Huawei Mate X release date deferred even longer

15 Aug 2019

Emma Sims

The foldable phone is billed for a 2019 release date, but it won’t be this quarter

Huawei debuted the Mate X at MWC in February 2019 to a captivated audience. We went hands-on with the device Huawei is calling the “world’s fastest” foldable 5G phone, and were predictably wowed by the state-of-the-art technology.

So it was exciting to hear the handset would arrive on UK shores in “mid-2019”, with many commentators anticipating a September arrival. Turns out there’s something of a spanner in the works, as apprehended by TechRadar, which received news at a Huawei press event in Shenzhen that the Mate X’s release date would be delayed further – probably to the end of the year.

The delay makes it even more likely that Samsung’s competitor, the Galaxy Fold, will be the first foldable smartphone to hit the market. That’s not to say the Mate X is completely on the back-burner; Huawei claims that it will see the light of day before the end of 2019. Just don’t expect it to launch before November.

Meanwhile, TechRadar was also made privy to a more exciting insight at Huawei’s conference: the next generation of Mate X might well come equipped with another display. The company hinted that it was developing technology to allow the foldable handset’s rear to be replaced with an interactive screen.

This might sound like a tall order, and to be honest it probably is. As consumers, we’re yet to get our mitts on the original Huawei Mate X, so we’re taking Huawei’s promises about a multiple-screen setup on the next-gen smartphone with a pinch of salt. The technology could take years to develop; and with an eye-watering €2,299 price tag for this first iteration of Mate X, we could probably do with the time to start amassing our savings.

We’ll be updating this story as and when we get more information about the Huawei Mate X release date – and insights into its hypothetical successor – so be sure to check back in.

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