Huawei Mate X2 might land soon with a new foldable phone design

Huawei Mate Xs
The Huawei Mate Xs (Image credit: Future)

The Huawei Mate Xs landed back in February 2020, so assuming there’s a yearly release cycle we’re due a successor, and indeed it looks like one is about to land.

Various leaks and rumors have suggested the Huawei Mate X2 is on the way, and now a leaker going by Courage Digital King on Weibo has said the phone is “coming soon”.

The post – spotted by GizmoChina – also reveals an interesting detail though, namely that the inner folding screen is apparently different to the design Samsung uses on phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2.

Something new

That’s interesting because we’d been assuming the design would be similar to the one Samsung uses. We haven’t seen any images of the Huawei Mate X2 yet, but rumors – including this latest one – suggest that it will have an inner screen, which is a departure from the Mate Xs, as that phone has one big outer display that’s always visible – you can just make it smaller or bigger by folding or unfolding it.

Phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 meanwhile have the folding screen on the inside, so when it’s not opened to full size it’s hidden away, with a secondary smaller screen available on the outside.

So it sounds like the Huawei Mate X2 will be more like this, but with an apparently different design for the inner screen. It’s unclear exactly how the design would differ though. Presumably they’re talking more than just size and resolution – perhaps they mean there won’t be a punch-hole for the selfie camera, or maybe the screen is curved as well as foldable, but that’s all just speculation.

Based on previous leaks we’re expecting an 8.01-inch 2200 x 2480 internal screen, and a 6.45-inch 1160 x 2700 external one, but that doesn’t tell us how the design will differ.

In any case, this latest leak also includes other details, stating that the Huawei Mate X2 will have a 5nm chipset (which will almost certainly be the Kirin 9000 seen in the Huawei Mate 40 range), and that it will have “some very dazzling technologies”, which is vague but intriguing.

We should know more soon, as it’s looking likely that the Huawei Mate X2 will land imminently – perhaps even before the end of February, or failing that maybe alongside the Huawei P50, which is expected to launch in March.

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.