Huawei Mate Xs 2 practical

Huawei Mate Xs 2 is finally moving out of China and will arrive in Europe starting in June.

We were lucky enough to attend the launch event and have some practical first impressions to share with it.

The Huawei Mate Xs 2 will be offered in three colors: black with what Huawei calls a cross-hatched leather texture, white with a “natural” leather texture, and purple. The Mate Xs 2 is a significant departure from its predecessor Mate Xs in terms of design, but it shares a lot of its hardware. The camera setup, for example, is very similar in terms of specs, as is the battery.

But the display and the body are very different. The display of the Huawei Mate Xs 2 spans a slightly smaller 7.8-inch diagonal and maintains a usable area of ​​6.5 inches when folded. The resolution is the same at 2200x2480px, but this year’s panel can be variably updated up to 120Hz.

The body is 45g lighter and overall a little smaller, both of which are immediately noticeable.

The specifications of the Huawei Mate Xs 2 at a glance:

• Body: 156.5×139.3×5.4mm, 255g; .
• Screen: Foldable 7.80 “OLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, 2200x2480px resolution, 10.15: 9 aspect ratio, 424ppi; Display with folded cover :, OLED, 6.5 inches, 1176 x 2480 pixels.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 4G (5 nm): Octa-core (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 680 and 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 680 and 4×1.80 GHz Kryo 680); Adreno 660.
• Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 512GB 8GB RAM; UFS; NM (Nano Memory), up to 256GB (uses shared SIM slot).
• Operating system / software: Harmony OS 2.0.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f / 1.8, PDAF, laser AF; Telephoto lens: 8 MP, f / 2.4, 81mm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 13 MP, f / 2.2, 120˚.
• Front Camera: 10.7 MP, f / 2.2.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K at 30 fps, 1080p at 30/240 fps; Front camera: 4K at 30fps, 1080p at 30/240 fps.
• Drums: 4600 mAh; Fast charging 66W, reverse charging.
• Various: Fingerprint reader (side mounted); NFC; Infrared port.

We were very impressed with the Huawei Mate Xs 2 screen. It is an outward folding design, which wraps the display around the body of the phone, not folding it inward. When open, you get an almost wrinkle-free experience.

It’s something difficult to show in photos, but the Huawei Mate Xs 2’s open panel is flat and seamless. You can’t feel a break on the surface, although it can show itself when light hits it at certain angles. But trust us, under normal everyday conditions, the crease is barely noticeable and we are very impressed.

The display is a big leap forward over the Mate Xs. The panel gets very bright and exhibits beautiful colors. Huawei calls it the True-Chrome foldable display. The screen looks 8: 7.1 when fully extended and 19: 9 when folded, offering a very traditional one-handed experience.

Huawei has applied an anti-reflective nano optical layer.

The display is gorgeous

The other immediately noticeable improvement over the previous Mate is in the hinge. Folding outward is achieved thanks to Huawei’s dual-twist Falcon Wing hinge. It is much stronger than the previous generation and allows you to rest the Mate Xs 2 in virtually any position you want. This allows for interesting use cases like taking a selfie with the main cameras.

Huawei claims that the hinge uses self-developed ultralight steel. The body itself uses lighter-weight materials, which help the phone achieve the exceptional weight of just 255g (for comparison, the Galaxy Z Fold3 is 271g). Huawei used ultralight glass fibers for the phone’s backplane, aerospace grade titanium alloys, and the aforementioned ultralight steel.

Sturdy hinge and extraordinarily thin frame

Huawei calls the Mate Xs 2 3D fiberglass design. It uses patterns in the texture of the back panel to create a leather-like finish. The Black model, which we had the chance to play with, looks just like leather even though it’s actually made of plastic.

The finish is also nice, especially when watching a video or using the phone with two hands. The profile of the Mate Xs 2 when unfolded is just 5.4mm which feels slim, but we’re here to tell you it looks slimmer! With the thicker ribbon at one end of the phone, the Mate Xs 2 looks a bit like the Kindle Oasis.

The profile once opened is only 5.4 mm

Being foldable, the Huawei Mate Xs 2 is useful for taking selfies with its main cameras. The correct in-display selfie camera is good in a pinch, and we’d continue to use it by default for video calling. But we would choose the triple main camera to take pictures of ourselves every time.

Oddly, Huawei insists on giving you a square block viewfinder with which to preview your selfies with the main camera. The final shots are in the sensor’s native 4: 3 aspect, which is fine, but it makes framing very difficult. Then there’s the fact that you still can’t use the ultrawide camera to take a selfie, just like on the Mate Xs, which is just plain weird.

Shooting with the Mate Xs 2

Huawei has chosen the Snapdragon 888 chipset on the Mate Xs 2 and lacks a 5G modem, unlike the Mate Xs and its 5G-compatible Kirin 990. Buyers outside of China will have to contend with just 8GB of RAM, but the storage is very large at 512GB.

As for the software, the Mate Xs 2 launches with HarmonyOS and EMUI 12. It is a responsive operating system that is well suited to using the foldable form factor with options such as Smart Multi-Window, Split Screen, Floating Windows, Gestures of scroll and the option to rotate the screen as you like.

But the Mate Xs 2 is limited to just apps in Huawei’s App Gallery. And while they have grown significantly, the lack of Google apps and full Android app store support are bound to alienate many power users.

Huawei app gallery

Interestingly, the Mate Xs 2 does not hit the maximum refresh rate of 120Hz under all conditions, for example the native browser, and the settings were noticeably more erratic, possibly due to the pre-release drive we had.

Using the screen in both modes

Huawei Mate Xs 2 will arrive in Europe in June and will start at € 1,999 for the 8 / 512GB model. And while it has little chance of breaking sales records, the unique design might appeal to some buyers. Hopefully we have a better idea when the phone arrives at our office for a full overhaul.