Huawei Mate X2 foldable phone confirmed for February with a big design change

Alongside Samsung and Motorola, Huawei is one of the few companies selling foldable phones, and its next such device, the Huawei Mate X2, has been confirmed for a February 22 launch in China.

An official poster on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, shows off a glimpse at the Huawei Mate X2, as well as stating the February launch date. 

It's not clear just yet if this is a China-only launch, or if we could hear about global availability too, but the mode of teasing implies the former. TechRadar has asked Huawei for confirmation on whether this will be a worldwide launch.

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The Mate Xs from early 2020 was Huawei’s latest folding flagship, and it had a slightly different form factor from Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 2 — its folding screen was on the outside when closed. 

While that is arguably prettier and more useful, it comes with major durability concerns. Add to that the fact this flexible display was made of plastic, and the concerns get a lot worse.

Thankfully, it seems like the Huawei Mate X2 will switch to a design where the folding screen will be on the inside, protecting it from wear and tear when not in use. The official poster on Weibo also reveals that it will have pretty slim bezels, at least on one side, along with no visible selfie camera cutout.

Have we seen this before?

A Huawei patent from last year revealed an interesting foldable design concept where the same flexible screen extended from the inside to the outside, and there were no punch-holes or notches.

Considering how difficult all of these elements are to engineer in a space as constrained as a foldable, it will be a commendable feat if the Huawei Mate X2 is able to pull that off. It's unlikely we'll see that as quickly as the Huawei Mate X2.

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Huawei's interesting patent for a foldable whose display extends on three sides

A previous leak also talked about how there will be a secondary display on the outside and a “different design for the inner screen”, but those aspects are still very unclear.

For now, we'll just have to wait until February 22 to see what the new Huawei Mate X2 looks like. If it doesn't launch outside China, though, we'll be waiting until the Huawei P50 launch later in the year for the company's next phone.

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