If you’re interested in foldable phones but aren’t quite convinced of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4There should soon be another of these innovative devices available for purchase: the Huawei Mate X3 is now ready for mass production and will appear soon.
This is according to Tipster Wangzai knows everything (Opens in a new tab) (Across Check the notebook (Opens in a new tab)), and the word is that it will closely follow the design aesthetic set by Samsung — plus it could be significantly less expensive than its competition.
There may be some compromises along the way, with rumors that the phone will handle 4G instead of 5G. It should come with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor.
What we know so far
In fact, we don’t know much at all about what the Huawei Mate X3 will carry with it, although some clues may be given by what we saw earlier in the Huawei Mate X2which debuted in February 2021.
This was nearly two years ago, so the follow-up to the Mate X3 is somewhat overdue at this point. The Mate X2 came with an 8-inch display for its main display, carried a Kirin 9000 processor as well as up to 12GB of RAM and a quad-lens rear camera.
These are top-tier specs and it looks like the Mate X3 will continue this trend, apart from perhaps the lack of 5G connectivity. Based on the new leak, the phone may appear sometime in the first half of 2023.
Analysis: More competition, please
While we really like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and indeed Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4We’d also like to see a few more options available for consumers who want to purchase a foldable phone without having to part with a huge chunk of their savings.
There are of course really decent alternatives – eg Motorola Razr and the Xiaomi Mix Fold — but no one else seems ready to invest as much in the future of foldable devices as Samsung right now.
The Huawei Mate X3 could go some way to giving Samsung more to contend with in the foldable space, but Huawei needs to improve in terms of its international distribution. The Mate X2 isn’t easy to get your hands on if you live outside of China.
Hopefully a file Foldable iPhone and the pixel fold Show up sooner rather than later, which will go a long way to improving the available selection. There is a good chance that these two high-end phones will appear in 2023.