Huawei Mate Xs hands-on: ultra-thin folding screen + quad-camera

Configuration is not the point. As Huawei's second folding screen mobile phone, the Mate Xs is actually equipped with our old friend Kirin 990 5G SoC. This processor has actually been leading the market for half a year in terms of comprehensive strength since it was used last year. Its performance in all aspects is quite balanced and is still at a high level at present.

Naturally, the Mate Xs is a dual-mode 5G phone that supports SA/NSA networking, and it is also a dual-SIM phone. Another strength is the AI ​​performance brought by the NPU. Oh, by the way, the change in screen ratio will bring some changes to playing games. This was actually mentioned last year. In some games, the field of view in the up and down directions will be wider, such as "Peace Elite". However, it may have the opposite effect in some games where the field of view will be scaled. For example, the left and right fields of view in "Honor of Kings" will be shortened. In this case, since the usability of the front screen is still very strong after folding, the Mate Xs can more flexibly choose which ratio to use to play games, so it can be regarded as a good tool for playing games.

Due to the thin body and folding design, this has become an obstacle for the Mate Xs to use a larger battery. The actual typical capacity is 4500mAh, which is considered mainstream in the 5G era, but users may have higher expectations for larger and heavier folding screen phones, especially for large screens. After all, more capacity means more battery life. However, the Mate Xs is still confident. Like the Mate X, Huawei has equipped it with a fast charging technology with a power of up to 55W. The official claims that it can be charged to 85% in 30 minutes. In actual use, it is found that Huawei's power-saving ability is still really strong, and the battery life feels better than some 5000mAh ones.

As a folding screen mobile phone, Huawei's always strong photography is not the focus here. The configuration is still Leica quad-camera, arranged vertically on the raised part on the left side of the back. These include a 40-megapixel wide-angle main camera (f/1.8 aperture), a 16-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens (f/2.2 aperture), an 8-megapixel telephoto lens (f/2.4 aperture, supports OIS), and finally a ToF depth of field lens. Mate Xs can support up to 30x hybrid zoom. Due to the outward folding design, the rear camera can also be used as the front camera when the screen is folded, which also makes the Mate Xs screen do not need a front camera, and the screen shape is more complete. Some sample photos of Mate Xs, the details are severely compressed in the official account. Main camera:

Zoom:

Ultra Wide Angle:

Portrait:

Super Night Scene:

Overall, the Mate Xs's photography is at Huawei's level, and it also supports functions such as super night scene, but there is still a gap compared to the flagship models with more luxurious specifications.

Last year, we solved the problem of "having", and this year, we solved the problem of "using". Facing a new thing like folding screen, one year of exploration seems to be a little short. Mate Xs still has more of a sense of "inheritance", and some details are better than last year's Mate X. For example, the screen is covered with a double layer of aerospace-grade polyimide flexible material, which can improve the strength of the screen and is said to be more expensive than gold. The hinge adopts an eagle-wing folding design, which uses zirconium-based liquid metal with a hardness not inferior to titanium alloy.

After spending so much time to improve the design and using expensive materials, the biggest purpose of Mate Xs is to solve the usability of the structure of the folding screen phone itself. Because last year's folding screen phones were not smooth, and this year everyone has come up with better designs at almost no cost. In this era, it is easy to tell which products are perfunctory and which products are seriously made. It is too early to say that folding screens are the direction of the future, but from my own point of view, these manufacturers and products that try to make immature technologies mature and promote them to the public are worthy of awe.