Leak: Huawei’s Mate X2 expected to arrive in February

Huawei’s next foldable smartphone is said to be just around the corner.

According to leakers on Weibo, official details on the Chinese tech firm’s follow-up to the Huawei Mate Xs are expected to arrive “very soon”.

These reports suggest the new foldable, likely to be branded as the Huawei Mate X2, will feature significant changes both inside and out.

While the Mate X2 will follow in the footsteps of its predecessors when it comes to relying on Huawei’s house-brand hardware— specifically, the 5nm Kirin 9000 processor— it’ll also ditch the outward folding design used by the Huawei Mate X and Huawei Mate Xs in favor of a form-factor that’s more akin to Samsung’s Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Z Fold2.

If accurate, this move by Huawei represents something of a trend towards concentration within the foldable smartphone market — since it potentially reduces the number of mainstream form-factors from three to two.

We’ll have to wait for the official reveal of the Huawei Mate X2 for a better idea of what we’ll be missing out on. Regardless, like any Huawei handset, the Huawei Mate X2 likely faces an uphill battle. For as long as the embattled tech giant remains on the US Entity List, Huawei’s products remain hobbled for Western consumers.

Update — In the days following the original publication of this article, Huawei have come out and confirmed that the Mate X2 will be revealed on the 22nd of February.