I'm in the back of the London taxi taking a look at choirboys new foldable mate x s.
Let's see what makes this phone particularly cool
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So you join me as I'm on my way to Holborn in the center of London now, I wanted to take this phone out onto the streets of London.
spend a little bit of time using it, see what it's actually like to To use, now physically, this looks basically the same as the Mates X.
We saw that three months ago in Paris.
It was a really nice phone and it was a really nice phone.
I really like the way the screen folds back on itself.
As opposed to other foldables like Samsung's Galaxy fold, where the screen folds close in on itself.
So what's different with the make x s?
Why does it earn that extra s?
Monica?
Well, it's difficult to say there's not actually a whole lot that's been updated here over its predecessor.
As you can see, it's basically the same looking phone It's got an eight inch tablet sized screen when it's in its unfolded mode and it folds back around on itself into its 6.7 inch phone size when it's closed up.
Now that's one of the things I I like most about this phone is that when you're actually asking about, you've got a full sized phone still.
And you can use it one handed.
What actually is different here, then?
Well, it's a small list, but [UNKNOWN] Says it's quite an important list So let's go through it.
In terms of a design, no, not a lot has changed.
It looks very much identical.
We've still got this grippy bit here which I like.
But the hinge has had some updates.
If we look closely at this top edge before you could see a lot of the inner workings of that hinge.
I quite liked it had a bit of an industrial look But this new version is sort of capped on both ends.
Now that should help keep the internal cogs and whatnot much safer from any kind of dust, or dirt, or general debris that might get in, and over time that could degrade your folding system.
Obviously, this is very early days, I've had this in my hands for all of half an hour, so difficult to say, if this is a better solution, but good to know that they're at least thinking about the longevity of a phone.
inside.
It's got Huawei latest processor.
It's the Karen 990 chip.
Now, obviously, we expect performance upgrades, maybe even a little bit of a battery life boost.
But one of the big things that this offers is 5g functionality.
Now of course, that does depend on where you are.
But 5g is of course, something that we're seeing on a lot of high end flagship phones.
So it's probably good that this has got it.
Now while we did make a point about saying that it's 5g chip is not a separate unit to the processor, it's all built in to the carrying [UNKNOWN] 19 chip.
Now, why is that important in my task?
Well, one big reason and that's battery life.
If you're not running two separate things that processor and the 5G chip, then you are not using as much power.
So So the idea is that it can do everything in one, much more efficiently and hopefully get a lot more battery life.
I use the [UNKNOWN] For quite a while in Paris and I really did like the way it folds and I expect to feel pretty much a thing about this one because it is basically the same device with just a few little tweaks under the hood.
We're currently somewhere around Around Barbican in East London so we've got a little way to get to Holborn.
But when we do get there we're going to have a little wander around, get some food maybe, take some photos, and actually see what this thing is like to use out in the real world.
Cheers mate!
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This is a special Tom Kerridge pie.
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That's good.
That's good pie.
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I finished my pie.
But it's in a cool area.
So I wanna try and use those cameras, do a bit of photography around here.
Maybe some of the interesting buildings, maybe even some nice street themes that would look cool.
Have a look around and see what I can get with it.
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So we do have the same camera setup from the matrix and that's got a standard zoom lens has got super wide and it's got a telephoto so you've got some options in how you want to compose a shot when you're walking around.
For example, I want to get this nice Sicilian art shop here.
A standard one times lens only just about gets the end.
So if we go wide and suddenly we got a lot more of that.
We got the building coming in here.
It just looks a lot better.
Okay, now I feel it's starting to rain.
Bad news was this one like the Maytag for it, No water-proofing, at all.
So I am going to put it away.
And see how much it keeps on raining.
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Well the rain might be stopping play on my general photo shoot but I can at least snap a selfie of me looking miserable.
Sheltering from the rain and with the may access just like with the May x before you use the main camera as your selfie camera in fact, you just flip it over and you get your selfie camera with a little view here means you can go big sad face as I try and stay dry But that might just be everything that we can do while I continue to chunk it down with rain.
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So the rain outside was a bit disappointing but I have come back to see net towers to shelter and I did spend some time getting a few more shots around the office.
Let 's see what this camera can do.
But it also gave me some more time to think about the form factor of this folding phone and what it's really like to use and more importantly, how it compares to another recent foldable, Samsung's Galaxy Z flip that I have here Now, obviously when close is evident that these are Two very different devices.
One of them is a small little square.
The other one remains a full size phone.
And that's exactly why I still think that Huawei is made x s form factor is the most sensible way of producing a folding device.
Not only do you get A four big phone to use on your app and about you then get the secondary mode of it being a tablet.
Now Samsung said flip.
Yes, it's a much neater little device.
But it's just a phone.
It's the only one device there's no secondary functionality doesn't fold into a larger screen to let you do other task when you're out and about It just a phone, which might be a little bit more easy to put into your jeans.
Now that might be absolutely fine if that's what you want basically a big phone which is easier to store but 1300 pounds, you're paying a lot of extra money just to have a slightly more compact phone.
Which of course does bring me on to the actual price of this thing and that's where things get a little bit more interesting because unlike the [UNKNOWN] X The Matrix S is going to go on sale outside of China, including here in the UK means it's actually going to be one of the phones that you can go and buy.
Now, quality hasn't said exactly how much this is going to be yet but it did say to me that it's going to be roughly what they expected the previous matrix to be.
So in the UK, it's going to be somewhere around 2200 pounds.
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Which, yes, that is an absolutely astonishingly huge amount of money to pay for a phone, but tech that's new like this always comes with quite the premium price tag.
And almost certainly, with future revisions, that price will start to come down.
But even so, ��2,200 is quite a lot of money, particularly as you don't have the full suite of Google Play Store services here.
But with that money you do also get the latest technology that's 5G onboard an amazing array of cameras, and it's really really powerful as well.
Whereas I have found with the Z-flip, but it's got a very pared down camera and it doesn't really impress so much.
So you're getting at least a full fat superphone experience for your money.
On the other hand, I suppose it is a little disappointing that so little has changed in the year, since they first launched them a text.
Maybe Huawei could have experimented with a slightly different design as well.
But when we first saw this phone when it launched last year, it was the only foldable around and now we've got Motorola doing what Samsung has got to.
And things are getting a lot more interesting.
So.
I was thinking, is this still the form factor that I want the most and I have to say it definitely is.
It's the one I can imagine myself using the most on a daily basis still being able to use it as my main phone.
And then when I'm traveling on the bus on the tube or just sitting in bed, reading a book like this is how I would want to use that larger screen.
It just makes the most sense to me.
But this has been a very, very early look at the updated maith x s and I'm looking forward to getting one in my hands, hopefully permanently so I can spend some real time with it and see how this actually puts up with day to day.
Use Do of course keep your eye on CNET for a lot more around this phone and all the other foldables that we've got at the moment.
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