However, Samsung leads in two respects: availability and price. The Fold will go on sale in initial markets from April 26. The Mate X does not have a release date.
Bruce
Lee, vice president of the Handset Business at Huawei CBG, said in an interview
after the launch that, because it was the first foldable handset to use 5G, the
next generation connectivity technology, it would have to wait for mobile
networks themselves to introduce 5G.
“The 5G networks of the operators
have not yet been commercialised, and we still need to do a lot of testing
regarding interoperation of this phone before the phone can be put to market,”
he said. “We estimate it will be by the middle of 2019, but there are a lot of changeable
factors that affect the timeline of this launch.”
The other small advantage
of the Samsung Fold is price, although the question is really academic,
considering the high cost of both devices. The Fold will cost $1800 in the USA,
which may translate into well above R40 000 in South Africa. That makes
the phone not only highly expensive, but also prohibitively costly for what is
clearly the first generation of foldable device from Samsung. Future versions
will be sleeker, more elegant, with bigger screens, and at a lower cost.
That is also the one
downside of the Mate X. Until Richard Yu announced the price, the audience had
cheered almost every feature of the device as it was announced. The
announcement of the price brought gasps of surprise: Euro2200, or the
equivalent of $2600. That means a device that would cost as much as
R60 000 in South Africa.
Again, however, the device
is not geared towards sales, but to show technology leadership.
Said Bruce Lee, “Huawei never pursues an excessively high profit margin. We pursue providing the consumer with a better product with higher technology. The price is high not for pursuit of margins but due to the materials and technologies involved, due to the foldable screen. In future, we will work with partners to improve the technology, increase the production of foldable panels, and bring down the price.”
Click here to watch the Gadget exclusive Huawei Mate X demo, recorded by Arthur Goldstuck.
- Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on @art2gee
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