Huawei’s Mate X3 comes in a lightweight and waterproof body

The Huawei Mate X3 is official and it’s impressive on several levels.

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

The book-style foldout has dual displays with 120Hz capability. The coverage screen measures 6.4 inches and offers a resolution of 2504×1080 px and a 20.9:9 aspect ratio. Inside is a 7.85-inch panel with 2496x2224px resolution and an almost square 8:7.1 aspect ratio.

Huawei Mate X3

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

The new hinge design folds the foldable display back on itself and as a result, the Mate X3 can close flat. There’s also the usual no-knock talk, but we’ll have to judge for ourselves. Despite its remarkably slim waistline, the hinge supports the phone at multiple angles for those tripod-free selfies. There’s also a split-screen mode for video calling and watching videos, and a new nightstand mode that displays the weather and time.

The new flexible hinge

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

The Mate X3 runs Harmony OS 3.1. The preferred chip is the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and it comes with 12GB of RAM. However, the Mate X3 outperforms 4G connectivity, as the company is banned from purchasing 5G modems.

Inside is a large 4,800mAh battery with support for 66W wired and 50W wireless charging.

The Huawei Mate X3 will only be available in China with no word on global availability. It starts at CNY 12,999 ($1,999, converted) for the 256GB model. Doubling the storage space costs CNY 13,999 ($2,050), while the maximum limit of 1 TB is CNY 15,999 ($2,340).