Huawei has taken the wraps off its newly defined phablet category – a Mate 20 X with a huge 7.2” screen and all the go-fast stuff under the bonnet.
The dearly departed Steve Jobs may have been a little off beam in 2010 when he declared, “No one would want to buy a phone with a big screen” referring to anything above 4”. Well
We don’t know if the 7.2” Mate 20 X will come to Australia. What we do know is that Huawei has fired a shot over Samsung’s bow and the next one aims to sink it. The Note 9 has some serious stylus competition.
It will launch the Mate 20 X in Europe at the end of November for €899 – about A$1600 inc GST.
The Mate 20 X has superb specs
Replete with a 7.2” 2244 x 1080, 18.7:9, HDR10 AMOLED screen; 5,000 mAh battery; Kirin 980 SoC; Graphene film and vapor chamber cooling system; 40MP Ultra-wide-angle Leica triple rear cameras; IP53 water and dust resistance, Huawei M-Pen stylus (that does not slip inside the phone), and gamepad.
The gamepad is an interesting addition. It clips on and adds an analogue stick and D-pad.
Its dimensions are not overly huge – 174.6 x 85.4 x 8.2 mm x 232g compared to the iPhone XS Max at 157.5 x 77.4 x 7.7 mm x 208g or the Samsung Note9 at 161.9 x 76.4 x 8.8 mm x 201g. Yes, you need deep pockets.
This is for those who want the best and use the phone as their primary computing device. Asia has been the driving force behind bigger and bigger phones. The Mate 20 X also takes a shot at all those 8”, 16:9 tablets like the Samsung Galaxy, iPad Mini 4, Lenovo Tab 4, and even its own MediaPad M5.
It will redefine the need for this tablet category. Why not have a top-drawer phone and camera as well? GadgetGuy’s first look at the Mate 20 Pro is here and this is a class leading flagship device.
