Huawei will release a folding smartphone in 2019, and it will connect to a 5G mobile network. This we know, because the company has already spoken about its plans; but it has not gone into detail about what the phone will look like, how it will operate, or exactly when it will come out.
We’ve gathered together all the news and rumors surrounding Huawei’s 5G phone right here.
Name, price, and release date
Multiple sources have indicated the Huawei folding smartphone will arrive in 2019. While the exact date is still unofficial, it will be revealed at Mobile World Congress in late February, according to ETNews. The device is then expected to go on sale in June, according to a South Korean network official, who saw the device in November, and called it more complete than expected.
Rumors have also spread that the folding phone would come in a small production run at first, indicating it will be complicated to produce. This exclusivity and manufacturing complexity may make the device expensive.
Huawei’s folding phone does not have a name yet, or at least none has been leaked ahead of the launch.
Design
Yes, the Huawei folding smartphone will fold, which means it will look like a regular smartphone and open out into a larger, tablet-style device. We’ve seen this type of design already, from ZTE and the Axon M and more recently from Royale with the Flexpai, so we have a general idea of what all folding phones will look like.
However, we do not know what Huawei will do with the design. It has produced some superb looking phones over the past year, so we expect it to bring some of that flair to its folding smartphone. A concept video, which you can see above, claims to show what Huawei’s device may look like, based on information taken from patents.
Specification
The Huawei folding phone may have a folded screen size of 5 inches, and an open screen size of 8 inches, according to ETNews, based on details from a South Korean network official. The resolutions are unknown, as are the overall dimensions of the device. A Huawei-developed Kirin processor is highly likely to power the phone, although whether it will be the current Kirin 980 is unknown.
Huawei will equip its folding phone with 5G connectivity, according to CEO Richard Yu. However, whether this will be available in the first version, or in a later model once 5G has a wider launch, is unclear. Huawei has shown the folding smartphone to networks in South Korea, where 5G is expected to launch in the early part of 2019, suggesting tests are already underway.
The software may make use of Google’s specially designed Android interface made for foldable smartphones; but we’d still expect it to use Huawei’s own EMUI interface over the top.
Competition
Huawei is not the only company working on a folding smartphone. Samsung has been developing the Galaxy F, or Galaxy X, for several years, and is expected to show that phone off in the near future. LG may also have a folding smartphone, and there’s a chance it may be revealed during CES 2019 in January. Others may follow, too.
That’s all we know about the Huawei folding smartphone so far, but we’ll keep you updated here.
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