Huawei MateXs Review

The Mate Xs is the most expensive smartphone in the world And the second folding smartphone from Huawei I’ve been using it for almost a month now And would like to show you what makes this device so special And whether the high price is actually justified But let us first take a look On the design of the device itself This comes in the unfolded state With an 8 inch display in an almost one to one aspect ratio The resolution is crisp and sharp With 2200 x 2480 pixels Very very good When unfolded, the device is only 5.4 mm thin This means not completely because it has a small hill on the right side which is about 11 mm thick There you will find most of the technology of this foldable so you will also find the only connection of the device one USB 3.1 port type C Despite the relatively large dimensions Unfolded at least And also the weight of 300g The smartphone does fit comfortably in the hand And this is probably also possible because of the small hill on the right side Which can also be used as a handle And is a little bit reminiscent of eBook Reader In closed state the front display has 6.6 inches and a resolution of 1148 x 2480 Which also ensures good sharpness On the backside you can find next to the Hill that also houses the cameras a 6.38 inch display This display is basically just a display that is used for selfies We will come to the camera later a little bit I have also done an extra review that you can find on my channel Or in the info box above Let’s take a look at the rest of the device first There are two microphones on the bottom side And the main speaker This one gets quite loud and delivers a decent sound Without overdriving but regarding the sound I will tell you later more about On the upper side there is another microphone above the folded display And then a Sim card slot for either two Nano Sim or A Nano SIM and Nano Memory Card from Huawei There is also an infrared blaster with which you can replace remote controls for TVs or HiFi systems, for example.

02:53 - but for this you have to install an extra app My device didn’t have an app pre-installed and I also have found none in the Huawei App Gallery In the handle Huawei integrates a fingerprint scanner on the right side With Power Button And a volume knob Both are well attached and the fingerprint scanner works as usual Quick And precise Under the camera is The release button accented with red To release the collapsed part of the screen and expand it For the complete unfolding you still need some strength And also courage But it takes a little getting used to. quite simple The folding mechanism creaks and does not crack at all Until you reach the full unfolded state Who has a satisfying crack noise as signal Just like when you want to fold it back up After almost a month of use I can tell you that this mechanism is very stable And also seems to be durable Let’s take a closer look at the large display The plastic display is protected by a protective film which is also made of plastic This has cut-outs at light and proximity sensors and also at the kinks themselves It is as you can easily see a real dust and fingerprint magnet in particular, you will see many fingerprints on the left half of the display which are often held with the finger and of course the hand when the device is closed Damage or scratches I did not. notice while using it I have also attached the supplied exoskeleton which gets wrapped around. The display half, which is located to the rear, is particularly protected from the surface on which the smartphone is placed when folded Besides, when I went out, I didn’t just stuffed it all in my pocket But it is also a little too big and heavy for that But I really put it in the leather case And then into my pocket usually tucked in my jacket pocket For the longevity of the display it is recommended to treat it with care - of course the price is also a natural motivator I would say Huawei promises for the display 2 years warranty and offers also for self-inflicted damages a discounted repair or replacement Apart from that, the display is beautifully colorful and very good in contrast thanks to OLED, even if the brightness is reduced with about 450 nits is not quite as good as for example with a Mate 30 Pro In addition, the brightness loses a bit in the opened state and only reaches a little over 400 nits But This can easily keep up with Samsung Galaxy fold which only reaches 370 nits The Galaxy Fold also has a little trick, it can switch into a temporary overdrive mode that can handle 557 nits And that’s just way more than mate xs can do This can therefore make a difference in summer when the sun is shining This also means that the Mate Xs does not support HDR despite the good display. If you don’t like the strong OLED colors, you can also switch to the normal color mode which then corresponds more to the DC IP3 mode Huawei relies on their Emotion UI in version 10 based on Android 10 but like all newer Huawei devices, the Google services are missing here Instead, they rely on their own Huawei mobile services Instead of the Google feed on the home screen, which you can find when you swiped to the far left The Huawei assistant Besides the newsfeed, it also offers quick actions And the clever AI Assistant which informs one about the “screen on” time Use of different applications Remember birthdays and appointments And can do many other things Which can be freely configured Apps are downloaded from the App Gallery which gets fuller every day but may not always offer all known apps I also downloaded f-droid and Aurora Store as additional app sources and installed Alternatives for Google Apps are Relatively quickly found YouTube vanced for YouTube HereWeGo and Magic Earth for Google Maps Huaweis email client as Gmail replacement and Petal Search as Google search replacement Streaming of movies and series works without problems with Amazon Prime And also Netflix works thanks to Widevine plug-in support in version 7.56.

1 08:17 - What I got from apk mirror Huawei also offers its own streaming service under Huawei Video or collects there some like ZDF select or Rakuten TV. You also get the opportunity to watch German language series like Derrik, Die Küstenwache or Professor T If you want to know more about it I have also made an extra video You can find this again in the info card or the description Videos in general always have black bars at the top and bottom when opened, because the display is almost square Only when closed do these disappear with the 6.6 inch Huawei optimizes its software for the foldable display and offers the possibility to run two apps side by side in multitasking You can also place a window freely, let it float over it Apps usually recognize that they are running in a tablet mode and switch to the interface for that If they use to have one. The system runs smoothly thanks to the 8 Gigabyte memory and its Kirin 990 processor There are no stutters and multitasking is also possible without problems Games also run smoothly. I’m not a big gamer now, but 3D games run smoothly and thanks to the 8 inch display also in impressive size.

10:09 - When it comes to updates I have already received an update That above all stabilized the Wifi connection And delivered the April Android security updates Emotion UI 10.1 is already in beta testing and will probably be released soon so i still expect to get regular updates from huawei Huawei Apps themselves are also Like e.g. assistant or the App Gallery regularly updated Updates for apps can also be obtained automatically from the App Gallery At least if you find the apps in the App Gallery Let’s get to the sound Here Huawei delivers a somewhat unusual construct In portrait mode, only the speaker firing downwards is used as mono speaker But if you activate the Stereo+ option in the settings, you will also have the option to turn the Smartphone sideways in the hand and then get close to stereo sound In which the earpiece provides the somewhat brighter sound and supports the downward firing loudspeaker The sound is nice and loud and also offers some bass A little bit strange is the option with this stereo plus which seems to work with some apps also in portrait mode This seems to work for example with the music app After all, these are stereo speakers and therefore sound a bit fuller As only the mono speaker in the Mate 30 pro or also P40 Pro Gps signal can be received relatively quickly and it provides the usual good support for navigation But falls a little behind the Mate 30 Pro as soon as you are inside There it takes longer for the position detection When it comes to telephone quality and reception, they are simply good Thanks to the large 4500 milliampere-hour battery, the smartphone can be stored in the closed or Unfolded state for quite a long time It lasts all day long without a problem and also a second day can be achieved with less extensive use Of course, the battery consumption is also reduced if you only use the 6.6 inch screen So using the collapsed state The “screen on” time for me is about 8 hours on average That’s very good And of course I used it in a mixed usage in the opened and closed state The large battery can also be charged very quickly with 55 watts But in my New Zealand version only a 40 watt charger is included. The device will charge after half an hour to over 60 percent to And that should be after Just over an hour at 100% charge Wireless loading is missing NFC support is included Overall, the Mate Xs provides a good camera Of course the camera setup looks familiar somehow - it is the already mature and well known from the p30 known configuration,which is coupled with a slightly improved image processing algorithm from the Kirin 990 processor That makes it good almost very good But not for the best What the cpmpany has to offer The Mate 30 Pro Is better And the all-new P40 Pro offers the larger ultra-wide-angle sensor optimized for video In addition, all sensors of the P40 Pro are also equipped with the RYYB colour filter, especially for night-time shots Still, the Mate Xs is convincing.

14:59 - Especially for selfie shooting Or for vlogging this setup might be the best which is currently available on the smartphone market Let’s come to the free software indicator which rates from 0 to 10 how free a product is 0 would not be at all and 10 GNU/Stallman approved The Huawei Mate Xs gets exactly two out of ten points Huawei offers the source code on its own website Locks the bootloader so that you cannot install your own operating system So one is at the mercy of the manufacturer for better or worse when it comes to updates and security fixes I would give Huawei a point for not using proprietary Google services but Since they have replaced them with their own proprietary services this point in the evaluation is omitted Overall This form factor and design is probably the best that is currently available for folding smartphones Huawei makes it at the first go to build the best there is at present One tablet in the folded-out state With decently large display And a smartphone when you fold it up Selfie cameras unnecessary Since the much better normal camera sensors are used for this purpose Thanks to foldable screen It just makes a lot of sense However this also at a very very hefty price Which makes the device simply uninteresting for many simply for this reason alone Technically it is however a top class device which one can only barely complain about Surely the camera system of the P40 pro with telescopic camera would have been fine But you have to remember that Huawei here is basically upgrading a folding smartphone from last year with a small hardware upgrade for the international release Folding smartphones have to become even more robust in terms of display to be more suitable for everyday use Of course I would not put my Mate Xs with keys and other stuff in my pocket But with my Mate 30 Pro for example I have no problems at all But the Huawei Mate Xs is currently the best folding smartphone there is And shows Samsung and Co how to do it right.