An improved version of the Huawei Mate X will hit the shelves in September, and the company is expected to announce the launch date of the foldable phone at the three-day Huawei Developer's Conference 2019, scheduled from August 9, a media report said. While there are no confirmed reports about the changes that have been introduced in the handset, reports suggest that the Chinese tech giant has improved the screen ratio and tinkered with some design elements.
The development comes on the heels of a conflicting report which cited He Gang, President, Huawei’s consumer business mobile phone product line, as saying that the Shenzhen-based tech firm is still “optimising/perfecting” the Mate X foldable phone and it cannot go public without meeting the quality requirements. “Everyone should be very clear that Huawei’s quality requirements are very demanding. If it does not meet the quality requirements, we will not let the products go on the market,” Gang was quoted as saying.
Huawei introduced the Mate X 5G-enabled foldable phone at MWC Barcelona earlier this year. It was previously thought that the device would hit the shelves by summer in select markets, however, the launch was postponed till September. Recently, a store in China was also spotted displaying a poster promoting the foldable phone. The images were shared on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
Samsung’s foldable device, the Galaxy Fold, also met a similar fate. It was unveiled at MWC this year, and the company disseminated the review units to some of the more prominent tech publications in the US. The South Korean tech firm had to recall the units because the review devices malfunctioned, owing to issues with a protective film on the screen. Since then, the launch of the Galaxy Fold has been postponed several times because the Galaxy Fold was undergoing a redesign.
It was reported that Samsung might make the phone available during the holiday gifting season. The company has reportedly re-engineered the hinge on the Galaxy Fold to make it flush with the display. The company is also said to have made improvements to the protective film of the screen, stretching it all the way to the outer bezels so as to make it impossible to peel off.
Last week, a media report said that Samsung will launch the Galaxy Fold between September 18 and 20, will initially produce about 20,000 to 30,000 units of the foldable smartphone. “Samsung is seeking to tout its technical prowess rather than focusing on high-volume sales with the Fold. The foldable device is also aimed at testing the new market,” Yonhap News Agency quoted an official from a local telecom firm as saying.
After being launched in the US and Korea in September, the phone is expected to be available for sale in global markets, including the UK, Germany, and France, the report said. Interestingly, this is the time Apple launches its new iPhones every year.