Foldable Huawei Mate X 5G sells out limited flash sale in less than a minute

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With the Samsung Galaxy Fold already released, and the Motorola razr officially unveiled, today the foldable Huawei Mate X was launched in China online through Vmall (via Huawei Central). The latter is Huawei's own online platform, and the Mate X was priced at 16,999 Chinese Yen ($2,425 USD at current exchange rates). The device sold out in less than a minute although the exact number of units offered was undisclosed. Those who purchased the phone today will get 50% off the cost of a first-time screen replacement. We don't know if that is foreshadowing something, but for now, we're sure that consumers who purchased the Mate X consider that some kind of perk.

Unlike the inward folding Galaxy Fold and the vertically folding Motorola razr, the Mate X folds outward. In front is a 6.6-inch AMOLED display with an 1148 x 2480 resolution. The back screen carries a 6.4-inch AMOLED panel with an 892 x 2480 resolution. Opened fully, the two screens create a larger 8-inch tablet-sized screen with a nearly square resolution of 2200 x 2480. The device is powered by the Kirin 980 SoC and includes the Balong 5G modem. The Mate X carries 8GB of memory and 512GB of storage. The camera array includes a 40MP Wide camera with an aperture of f/1.8, a 16MP ultra-wide camera with an aperture of f/2.2, an 8MP telephoto camera with an f/2.4 aperture, and a Time of Flight (ToF) depth sensor. Keeping the lights on is a 4500mAh battery. Speaking of the battery, it charges up to 85% after only 30 minutes thanks to the 55W Huawei SuperCharge charging brick that comes with the phone.

Huawei Mate Xs with Kirin 990 SoC will launch this coming March

These limited flash sales help Huawei match sales with available inventory. The next one will take place on November 18th with another sale scheduled for November 22nd. The phone has the AOSP open-source version of Android pre-installed along with Huawei's App Gallery. The lack of Google's core Android apps shouldn't affect domestic sales and it isn't clear when, or if, Huawei will release the Mate X for international consumers. In March, Huawei plans on selling the Mate Xs powered by the more powerful Kirin 990 5G chipset. The chip does have an embedded 5G modem and contains more than 10.3 billion transistors.

Huawei was expected to struggle once it was placed on the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List in the middle of May. The company is not allowed to do business with its U.S. supply chain although it has been able to make some purchases from foreign factories belonging to U.S. outfits. The manufacturer probably misses its relationship with Google the most since it is unable to license the Google Play services version of Android. That might not matter in China but does to global customers who cannot use Google Search, the Play Store, YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps and more on the Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro. But thanks to a wave of patriotism in China, where it appears to the average consumer that Huawei is being unfairly bullied by the U.S., the company's phones are selling like hotcakes. During the third quarter, Huawei shipped 66% more phones in its home country on an annual basis. Not only is that amazing, the company's market share was 42.4%. All other major manufacturers in China (including Apple) shipped fewer phones when compared to the same quarter last year, and Oppo had the second largest market share in China during the three-months with a 17.9% slice of the pie.

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The foldable Huawei Mate X sold out today during its first flash sale

While the Galaxy Fold and Mate X transform from smartphone to tablet, it would appear that much more excitement has been generated in the U.S. by this week's announcement introducing the Motorola razr. Based on the extremely popular Razr v3 flip phone that sold over 130 million units from 2004 to 2008, the new Android-powered smartphone version of the device opens to become a 6.2-inch smartphone with a 22:9 aspect ratio. And unlike the Galaxy Fold and Mate X, the new razr offers buyers a trip down memory lane. Yes, nostalgia is a powerful emotion that can lead the strongest willed of humans to open their wallets and spend $1,500 for a phone with less than flagship specs.