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Google adds three Motorola phones to its Google Fi phone service
Google adds three Motorola phones to its Google Fi phone service
Google is adding three new Motorola phones to its list of devices available on its Google Fi phone service, according to a Wednesday blog post. The Moto G Play, Moto G Power and Motorola One 5G Ace can all connect to Google's service. For a limited time, when you sign up for Fi, you can get any Motorola phone for free with Fi service credit, the post says.
The Motorola phones are all more affordable options, particularly the Motorola One 5G Ace, which brings 5G coverage starting at $279. The Moto G Power starts at $199, and the Moto G Play starts at $99.
In recent months, Google Fi has also added the latest Samsung and Pixel flagship phones to its Fi service, including the new Samsung Galaxy S21 series.
Google Fi launched in 2015 as low-cost phone service that uses a combination of cellular coverage from T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular, along with local Wi-Fi networks. The Fi Unlimited plan can get you unlimited data, talk and text starting at $70 for one line, or $45 each for four to six lines. The plan also includes a membership to Google One with 100GB of cloud storage.
See also: Moto G Power review: Motorola delivers on its battery life promise and then some
Motorola Razr: 6 burning questions we still have about this foldable phone
Motorola Razr: 6 burning questions we still have about this foldable phone
The 2004 Motorola Razr is back for 2019, this time with a sexy foldable 6.2-inch screen that bends in half and a 16-megapixel camera for all your shots. After playing with it at Motorola's Chicago headquarters, I called it, "Streamlined. Utterly pocketable. Nostalgic, with a sharp futuristic edge." You might call it a flip phone for the modern age -- it even has a secret retro keyboard for nostalgia-seekers.
Motorola's Razr is the third major foldable phone on the market, after the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X, which currently only sells in China. The Razr is also the first design of its kind, a tall, narrow vertically flipping device rather than a tablet replacement that opens up like a book. Motorola's success or stumbles with the Razr could help set the direction of foldable phones to come -- maybe even Samsung's future foldable clamshell, which the company teased at a developer conference last month.
We know a lot about the foldable Razr phone. How much it costs (a princely $1,500) and when it goes on sale (Jan. 9). How its specs stack up against the Samsung Galaxy Fold's and why Motorola wanted to make this foldable flip Razr in the first place. But there are some things we don't know, all of which will be critical to the phone's success. And since preorders in the US don't begin until Dec. 26, it will be a while before we find out.
Read: CNET's in-depth review of the Motorola Razr
How durable the foldable screen really is
The Razr uses a plastic OLED (P-OLED) display with a hard plastic coating on top. Plastic isn't as rigid as glass, which makes today's foldable phone screens more susceptible to damage. Early Galaxy Fold review units suffered from screen damage before Samsung was able to redesign the flaws.
Although Motorola claims its early work on a plastic hard coat for the screen puts it in a better place than Samsung, it isn't clear how well the Razr's screen will be able to sustain the stress of repeated opening and closing throughout its lifetime, and how well it can rebuff normal wear and tear by items coming into contact with the screen, even an accidental fingernail scratch.
If the battery life will truly last all day
Motorola claims that the foldable Razr's 2,510mAh battery will last you all day, but we obviously need to test it to find out, both in our lab and through day to day observation.
But even without testing, a 2,510mAh battery is quite small to power two screens, the camera and all the rest. As one comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S10E has a 5.8-inch screen and a 3,100mAh battery. As another, the (much larger) Galaxy Fold has a 4,380mAh battery.
Part of the problem is that the Razr's total battery capacity is divided into two parts. This design helps keep the phone balanced so one half isn't heavier than the other, but using two batteries is typically less efficient than one larger battery of the same capacity. This was the case with the Galaxy Fold, which ran for less time than expected for its battery capacity -- so we'll keep a sharp eye on the Razr's total battery life per charge.
How splash-proof the screen and body are in daily life
The Motorola Razr has a 6.2-inch plastic OLED display.
James Martin/CNET
The Razr isn't rated for waterproofing, but Motorola says it's splash-proof nonetheless. The foldable phone has been coated inside and out with nanocoating, which helps protect internal electronic components from water damage.
I'll want to see whether ordinary splashes and raindrops affect the screen and camera. The Galaxy Fold came with a long list of care instructions that highlight its fragility, including limited exposure to liquids, so this will be a real test of the Razr's mettle.
If and when Motorola will sell it in colors other than black
Right now the Razr comes in one color, "noir black". If demand is high enough, Motorola may work up a new tone. The first Razr came in a rainbow of eye-popping shades beyond its original silver. I'd love to see this foldable Razr similarly branch out.
How many times the Razr was folded during testing
Motorola isn't saying how many times its Razr was folded and unfolded as part of a stress test. Since in our tests the Galaxy Fold broke after about half the time Samsung said its test was rated for (100,000 folds versus 200,000 folds), our interest is high.
Nobody wants a $1,500 investment to fall apart over the course of a year or two, even though Motorola's warranty does cover a replacement.
Here's Motorola's statement on durability:
We didn't bring the new Motorola Razr to market until we knew it was ready. We have full confidence in the durability of the Flex View display, and based on our research, it will last for the average lifespan of a smartphone. We acknowledge this is a brand new technology and we are committed to continue improving as the industry evolves. Therefore, we've created a world class service package to make sure every Razr customer has an exceptional experience.
Are we looking at the future of phone screens?
Juan Garzon/CNET
If it's worth buying -- and if so, for whom
You want to know, and so do I. Is the Razr a feather in the cap for collectors with means, or will it be a practical device for everyday people? This is unfortunately a question that only the review can answer, after extensively testing the screen, battery stamina, real-life pocketability and camera.
When the review phone arrives, I'll use the device as my one and only phone. Until then, I'll keep posting updates about the Motorola Razr as new information comes in. Feel free to share burning questions of your own in the comments section, or reach out to me at @jdolcourt on Twitter.
Motorola's $1,500 Razr goes on sale in December and arrives in January.
Juan Garzon/CNET
Updated with new information about the January 9 sale date.
That Motorola Razr foldable will squeak out a debut before year's end
That Motorola Razr foldable will squeak out a debut before year's end
Motorola missed a targeted summer launch date for its first foldable phone, but the company still plans to announce its device by the end of the year, a person close to the company told CNET. It's unclear when the device will hit store shelves, but the press and public at least will see the phone in 2019, making Motorola the latest handset maker to jump into the market for foldables.
Read: The inside story of Motorola's foldable Razr .
The device will follow Samsung's Galaxy Fold, which hit shelves in the US on Friday, and possibly Huawei's Mate X, which hasn't yet gone on sale.
Foldables are being developed in a variety of shapes and designs. One thing they all seem to have in common, however, is delayed launch dates. Samsung and Huawei both missed their initial sales plans.
Motorola, a unit of Chinese consumer electronics giant Lenovo, has been working on a secretive foldable phone that's believed to be reviving the Razr brand. Unlike Samsung's Galaxy Fold or Huawei's Mate X, which fold outward from phones into tablets, Motorola's foldable is expected to fold inward like its popular Razr flip phones, according to a patent filing from 2017.
Though Samsung and Huawei showed off their devices at events late last year and earlier this year, Motorola has said very little about its foldable. An executive confirmed the device's existence to Engadget in February and said Motorola had "no intention of coming later than everybody else in the market." CNET later reported that Motorola planned to introduce the phone over the summer.
But summer has come and gone, and Motorola still hasn't said a word about its foldable.
It isn't alone. Early this year, foldables seemed to be the future of smartphones. In a world where phone designs have largely settled into rectangular slabs of glass, foldables represented something truly innovative: a device that's a phone when you want something compact or a tablet when you need more display real estate. Nearly every company in the handset market is believed to be looking at foldables.
Samsung and Huawei, the world's two biggest phone makers, both had grand plans to introduce foldable devices by mid-2019, racing each other to be first with the technology. The designs generated a lot of buzz and got all of us excited about phones again. Then reality hit.
Samsung's Fold woes
Early this year, Samsung seemed poised to be the first major handset maker with a foldable phone. Its $1,980 Galaxy Fold has a 4.6-inch display when folded and a separate 7.3-inch display when unfolded into a tablet. You'll be able to start using apps like Flipboard on the small, front display and then pick up where you left off when moving to the big, inside display.
Reviewers largely liked the device, but Samsung canceled the Galaxy Fold's April sales date, four days before launch, after several reporters discovered screen defects in their review units. Some peeled off a thin top layer on the display, which was an essential protective coating, not a removable screen protector. Others had detritus get under the screen itself, causing bumps and bulges.
"It was embarrassing," Samsung co-CEO D.J. Koh told reporters in late June in Korea. "I pushed it through before it was ready."
Samsung's revamped Galaxy Fold went on sale in the US on Friday.
Angela Lang/CNET
After investigating the issues for about three months, Samsung in July said it had resolved the initial device's problems. Samsung started selling its revamped Fold in September in places like South Korea and the UK. The foldable hit the US on Friday, complete with a new customer service plan to address any issues Fold buyers have.
Huawei's delays
Huawei, meanwhile, hasn't yet started selling its foldable, the Mate X. The $2,600 phone, designed to run on super-fast 5G networks in China and other regions, made its first appearance at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February. CEO Richard Yu at the time said if it weren't for the need to build out 5G networks, he could ship the Mate X immediately.
Unlike the Fold, which opens like a book to reveal a bendable screen on the inside, the Mate X has its foldable screen on the exterior. It needs to be opened only when you want to access the tablet-sized display.
Huawei hasn't yet started selling its Mate X foldable.
Juan Garzon/CNET
Huawei may start to sell its Mate X foldable phone as soon as October, Yu said earlier this month in a briefing at the IFA electronics show in Berlin. He blamed the delay on the rollout of 5G and the need to give developers time to adapt their apps to the new screen size.
But he also acknowledged that building a foldable phone isn't exactly easy.
"The manufacturing of this phone is not only very expensive but has some challenges for volume and mass production," Yu said.
Samsung and Huawei aren't the only companies working on foldables. Fremont, California, startup Royole became the first company to introduce a foldable phone with its Flexpai in October 2018. CNET reviewer Lynn La, during her brief time with the $1,318 device, said that "aesthetically, it still looks like a prototype rather than a refined and polished product."
Xiaomi showed off a foldable phone prototype in videos, but it's unclear when the product could launch. Fellow Chinese handset maker TCL demonstrated its concept devices at trade shows this year but said it doesn't plan to launch anything until 2020. And potential foldables from Apple, Google, LG and Lenovo so far are nothing more than rumors.
Razr's popularity
The struggles experienced by Samsung, Huawei and other handset makers are likely the same hurdles Motorola is facing.
Foldable screens are more delicate than normal smartphone displays. They're made of plastic (foldable glass isn't yet available), which means they can scratch easily.
The devices overall have some durability problems, as Samsung has found. Though it said it had resolved the problems experienced by reporters with the first iteration of the Fold, a reviewer from TechCrunch spotted a defect after using his revamped model for only a day. There haven't been reports of issues with consumers' devices in Korea, the UK and other markets where the Fold has already launched.
Samsung said that it encourages "Galaxy Fold owners to read the care instructions included in the box and in the product manual available online. Products used within these guidelines are covered under warranty." Some of those tips include being careful when folding the device to not place any objects like cards, coins or keys on the screen and not pressing on the screen with a hard or sharp object like a pen or fingernail.
Motorola likely is also watching to see the consumer response to the first foldables from Samsung and Huawei, Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi said.
"It needs to position the device very carefully," Milanesi said.
Motorola's original Razr was one of the most recognizable phone brands and carried the company to success in the flip phone market. The ultrathin phone first started off at the then-outrageous price of $500 as an exclusive phone for Cingular Wireless (now AT&T). It became one of the most popular phones in history, selling more than 50 million units within two years of its 2004 debut.
But Motorola didn't take advantage of the success of the Razr, and it struggled to compete with Apple and others in smartphones. Google purchased Motorola in 2012, and then resold it two years later to Lenovo. Motorola has made its mark largely on well-outfitted budget phones like those in the Moto G line and in the Moto Z franchise, which is upgradable to 5G via a Moto Mod attachment. But it's also aiming to get into more-premium devices, especially when it comes to 5G.
While Razr is a recognizable name, Motorola doesn't have the luxury of a huge marketing budget and product lineup like its bigger phone rivals, Milanesi said.
And even those companies have found that consumers may be wary to shell out thousands of dollars for delicate phones, making it vital for the initial products to be positioned as devices for early adopters and other people who want to start experimenting with foldable designs. There are compromises with foldable devices, like having no water or dust resistance.
"Companies get carried away with ... this is the future," Milanesi said. "But they're not careful enough to position that this is not for everybody."
When Motorola finally shows off its first foldable this year, we'll find out what the company has learned.
This article was originally published on Sept. 27, 2019.
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Motorola Edge Plus hands-on: A $1,000 5G phone with premium specs
Motorola Edge Plus hands-on: A $1,000 5G phone with premium specs
Motorola, a company best known for its budget and midrange phones, on Wednesday took an enormous step forward into the premium phone market and launched the Motorola Edge and Edge Plus. Both phones join the Motorola Razr as high-end offerings from the Chicago-based company. Whereas the Razr was criticized for its middle-of-the-road tech, the Edge and Edge Plus are brimming with cutting-edge specs that rival Samsung, OnePlus and Apple. It is as if Motorola went to the specs grocery store and emptied the shelves.
The $1,000 Motorola Edge Plus has the same price as the Samsung Galaxy S20, the same size screen as the Galaxy S20 Plus and the same 5,000-mAh battery and 108-megapixel camera as the Galaxy S20 Ultra. (The Edge Plus is not currently available in the UK and Australia, but as a guide, the Galaxy S20 starts at £799 and AU$1,349 in those countries. The Edge will cost £549 in the UK.)
The Edge is meant as a slightly pared-down and less expensive option. Motorola hasn't announced the price, but the more affordable phone will launch sometime this summer. Motorola is taking a similar approach to both phones as OnePlus did with its 8 and 8 Pro, although both Edge phones use the same size display.
Motorola Edge Plus specs vs. Motorola Edge, OnePlus 8 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
5G enabled; 120Hz refresh rate; water resistant (IP68)
5G enabled; 120Hz refresh rate; 100X zoom; water resistant (IP68)
Price off-contract (USD)
$999 - Verizon exclusive
TBD
$899 (8GB RAM/128GB), $999 (12GB RAM/256GB)
$1,199, $1,349
$1,399 (128GB), $1,599 (512GB)
The Motorola Edge Plus has 5G
We've seen a lot of phones with 5G launched this year, and the Edge was designed from the start to run on 5G. The Motorola Edge Plus supports both sub-6 and millimeter wave up to 5 gigabits per second. Motorola claims its optimizations will result in the "fastest ever" 5G. We'll have to test those claims.
The Motorola Edge Plus was built from the ground up to be a 5G phone.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The Edge Plus has a 108-megapixel rear camera
There are three rear cameras on the Motorola Edge Plus. The main camera has a 108-megapixel sensor which combines groups of four pixels to produce a 27-megapixel image. Motorola says that the sensor is almost three times larger than the 12-megapixel sensors used in other phones, which could help improve brightness and reduce image noise.
I'm excited to try out the Edge Plus camera system in more depth. But the few photos I took looked good on Edge Plus' screen.
The Edge Plus can record 6K videos with 20-megapixel photo grabs during recording. Despite the Edge Plus having a Snapdragon 865 processor, which is capable of 8K recording, Motorola thought 6K better paired to the main camera sensor.
There are three rear cameras: A main wide-angle camera, a telephoto camera and an ultrawide-angle camera.
Sarah Tew/CNET
There's also a video portrait mode, a special long exposure mode with a shutter speed of up to 32-seconds and Night Vision which stacks eight photos and combines them into a single shot that's brighter, sharper and has more detail.
And then on the front, housed in the hole-punch display, is a 25-megapixel selfie camera.
The Motorola Edge Plus has a 90Hz waterfall display
The name Edge refers to the 6.7-inch "endless edge" display that wraps around the sides of the phone. While it's not the first phone to have a waterfall display, it is absolutely stunning in-person. The edge can light up different colors to show your battery charging, alarms and notifications. There's also a neat widget you can access for shortcuts. Motorola built-in grip and touch suppression to minimize any accidental screen touches.
The display wraps around the edges and has a tiny hole for the 25-megapixel front-facing camera to poke through.
Sarah Tew/CNET
If the edges are too much, you can go into Settings and select which apps use the edges and which don't. When the edges are off, they turn black and the screen looks like a normal regular display. During my time with the phone, I didn't see an "all or nothing" switch for turning the edge on and off.
The edges get well-used in the new Moto Gametime mode. You can set them up as shoulder buttons or reposition your on-screen buttons so they're in a better place for gameplay.
I'm not sure how helpful the Edge screen will be in daily use. It's obviously reminiscent of Samsung Galaxy phones and their edge displays. But the gaming functionality pushes it toward gaming phones such as the Asus ROG Phone 2 and Black Shark 2 Pro but without the glowing logo.
Speaking of gaming phones, the Edge's 21:9 ratio screen has a 90Hz variable refresh rate which makes animations look smoother, text and images more crisp and can make gaming (especially high-frame-rate games) more immersive. You can also choose to override the variable setting and lock it in to 60Hz or 90Hz.
The 90Hz display is impressive and automatically adjusts its refresh rate depending on what content is on screen.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Motorola Edge Plus vs. Motorola Edge
In many ways the Motorola Edge is fundamentally the same phone with the same display as the Edge Plus, but made with a more svelte body. It has Sub-6 5G support but not the faster millimeter-wave flavor of 5G. Instead of a Snapdragon 865 found in the Edge Plus, it has a Snapdragon 765 processor. Instead of a 5,000-mAh battery, it has a 4,500-mAh battery. Instead of an 108-megapixel main camera, it has a 64-megapixel main camera.
The biggest difference is price. We don't know exactly what that will be yet, but we have to surmise that if the Motorola Edge Plus is $999 then the Motorola Edge will be cheaper when it's released sometime this summer.
The Motorola Edge is a slightly scaled back and more affordable version of the Edge Plus.
Motorola
Also I should note that in the US the Edge Plus is a Verizon exclusive, but the Edge will be sold unlocked. We look forward to testing out both phones for a review.
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The Mate XS: A Huawei foldable will finally be available outside China
The Mate XS: A Huawei foldable will finally be available outside China
Huawei has taken the wraps off the Mate XS, a minor update to its existing Mate X that I spent time with in Paris late last year. I think the folding design is great and while the Mate X was strictly China-only, the Mate XS is due to go on sale elsewhere in the world, including the UK.
The XS does have some slight upgrades, including an apparently strengthened display, the latest Kirin 990 processor and some caps on the edge of the folding mechanism to help protect against dust.
There's no firm date for the Mate XS as of yet, and no firm price either, although it is expected to be somewhere around the £2,200 mark in the UK (about $2,850 or AU$4,300). Yikes. Don't expect it to be available in the US at all, due to Huawei's ongoing political difficulties.
The Mate XS is otherwise identical to the Mate X, so read on to see what I thought of that phone when I took it on a lovely tour of Paris.
The Huawei Mate X
I've finally been able to spend some real time with the foldable Huawei Mate X, the Chinese company's folding phone rival to Samsung's Galaxy Fold and Motorola's folding Razr. After a whole day using it all over Paris, I've gotta be honest, this foldable Android device is damn cool.
I'll start with the obvious, the actual folding mechanism. The Mate X's flexible OLED screen folds backward on itself, in contrast to Samsung's Galaxy Fold, which closes in on itself like a book, or the Razr, which folds shut like an old clamshell phone. That means you can use the entire 8-inch display even when the phone is closed. Unlike the Galaxy Fold, there is no internal Mate X display.
Now we can debate all we want about which screen design and mechanical hinge are best, but this is purely about the Mate X, so I'll tell you what I've found to be great so far.
First of all, that folding display just looks amazing. The way the screen bends back around on itself, without any kind of distortion to the images, is awesome and I love the way the interface -- no matter what you're looking at -- instantly resizes into the correct aspect ratio. When I first saw this at MWC earlier in the year I had a genuine rush of excitement at witnessing something so futuristic. Months later, and even having used the Galaxy Fold since its launch, I'm no less excited about the way the Huawei Mate X bends.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
Trust me when I say that from the moment you get it out of the box, you'll want to fold and unfold the Mate X time and time again. Your friends will want to have a go, your colleagues will want a go and even random strangers in bars will want a go.
But there's more to like about this foldable phone than just its ability to draw attention on a night out. By folding backward as it does, that big screen is essentially split in half, giving you a 6.6-inch display in its regular, "closed" phone format, outsizing all but the biggest phablet giants. (You get full use of the screen only when you unfold the phone.) As a result, videos and photos look great, particularly because there's no notch interrupting the view -- something I'll come back to later.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
Having a big outer screen in "phone mode" makes it much more usable than the closed Galaxy Fold. In my several months with the Fold, I've found its 4.6-inch outer screen to be so narrow that typing on it can be extremely difficult. As a result, I almost always use it in its large, folded-out tablet mode. I've been forced to ask myself, do I really have a foldable smartphone or do I have a tablet that can be folded away for easy storage?
With the Huawei Mate X, I don't need to ask myself the same question. The Mate X's design is comfortable to use and while it's wider than the Fold, it's much thinner in its closed form, so it sits in my jeans pocket more easily and didn't feel at all awkward to keep there as I paced the busy Parisian streets.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
The downside? By bending outward, the rear screen is permanently exposed to the world, or to potentially damaging keys and coins in your pocket. Although the plastic material seemed pretty tough in my time with it, I can't vouch for it over months or years of ownership and I can't deny I'd be concerned about how easily it could get damaged. Let's not forget that Samsung canceled all orders of the original Fold following numerous instances of the screen breaking and eventually launched it with a refreshed design. At the very least, I'd want to keep it in some kind of protective sleeve when not in use.
The OLED display itself is bright, vibrant, pin-sharp and even under the bright lights of my hotel room -- and later, under the admittedly gray sky of winter in Paris -- I didn't struggle to read what was on screen. Watching videos in phone mode is great, but it's when you fold it out into its full 8 inches that those videos become significantly more immersive. I really loved checking out the images I shot on my day out in the city on that big display.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
To allow it to bend, the display is covered in plastic, not glass (as are all of today's foldable phones) and, like we've seen on the Galaxy Fold, there are some noticeable ripples on the screen's surface when it lays flat. But they're best described as "ripples" rather than the more pronounced "crease" on the Fold. This is likely due to the fact that the screen doesn't bend at such a sharp angle, thereby causing less of a crease in the display material. In my extended hands-on throughout the day, I rarely noticed these ripples and never found them to be a distraction.
If I were really nitpicking (which, of course, I am), I'd say that the folding hinge is a bit stiff. Bending it backward from its tablet mode feels like you're having to force it more than it really wants, and on my first few attempts I wasn't sure if I was doing it properly. But it's something I'm sure you'd get used to once you got over the initial jarring sensation of basically trying to bend a tablet in half. It does mean that you're not likely to accidentally close it while using it as a tablet. I do like that a physical clasp holds it securely in its phone form and there's an easy-to-reach button that you'll press to release it and fold back out. The Fold and Razr use magnets to remain shut, but I believe the Mate just relies on the clasp. Time will tell which is better.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
The cameras are housed in a vertical side-bar, which I found to be a handy gripping point when unfolded in tablet mode (when closed, the phone folds back, sitting flush against this sidebar). It also means the cameras don't interrupt the display with notches, not even for selfies, as you simply turn the phone over and take those with the main camera.
The camera lineup is much the same as Huawei's P30 Pro: a standard lens, a zoom lens that offers 3x and 5x zoom, a super wide-angle lens and a fourth "time of flight" sensor for depth processing. Having used the cameras extensively throughout my time with the smartphone, I'm pretty pleased with the results, particularly the portrait mode, which gave an extremely accurate bokeh around my willing subject. Exposure seemed good across the board and it uses the same night mode that's impressed me so much on Huawei's previous flagship phones, being able to capture bright, sharp images in dark night-time scenes.
The depth sensor did a great job of recognising that this metro sign is closer to the phone, thereby managing to produce a lovely looking bokeh with the background.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
There's lovely exposure and contrast in this street scene.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
Accurate colours and an even exposure. Lovely stuff!
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
Although shot at night, this image is vibrant and pin-sharp.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
Other specs are pretty much in line with what you'd expect from any top-end smartphone. It runs Huawei's latest Kirin 980 octacore processor, has a 4,500-mAh battery with all-day battery life, 512GB of internal storage and 8GB of RAM.
But it's not internal specs that are important here. The Huawei Mate X is all about that bend and having spent all day with the phone I'm confident in saying that this is my favorite foldable phone I've used so far. Given that it's only available in China, I'm not likely to add one to my permanent collection anytime soon, and that's a real shame, but my time with it has left me extremely excited about what we'll see from folding devices in the years to come.
