I have a dream that at some point I'll be able to take apart a folding phone
and put it back together again in one piece...but I have a feeling today isn't going to be that day.
This Huawei Mate X2 folding phone survived my durability test, and today we're going to see
how it works from the inside with a teardown. This video is sponsored by Raycon. Raycons are wireless
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Now, it's time to cross your fingers for the Mate X2's health and well-being
because maybe, with a little luck, it'll survive. Let's get started.
[Intro]
So during their launch event, Huawei said they had paired steel with carbon fiber for supports
underneath the screen, which is something we've never seen before so this should be interesting.
The problem is that 75% of this phone is covered with a screen, so we'll just start with the one
non-screen slab of glass and remove that first. Pretty straightforward: heat, suction cup, and my
razor blade get the job done. It's when we have to remove the screen portion that things start
to get a bit sketchy. With the back panel off we get our first look at the quad camera setup,
with the large battery taking up a good portion of the space.
Now for the exterior front glass screen. I'm still going to use heat and my razor blade, but I am
going to upgrade my suction cup. The correct way to do this would be with a large suction hot plate
that can lift the screen off without any pry tools. Since the bezels are so thin,
any accidental pokes to the side of the OLED panel as I'm digging underneath will kill the screen.
And with only a millimeter of edge bezel to work with,
I'll need to have Doctor Strange levels of surgical precision...which
apparently I don't have. As you can clearly see from the white lines running down the screen,
this outer display is toast. The inner display is still doing great, but with the outer screen not
sensing my touch any longer, my dreams of having a working phone after this is over. A quick little
moment of silence for our fallen friend. And now that we're done mourning take a look at this.
The screen is totally see-through up here at the top. Normally this kind of translucent display is
reserved for sensors or underscreen cameras. I wonder if there was a feature they had planned
but changed their minds at some point after the screen had been finalized. The only thing
under here is the loudspeaker which definitely does not require a translucent screen. Most of
the phone hardware is on the thicker half on the left. Remember this phone is shaped like a wedge.
Since we've already mourned the loss of this phone, let's have a little fun with
the folding display. The curve, or crease of the Mate X2's flexible screen is a bit
more gentle than the Samsung Fold 2, which is better for the longevity of the screen.
Huawei has added some rubber bits to help keep the dust and rocks out, like we saw during my
durability test. And if we start peeling off the top clear layer of screen on this $3,000 phone,
we see that it's very securely glued to the material underneath. It's an extra layer of
plastic that looks like a screen protector but isn't. There's a lot of extra residue, but the
screen is still alive. We saw that Samsung added a bumper to the front of their inner display,
and Huawei has done something similar with a molded plastic edge tied directly into the metal
frame of the phone. Feels like a more permanent solution, and as you can see, as I work my way
around that edge once again, all it takes is a little poke and our inner flexible pixels start
to turn green and slowly flow down to the bottom of the phone. And then our pixels start getting
raptured in little white streaks on their way up to cellphone heaven. With a little more digging,
we have the top plastic screen protector layer,
then the polarizer, then the actual pixels underneath. Flexible displays are pretty cool.
There is no ultra thin glass on this one though.
Here is a closeup look at all those layers now that the pixels are gone.
And unlike Huawei promised, there is no carbon fiber, at least not that we can see,
just the same similar metal panels on each half like we saw in the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2, along
with the spine that's made up of the same metal fence-like slats that give structure to the crease
as the screen folds. I'm not saying Huawei copied Samsung's design, but the screens are suspiciously
similar from the inside. Maybe they're both just using the same supplier. Either way, the internals
of the phone are totally different, with Huawei choosing the carrot stick wedge looking design,
and scooching all the important bits over to the thicker left half of the phone.
There are a total of 22 screws holding down the plastic brackets and motherboard components
on this side. Once those are out I can start removing all of the tightly packed components,
like this single battery that has two connections for the super fast charging. It comes out pretty
easily with that pull tab. Thumbs up for that. It's rated at 4,400 milliamp hours.
The charging port ribbon comes out next, and interestingly has the LED flash for the camera
spliced into the same ribbon. Creative. Working our way deeper into the phone so we can get access
to Huawei's hinge. We remove the motherboard which has all 4 of the rear cameras still attached - the
top rectangular periscope camera and the other three that I can unclip like little Legos.
We have the large main 50 megapixel sensor with OIS,
along with the 16 megapixel ultrawide which does not have OIS. Then we have the
3x telephoto which does have that optical image stabilization. The rectangular periscope camera,
which is capable of 10x zoom, is 8 megapixel. It uses its super long shape to redirect the
light onto the sensor that's perpendicular to the back panel of the phone. I'll show you.
Once we get that sensor popped off the end, we can start to see how the light is redirected at a 90
degree angle inside of the rectangle, just like a periscope. The sensor is super small compared
to other sensors we've seen, but that longer lens gives it the 10x zoom effect. Kind of fun.
The motherboard rests on a pile of thermal paste, which interestingly isn't just transferring heat
to the frame. It's also right above a bunch of Swiss cheese style holes
that I assume let some of the heat flow out through the large folding screen
in the center of the phone. On the skinny side of the Mate X2 we have the dual loudspeakers
at top and bottom, which actually take up quite a bit of space. And the little
circular vibrator which hardly takes up any space. The bottom loudspeaker has 4 screws
and a little speaker vent that's the same carrot shape to match the angle of the phone.
No waterproofing built into the speaker, but it does have balls. The water screen is built
into the frame though, it's got the water resistant mesh that sits over the speaker opening.
Pretty standard these days even if the rest of the phone isn't water resistant.
Now for the hinge. There are a few differences between Huawei's hinge and Samsung's hinge.
Huawei did change up the homework a little bit with this part of the phone. Peeling off the black
stickers over the hinge we see that actually quite a bit of dirt from my durability test made it
inside of the phone. None of the large grains of sand or rocks, but it's definitely dirty in here.
There's dirt coming in from both ends of the hinge. It's not as dust proof as we thought.
Huawei's hinge is also not multi positional. It can sit at a 90 degree angle like a laptop
for desktop viewing, but for the most part it wants to snap open and closed.
Samsung's hinge pretty much holds whatever position you leave it in. I'll remove 12 more
screws on this right side so we can pop the metal frame away from the hinge. We're up to about 43
screws now for anyone keeping track at home. There are 2 ribbons connecting the two halves together.
Kind of feel like an adult version of Sesame Street with how many things we're counting,
and there's still not a whole lot to see from this vantage point.
The hinge is still bending and even though it's dirty there are no grinding noises.
I'll unscrew another 10 screws, pop off the two remaining extension ribbons,
and finally my hinge is free with still not a whole lot to see. Seems like Huawei is using far
less moving parts on their hinge than we saw on Samsung's Fold 2. It's also a lot less modular.
With some forceful persuasion I can get the metal spine to come loose from the back of the hinge.
It's very securely glued into place and almost eats half the phone off my desk.
But we finally get to see a bit more of what's going on in here. The screws holding the spine
together are not removable. Looking close we can see that they've been spot-welded to the frame
so they'll never come loose during the phone's lifespan. With things welded shut, it does make it
a bit harder to see what's going on, but it looks like there might be a spring in there, along with
some metal straps that act like a snap bracelet of sorts. It gets the job done, of course, but I
still think Samsung is on top of the folding hinge department, especially with its internal bristles,
gearing, and multi position ability. Not to mention it's a thousand dollars cheaper.
Huawei has improved a lot from the Mate X to the X2, but I think Samsung is still number 1 in
the folding game for the moment. And hopefully, over time, they all become a whole lot cheaper.
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And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.