First Foldable Huawei Smartphone Gets February Release Date

Huawei has just confirmed that it plans to launch a foldable smartphone at this year's iteration of the world's largest mobile trade show, MWC 2019, while the date and time of the press conference were also shared by the company. The event will be held on February 24 in Barcelona and is planned to kick off a2 PMPM CET.

Now, the company also shared an image a part of this announcement, and that image contains the “Connecting The Future” tagline, while in the background, you can see a hinge, and two sides of the company’s upcoming foldable phone. This is just an edited render, to make it possible for us to see what’s in question here, but not enough to reveal anything too important, Huawei is saving the best part for the announcement, of course.
That is pretty much all the info that the company shared, but if we connect the dots, we’re able to figure out that this phone will probably support 5G connectivity. The company actually hinted last week, during a press conference in China, that its 5G smartphone will be announced at MWC 2019, while Huawei also announced the Balong 5000 multi-mode 5G chipset. So, as you can see, this foldable device will probably support 5G, unless Huawei is aiming to introduce a second flagship phone at MWC 2019, which is highly unlikely, as the P30 series is not scheduled to arrive for another couple of months.

What Do We Know So Far?

Huawei did not reveal all that much info about its foldable phone, almost any, but thanks to various trademarks and patents, we do have some info regarding the device, or at least we think we do. The company trademarked Mate F, Mate Flex, Mate Flexi, and Mate Fold names at the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) last year, and it’s quite possible that the company will use one of those names for the upcoming foldable handset.

Some rumors suggested that the device will sport two displays, one 8-inch one, and one 5-inch one… for when the phone is unfolded and folded, respectively. Now, if the rumor regarding the displays is accurate, Huawei will probably go the same road as Samsung, utilize one large display when the phone is unfolded, and when it’s folded, it will take advantage of the display on the outside, a smaller panel. This means that the phone will fold inwards, and not outwards as the device Xiaomi’s co-founder demoed recently. Unless recent patent sketches are accurate, in which case the phone will fold outwards, but once, not twice as Xiaomi's offering.

Huawei’s foldable smartphone will almost certainly be fueled by the company’s Kirin 980 64-bit octa-core processor, but the Balong 5000 multi-mode 5G chipset will be added into the mix, compared to the Mate 20 series, just so that the phone gets 5G connectivity. The device is expected to sport a rather large battery, Huawei’s own UI based on Android, and it will probably be quite expensive. Samsung’s handset is rumored to cost around $1,700, and chances are that Huawei’s offering will cross the $1,000 mark as well, and then some, but we’ll see.