Huawei launches Mate XS foldable smartphone with better screen
The folding phone will be priced at $2,710 for its premium version
(Reuters) - Huawei unveiled an upgrade to its folding smartphone on Monday (February 24), hoping that a higher-quality display and faster hardware will encourage consumers to spend as much as $2,700 on its premium version.
The new Mate XS comes a year after the Chinese tech giant showed off its first folding phone, which had back-to back screens that opened to create an eight-inch display. That device went on sale in China in November after the company improved the design.
The Mate XS has the same size display as its predecessor but comes with a stronger screen and an improved hinge mechanism to make the device more durable, Huawei’s chief salesman Richard Yu told a launch presentation in Barcelona.
The folding phone will be priced at $2,710 for its premium version and goes on sale worldwide next month, said Yu.
The launch was streamed from Barcelona, where the Mobile World Congress was due to be held this week before it was cancelled because of the coronavirus.
The Mate XS, like last year’s Mate 30 smartphone, will lack access to a licensed version of Google’s Android operating system after the United States in effect barred its companies from supplying Huawei last year.
