Folding wars: Huawei's Mate X vs Samsung's Galaxy Fold

I'm here in Paris with Huawei is folding Mate X. It's an extremely exciting bit of kit with a folding design that's unlike anything else on sale right now. I still can't decide exactly how I feel about it compared to his main rival, The Galaxy Fold. [MUSIC] Both of these phones are the first in a new breed of bendable handsets that promise to be extremely exciting and give a bit of a shake-up to phone designs that let's be honest have become a bit stale. It's true when most smartphones are slight variance on the same rectangular form is very interesting to see how these foldable bones. Will shake things up and it's quiet and Samsung that are leading the way. But while these phones both fold in half the similarities and there so let's take a closer look. [MUSIC] They separate from each other in one key way, the directions that they fold while the galaxy fold closes in on itself like a book, the matrix is the opposite folding back on itself, leaving his screen on the outside, leaving it exposed to the world. It is not going to cause problems. Well, maybe yeah, we will come back to that later. But for me this way, just makes sense. The Matrix is really just one big screen is a huge eighteen inch size when it's unfolded and it looks brilliant, it's bright, its vibrant watching videos on this thing is great and browsing the web is a dream. And because it doesn't have to fold right over onto itself, there's much less of a noticeable crease in the middle. Yeah, to be fair, the crease on the Galaxy fold can be a bit of a pain. I've had this for a few months now and those Ripley reflections can be very distracting. There's not a problem on them, I text them. It's less of a problem. But until we get foldable glass we are going to have to put up with a certain amount of reflect from these plastic displays. But definitely not a huge issue here. Even under the lights of this rather nice hotel room. It's not really causing much of a problem. It is the sheer size of the screen. That's so impressive. It's only eight inches that's not much bigger than the 7.3 of this one. That is actually quite a big step up and crucially, as no notch. Yeah shows yours. Exactly. There's a big kind of a top for this front facing cameras. The matrix has all its cameras on this raised edge, meaning the glorious screen to remain completely unbroken. And that Razor's Edge does make quite a handy little grip when you're holding it. Okay, I mean, that's pretty decent. But can we please talk about how easily that screen can be damaged now. No, the other reason this design is great, is that when it's folded up into its regular phone form, you've still got a big screen to you. Yeah, I do like that. To be fair, the outside screen on the Galaxy fold is just a bit awkward. As too small and narrow to really let me do much with it Found that when I actually need to use my phone for anything more than just checking the time, I always unfold it. That means that using it quickly while you're say walking through the middle of a city isn't very convenient to do. Ironically, it's actually too big and too small too. To use just one handed. Well, exactly, but because when this is closed, you still get the same big screen phone that you'd get with any phone. You could just use it as you normally would and then just unfold it into its full size tablet mode when you want to watch a video. It just seems like the most efficient Efficient way of building a folding phone your way with the fold just means that you're paying for an extra screen on the outside of the phone that by your own admission, you don't even use most of the time.>> so about damaging that screen there the hinges really smooth as well. It's really smooth and feels great unfolding and is genuinely seamless in the way the software recognizes the motion immediately transition Comes from tablet to phone mode. This one folds well to you know and when you're using something on the outside screen and unfold it, it automatically transfers what you're doing on to that big screen. And the other way around? Well no when it closes it just tends to standby but honestly I prefer that. It means when you're done doing what you're doing, you just snap it shut and you're finished. It's like ending a phone call on one of those old school clamshell phones you just snap it shut it's surprisingly satisfied. Yeah, I do like that to be fair. So that expose screen My god fine. Yes I admit the may access way of folding does mean that that screen is always exposed. Precisely you pull it up and put it in your pocket you better hope you don't have keys in that. Who knows what will happen to it. But what if you drop it? There's nothing protecting it from getting damaged? It's not glass, so it's not going to shatter and both screens are made from what feels like a pretty tough polymer. I admit, it's a concern, particularly at the price it is and it's the one reason that's holding me back from calling this the way of doing a folding phone. Whereas my screen. [NOISE] Safe and sound inside the phone and I'm pretty sure there are no screen protectors to keep that finger licking threat will probably not know. But the reality is that all phones are fragile and really until we spent months living with both of these phones, we're not going to know for sure if either one is any more fragile than the other. Samsung had to cancel the fold when it first came out to press because the screen kept on breaking. So don't tell me that thing is indestructible because it ain't. For beyond the falling then what's different? Well beyond the folding, we're back to a pretty standard set of high end smartphone specs. This has always top optical processor that has Samsung's top optical processor. This one has a triple camera around the back that one has a triple camera around the back. They both have USBC charging and they both have batteries that last about a day. Actually, the Fold has six cameras. A selfie camera on its closed front, three on the back, and two selfie cameras inside as well. Yes, but those inside cameras become completely redundant when it's closed. With all the cameras on the outside of the [UNKNOWN], you can use the same one when it's opened or closed. And it means your selfie camera is the main camera with the flash, now that's gotta be good for somebody as vain as you. I'm not vain. You put yourself in the same video twice. Fact, Andrews? No but it's only [UNKNOWN] in China right now so there's no point in looking at software differences. All right but let's be real for a moment, we've used phones now. Which do we actually prefer. The [UNKNOWN] It excites me more. I don't know exactly what it is, but the way the screen folds outwards just feels so much more futuristic to me. Agreed, it's not something I really appreciated until I actually saw it and got my hands on it. The way that screen folds back around itself looks amazing. It's seriously impressive. And having such a big screen in its phone mode is way better than that tiny outer screen on the Galaxy fold. I do admit though that I am slightly concerned about how expose our screeners and I don't love the idea of having to keep it in some kind of protective sleeve on it's not amused Suppose we're concluding then that neither is the perfect option. No, they're not really but for first generation attempts, they are both pretty damn close in their own way. And of course, we've also got Motorola doing its folding razor phone, which looks different again. So it's likely that 2020 will see even more folding phone designs and I think we can at least agree that it's a Exciting to see some fresh ideas in phones again. Damn right! What a hansdome man you are. Beer? Beer. [MUSIC]