Huawei is about to unveil the Mate X2, its latest foldable smartphone, widely expected to bring with it a transformed design compared to the Mate X and Mate Xs.
The company has confirmed that it’s holding a launch event in China today, and heavily teased the upcoming foldable, so we know for sure that it’s coming.
Here’s when and where to tune in to watch live, along with what to expect from the Mate X2 launch.
What time is the Mate X2 launch?
The official launch event is scheduled to kick off at 8pm in China today, which is:
1pm CET
12pm GMT
7am ET
4am PT
Where to watch the Mate X2 launch
Perhaps since this is a China-only launch, rather than global, there’s annoyingly no sign of a YouTube livestream for the show yet. With that in mind, the best place to watch the Mate X2 announcement is the official Huawei China website – the black button underneath the date and time will pop up a video player.
Huawei representative Rafal Kwiatkowski confirmed on Twitter that the event will be livestreamed on the Huawei Mobile YouTube channel, though there’s no sign of a stream yet – but keep an eye out for one. He also confirmed that while the launch will be presented in Mandarin, there will be English subtitles.
Note also that while he initially tweeted a start time of 1:30pm CET, he’s since corrected that to 1pm – matching the times listed above.
What to expect from the Mate X2
If you want a full rundown of the new foldable, we have a comprehensive guide to everything we know about the Mate X2 so far, so check that out – but we’ll summarise the leaks so far here.
The biggest expected change is a move to an internal folding screen – similar to the Samsung Galaxy Fold series – rather than the external fold used on the previous two Mate X devices.
Huawei itself has already teased the change in two posters, so we’re pretty confident it’s on the way. It should help make the Mate X2 more durable than its predecessors, and might even be part of an attempt to keep the cost down – both previous models have cost around $2,000.
We’re expecting it to be powered by Huawei’s own Kirin 9000 chipset, and tipsters point to a 4400mAh battery and 66W charging.
As for cameras, expect a 16Mp dual selfie camera on the front, but no selfie camera on the internal screen. On the back, a quad camera is predicted – the latest leaks suggest 50Mp, 16Mp, 12Mp and 8Mp cameras, including a 10x periscopic lens.
What we don’t know is whether to expect the phone to launch outside China. While the first Mate X was China-only, the Mate Xs did launch internationally. The US trade ban continues to challenge the company’s phone business however, and since the initial launch event is China-only, there’s a risk that’s the only place the phone will ever launch.
Check out our pick of the other biggest phones on the way this year to see what the Mate X2 will be up against.
