Back on the global stage with new camera technology

After making headlines with the world’s first bi-folding phone (only sold in China), Huawei has launched a new foldable phone for global markets including Europe, Asia and the Middle East. But unfortunately for a tech geek like me, this is “just” a traditional book-style foldable phone that only flexes at one point.

Still, while the Huawei Mate X6 won’t be as immediately eye-catching in form as the bi-fold Mate XT, it’s a highly polished device that may represent the most mature foldable phone form factor yet.

hardware

The Mate X6 is an inward-folding, book-style foldable phone that’s thinner and lighter than its predecessor, and comes with a bigger battery, display, and better camera hardware. The folded thickness is only 9.9 mm and the weight is 239 grams. These numbers aren’t actually the most impressive on the market right now, as other Chinese foldable phones from Xiaomi and Honor are slightly more stylish, but Huawei’s foldable phone has a more capable camera system, so that’s the trade-off I’d take . If compared to Samsung and Google’s North American foldables, Huawei’s external hardware appears to be half a generation to a full generation ahead.

I say “external hardware” because the Mate X6’s chip is independently developed by Huawei and may not be technically as good as the chips currently used in other phones. There’s a complicated backstory to this, but the short version is that the U.S. government blocked Huawei from using the world’s leading silicon manufacturing machines, so Huawei had to build its own.

Still, I don’t see any real performance issues with the Mate X6’s chip, even though technically it’s probably at least a generation behind the chips in other foldable phones. Apps still load smoothly, the camera launches quickly (and has an incredibly fast shutter, which I’ll get to in a moment), and the overall UI is smooth.

The rest of the hardware is absolutely top-notch. The foldable main screen is a 7.9-inch LTPO panel with an aspect ratio close to 1:1 and a resolution of 2440 At the same time, the external screen size is 6.45 inches; it is also an LTPO panel with a brightness as high as 2,500 nits, but the resolution is only 1080p.

Huawei says the main foldable display is built on top of a carbon fiber glass panel, which helps stiffen the screen, and the hinge that connects the moving parts feels sturdy and reassuring.

When folded, the Mate X6 is comfortable in the hand and feels almost like a regular phablet thanks to its relatively light weight and stylish size.

camera

The camera system is where this phone shines and where it stands out. Most foldable phones, especially those from Samsung and Google, have significantly lower camera systems than the company’s regular tablet flagships. That’s not the case with the Mate X6, whose camera system is very close to the optics used in Huawei’s best phablets, the Pura and Mate 70 Pro phones.

The star of the setup is a 50-megapixel main camera with a variable aperture between f/1.4 and f/4, which means there’s a physical shutter that can be opened and closed to help control light intake and depth perception .

There’s a 48-megapixel periscope zoom lens with macro focus, which is probably my favorite lens because it allows me to take some stunning close-ups with a natural bokeh effect.

The third camera is a 40-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, which is one of the best ultra-wide-angle cameras in foldable devices. Rounding out the system is a new “hyperspectral” sensor for detecting color – in fact, it can detect 1.5 billion different hues – and works in conjunction with other cameras to help capture color-accurate shots photos.

The photo samples speak for themselves. I took some great photos with my phone, especially macro and telephoto shots.

software

The Mate X6 in China runs HarmonyOS, but for the global version I’m testing, it runs on EMUI, which is still based on open-source Android. The user interface is typical Huawei Android style, with large icons and excellent multitasking capabilities, but some basic Android features have been changed for no apparent reason.

I’ll start with the pros: The Mate X6 has a new multitasking feature that lets the phone run three apps almost simultaneously. I say almost, because the method essentially floats three apps on a virtual screen inside the phone’s screen. You can quickly cycle through the three apps and even see a second app to the side of the main app, but it’s unlikely you’ll see all three at the same time, so it’s not really running “simultaneously.” “Three applications”. Still, this system is great for those of us who often work on the go.

Now, here’s the bad: Huawei’s (and Honor’s) Android skins inexplicably change some very basic Android features, and I’ve never been a fan of it. For example, the notification panel and control center are split into two screens, whereas most Android phones put them in one pane. If I long press on an app, I can’t jump to that app’s settings like I can on phones made by Google, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Asus, ZTE, OnePlus, Sony, Nothing, etc. Yes – basically all Android phones work one way, but Huawei and Honor software decided to go another way.

As for the elephant in the room: No, this phone doesn’t come with Google Mobile Services, and technically you can’t install GMS, but there’s a new development that could make it easy to run core Google apps on this phone. The method is MicroG, a third-party open source application that can trick the Google Mobile Services Framework on Android devices. Huawei doesn’t heavily promote MicroG, but if you go into Huawei’s app store and search for Google apps, it will also ask you if you want to install MicroG.

Once MicroG is installed, the phone can run Gmail, Youtube, Google Drive, etc. without any issues. I’ve done quite a bit of research and even talked to Android developers and experts, and they all say that MicroG is a sufficiently secure piece of software (it’s open source, so any security flaws are public). So, with MicroG, you can basically use the Mate X6 as if it had Google support natively.

overall performance

As I mentioned before, the performance of this phone is great. I’ve been using the Mate X6 around Hong Kong and Miami, navigating with Google Maps, sending text messages, and taking lots of photos, and the phone performed as expected.

The battery life of Huawei devices is very long, as expected, and the phone can be used for a full day with remaining power. Your mileage may vary depending on how much you use the big screen.

Like all foldable devices, the Mate X6 doesn’t come cheap. In China and Hong Kong, the phone sells for about $2,300 after discounts. I expected European prices to be higher. But Huawei has always priced its phones in the premium category, so Huawei fans are used to it.