A new foldable smartphone from Chinese giant Huawei is about to come to Europe, with the Mate X3 finally ready to break out of China and make its international debut.
Here’s all we know so far about the Huawei Mate X3.
When will the Huawei Mate X3 be released worldwide?
The Mate X3 launched in China on 23 March, and is confirmed to launch internationally at an event in Munich on 9 May alongside the P60 series.
As with all Huawei devices, we don’t expect to see it being made available in the US.
How much does the Mate X3 cost?
For the moment, we only have the phone’s price in China, where it starts from ¥12,999 (around $1,880/£1,490/€1,700).
The most recent comparable Huawei device to launch worldwide was the Mate Xs 2, another foldable but with an outward folding display. That cost £1,799/€1,999, and we’d expect to see the Mate X3 hit a similar price.
That’s a high price, and actually higher than most of its direct competitors, even in China:
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 – $1,799/£1,649
- Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 – ¥8,999 (around $1,335/£1,090)
- Oppo Find N2 – ¥7,999 (around $1,150/£930)
- Vivo X Fold 2 – ¥8,999 (around $1,335/£1,090)
What about the Huawei Mate X3 specs and design?
Now that the phone is out in China, we know what to expect from the Mate X3.
Huawei
The design itself is a pretty classic book-style foldable, but thinner and lighter than most. It’s just 5.3mm thick when unfolded, and weighs a mere 239g – both far ahead of Samsung. It also boasts the same IPX8 water-resistance rating as the Z Fold 4, so it’s durable too.
In China it comes in the silver colour seen above, along with gold, black, green, and purple options – though it’s likely that not all of these colours will be included in the global release.
Both displays are OLED panels with 120Hz refresh rates, with a 6.4in display on the outside and a 7.85in folding panel inside. This uses a near-square 8:7.1 aspect ratio, making this a phone built primarily for productivity.
The phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, though due to Huawei’s ongoing dispute with the US government, the phone will only have 4G capabilities, like all its other new devices.
That is at least be supplemented by the inclusion of the two-way satellite communications the company debuted in the Mate 50 Pro – since seen in a similar form in the iPhone 14 series and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Satellite.
Power comes from a sizeable 4800mAh battery, with 66W wired charging and 50W wireless charging when you need to top it up.
Of course the cameras are a highlight. There’s a triple rear camera, with a 50Mp, f/1.8 main camera flanked by a 13Mp ultrawide and 16Mp 5x telephoto. In addition, each screen packs an 8Mp selfie camera, primarily for video calls – as the foldable design means it’s easy to use the more powerful rear camera for selfie photos.
As for software, the phone runs the company’s HarmonyOS 3.1. This isn’t technically Android, and doesn’t include support for Google apps, though the look and feel will be familiar if you’ve used an older Huawei Android device.
For more alternatives, look at the best smartphones we currently recommend, as well as the best new phones coming in 2023.
