According to CNBC on the 8th, Huawei’s CEO Richard Yoo made the announcement. At a foreign press briefing at Europe’s largest consumer electronics exhibition “CSI 2019” in Berlin, Germany, he introduces the company’s first foldable phone.
The Mate X was scheduled to be released this summer after it was unveiled at the mobile exhibition “MWC 2019” in Barcelona, Spain, in February this year.
However, as Huawei postponed release date after Samsung Electronics postponed release date of Galaxy Fold. Which was criticized for defects in April. Therefore experts expected that Mate X will not be released until November.
At the IFA, Samsung unveiled the improved version of the Galaxy fold to the global media for the first time. It announced that it will release its products in Germany, the U.K., France and Singapore on the 18th. After starting with its release in South Korea on the 6th. Then, the company will release the phone in the U.S. later this month.
Meanwhile, Huawei scheduled to launch Mate X next month
Yu also stated the company will put the first 5G integrated chip “Girin 990” on the Mate X. The company announced its chip last week.
Giraffe 990 is the world’s first 5G integrated chip that uses 7-nano EUV process. Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm’s 5G integrated chips are not yet in the mass-production stage. But Huawei announced that it will be using them for Mate 30, which set to launch in Munich on the 19th of this month.
Yet Huawei did not display Mate X separately in its booth.
At IFA, TCL of China displayed several prototype foldable Smartphones that fold inwards and fold outwards following MWC.
It will have display size of 7.2 inches. “It is expected that foldable Smartphone products will be released next month” said a representative for TCL. As during the MWC, these prototypes were in glass tubes, so participants could not touch them themselves.
Mate X will be the second phone launched without support from Google. This is due to previous U.S-China trade war that hit Huawei hard.