's the size of a regular phone, so it can be relied on for day-to-day use without needing to open up and there's, of course, the second inner display it's eight inches, and it's as big as a tablet and is entirely free of notches, and this is where the real fun begins with mate x2, especially if you're a big screen lover, and even if you're, not it's tough, not to marvel at its inner screen and the engineering feat it represents key to the redesign is the so-called teardrop hinge, which describes how the scream curves to avoid creasing. It uses a zirconium-based liquid metal that Huawei says is twice as strong as the falcon wing hinge from previous models. The hinge motion feels steady and doesn't allow you to set the phone to any angle.

There's closed, open and there's also this somewhere in between. As for the crease, well, I didn't really see one most of the time, at least when I was looking at the device head on, but when peering over from the right or left of the device from a wider angle solely for the purpose of spotting, the crease, I didn't see it, but is it feelable kind of, although it's still a smooth screen, it's not as smooth as say, regular glass there's a bit of an indent, but it really didn't bother me at all. In fact, one of my favorite things to use this phone for was multitasking. The 8-inch inner screen provided ample space to do different tasks. One thing I almost forgot to mention, though, is that the inner screen does lack a camera.

I mean it is notchless, so that means you can't use the inner screen for video calls, and you have to use the smaller front screen now. Using a phone with two displays has obvious trade-offs. The mate x2 is thick and heavy, weighing 295 grams and measuring 14.7 millimeters at its thickest point. When folded, so the phone can't comfortably be used one-handed, but it's not as heavy as you might think. Huawei found a crafty workaround to help reduce the hefty feeling of the phone by employing a wedge-shaped design kind of like a door stopper.

The mate x2 is the thickest near the camera. Module then gradually slims down to four millimeters on the other side. That makes it easier to hold the phone one-handed, not that you would much, and it pushes the center of gravity to the thicker side of the phone. Now beyond offering a smooth, folding phone experience, Huawei has made sure to stack the mate x2 with some hard hitting features, there's also a powerful processor in the form of the Kieran 9000 and as always, a marvelous camera system. The mate x2 boasts some of the best smartphone cameras.

Money can buy, and it's the only foldable with a periscope style, telephoto lens. If I'm not mistaken, the cameras took excellent photos in all kinds of lighting conditions. The periscope style telephoto lens, which can zoom in 10 times, captured incredible detail in far away objects and some really crisp shots. Here's one example going from default of the sunset to three times: zoom to ten times, zoom of the ship night mode was pretty epic too. This picture was taken in a dark room.

I couldn't see the colors of the painting with my own eyes. It was too dark, but the mate x2 captured the color in its image, somehow there's also a macro mode. Here's a photo of my shorts on default versus using the automatic macro mode and here's a selfie camera in action. So lots can be done with this camera as you can see, and it captured beautiful and true-to-life photos now, given its astronomical price tag, I'm glad Huawei didn't skimp on accessories. You'll find a bundled fast charger.

Nestled inside the box, wired headphones and a very functional leather-like case, which has a kickstand for propping up the phone. As you can probably tell I'm pretty impressed with the mate x2 now beyond, offering that smooth folding phone experience, pathway made sure to stack it with some of those excellent features. I just spoke about. Admittedly, the mate x2 has some obvious drawbacks: it's a pretty big phone for starters. So not the most portable that sky-high price I mentioned, puts it out of range for many people, and it only got a china launch, though I do suspect Huawei will make the next generation version available internationally and due to those crippling us sanctions.

Google apps, like Gmail and Google Maps, do not run on the mate x2, though I was able to access Gmail, for instance, on the web browser. Now, even with those imperfections, I still do think the mate x2 is a phone that deserves and demands your attention, even if you can't or don't buy it like I said earlier, it demonstrates the potential of foldable phones and where it might take the smartphone industry so that about wraps up my hands-on video. I know I didn't focus too much on specs this time around, but if you do want to check out the specifics, there's a link in the description box to my article below and there's a specs chart at the bottom of that article. But if you enjoyed watching this video, please hit the like and subscribe button for more. We would really appreciate that, and thanks for watching, and I'll catch you in the next one.

Source : CNET