Huawei CBG CEO Richard Yu has admitted that the newly launched Huawei Mate X is “very expensive”.
There were audible gasps in the conference hall when Yu announced the price of the folding handset. The model with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage starts at €2299 (~£1995).
Read more: Galaxy Fold vs Huawei Mate X
That’s a lot of money − more than what you’ll have to pay to pick up Samsung Galaxy Fold. Though admittedly, the Mate X appears to be the superior device.
“The cost is very expensive,” said Yu, just before closing the presentation. “our engineers are trying to make the cost [go] down. There are a lot of new technologies inside this.”
One of these is the Mate X’s ‘Falcon Wing’ hinge, which Yu says has been three years in the making.
Yu added that Huawei will “maybe” be able to start selling the Mate X to consumers around the middle of 2019. According to Huawei, availability depends on the “network deployment status” of 5G mobile operators.
In the UK, 5G is supposed to go live towards the end of 2019, though it’s likely that you’ll only be able to take advantage of faster 5G speeds in very specific locations at first.
Read more: Folding phones
The Huawei Mate X is very different take on the foldable form factor to Samsung’s Galaxy Fold − in fact, it looks much more promising.
As our own Max Parker wrote after seeing it for the first time: “I got to spend a really short amount of time looking at the Mate X – I unfortunately wasn’t allowed to touch, use or fold the device – and I haven’t been this excited about a mobile since the original iPhone.”
Are tempted by the Mate X, or folding phones in general? Let us know on Twitter @RrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
