Huawei to unveil new foldable phone, the Mate Xs, in February 2020

Huawei will unveil its next-generation foldable smartphone, the Huawei Mate Xs, during the next Mobile World Congress trade show, which takes place from February 24-27 in Barcelona. 

This is according to the Huawei CEO Richard Yu, who spoke to Frandroid. 

The Mate Xs is a successor to Huawei’s first foldable phone, the $2,400 Mate X, and it will have a better hinge, a more resistant screen and Huawei’s new Kirin 990 chip. 

The Mate X was originally unveiled in February 2019, but after several delays it was launched in November, and only in China. It was a promising device, with a sleek, thin design, a beautiful display and powerful specs, but it was hurt by Huawei’s troubles with the U.S., which rendered new Huawei phones all but useless outside of China. 

Frandroid also reports that the company plans to finally bring the foldable Mate to Europe in the first quarter of 2020, although it’s unclear whether it’s the original Mate X (which would make little sense a year after launch) or the new, improved Mate Xs. We’ve asked Huawei for clarification and will update this article when we hear back.

Yu also told Frandroid that Huawei’s committed to building more foldable phones in the future, and that one area in which he would see foldable phones improved is weight: He thinks these phones should be lighter than the currently available models. 

Despite a rocky start, foldable phones are finally taking off, with Motorola recently launching a foldable Razr, and Samsung following up its Galaxy Fold with a second, vertically folding model (see some freshly leaked images here).