Huawei Mate X2 Foldable Phone Release Date, Design Officially Confirmed

It's probably not a stretch to say that Samsung has, at least for now, cornered the nascent foldable market. Royole' FlexPai is generally unavailable in most markets and Motorola has gone silent almost completely on the Razr. Samsung's closest rival would have been Huawei, had it not been too busy with more critical concerns. That said, it seems that the embattled Chinese company still has a bit more to give and it will be announcing its next-gen foldable phone in just a few weeks.

In the span of time that Samsung took to launch no less than five foldable phones, Huawei launched only two, one of which was really just a variant of the other. Huawei boasted about its more practical choice of an "outie" foldable screen that required only one expensive foldable display but didn't iterate over it to prove that claim. It might be too late, however, as Huawei has seemingly folded to use a different design instead, pun totally intended.

There have been quite a few rumors since last year that Huawei would be switching to an "innie" design, the same design Samsung has been using since day one. The biggest confirmation of that has now come from Huawei itself, at least from its official Weibo account. The reveal for the Huawei Mate X2's announcement, which also confirms its name, shows a screen that folds on itself rather than the other way around like the first Mate X.

This innie design does have the benefit of protecting the sensitive flexible screen when folded and not in use. It does, however, require the addition of another screen in order to use the phone even when it's folded down. According to previous leaks, that external second screen would be a 6.45-inch 2700x1160 panel while the foldable screen inside would span 8.01 inches with 2480x2200 pixels.

There are many details still unknown about the Huawei Mate X2, which gives the company plenty to reveal on February 22, 2021. Some believe it will have support for a stylus, beating Samsung to the punch, though that advantage could mean little if the foldable phone doesn't get much traction in markets where Google Play's absence will be painfully felt.