Foldable smartphones explained: Huawei's Mate X vs Samsung Galaxy Fold

Smartphones with folding displays or ‘foldables’ are a new category of mobile devices that promise to merge the best parts of a smartphone and tablet into one device. While the Royole FlexPai was the first device to go on sale with a foldable display and was showcased recently at CES 2019, it is far less polished in comparison to Samsung’s recently unveiled Galaxy Fold or Huawei’s just announced Mate X foldable. Smartphone Samsung Galaxy Fold Huawei Mate X Display Size 7.3 + 4.6 8 Resolution 1536 x 2152 + 840 x 1960 2480 x 2200 Pixel Density 414 + 463 414 Display Type Dynamic AMOLED + Super AMOLED AMOLED Dimensions NA Folded: 161.3 x 78.3 x 11 Unfolded: 161.3 x 146.2 x 5.4 Weight NA 295 Dual SIM NA Yes SIM Type NA Nano SIM Connectivity Types GSM/HSPA+/LTE GSM/HSPA+/LTE Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 855/Exynos 9820 HiSilicon Kirin 980 CPU Cores Octa-core Octa-core CPU Clock Speed 1 x Qualcomm Kryo @ 2.8 GHz + 3 x Qualcomm Kryo @ 2.4 GHz + 4 x Qualcomm Kryo 1.8 GHz / 2 x Mongoose M4 @ 2.7 GHz + 2 x Cortex A75 @ 2.3 GHz + 4 x Cortex A55 @ 1.9 GHz 2 x Cortex-A76 @ 2.6 GHz + 2 x Cortex-A76 @ 1.92 GHz + 4 x Cortex-A55 @ 1.8 GHz GPU Adreno 640 / Mali-G76 MP12 Mali-G76 MP10 RAM 12 GB 8 GB Ruggedness NA NA On-Board Memory 512 GB 512 GB Expandable Memory No 256 GB Sensors NA Gravity Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Gyroscope, Compass, Fingerprint Sensor, Hall sensor, Barometer, Infrared sensor, colour temprature sensor Primary Camera 12 MP, f/1.5-f/2.4 + 12 MP, f/2.2 + 16 MP, f/2.2 40 MP, f/1.8 + 16 MP f/2.2 + 8 MP, f/2.4 + ToF system Optical Image Stabilization Yes + Yes + No NA Camera Array Triple Camera Triple Camera Autofocus System Super Speed Dual Pixel + PDAF NA Secondary Camera 10 MP f/2.2 + 8 MP f/1.9 + 10 MP f/2.2 Cover camera No Video Capture NA NA Flash LED LED OS Version Android 9 Pie Android 9 Pie AI Google Assistant + Bixby Google Assistant GPS Yes Yes Wi-Fi NA 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz Bluetooth NA 5.0, BLE, SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC and HWA Audio NFC NA NFC Infrared NA Yes Fingerprint Scanner Yes Yes 3.5 mm jack No No Radio NA NA USB Type NA Type-C USB Standard NA USB v3.1 Battery “>4,380 “>4,500 Fast charging Yes, Fast Charging Yes, 55 W SuperCharge Colours Space Silver, Cosmos Black, Martian Green, Astro Blue Interstellar Blue Prices in India “>$1,980 “>$2,609 As we can see from the table above, Huawei has the practical folding display that not only folds flat in a larger 8-inch table-like display but also does not have an interfering notch as the Galaxy Fold does. Going purely by the specifications on paper, the Mate X also features a higher sensor pixel count in comparison to the Samsung Galaxy Fold and the same goes for the battery. At the same time, out of the two devices, Samsung has barely given out any details about the Fold’s size and weight, even though it looks compact in comparison to the Mate X’s larger footprint.