The Huawei Mate X2. You probably thought that folding phones were going to take a
break during the pandemic...or maybe you didn't think about folding phones at all.
Could kind of go either way with this one. Huawei just released the second version of their
folding smartphone. This time around the large screen is on the inside instead of the outside.
Inside the box we get a nifty little half case that matches the color of the phone,
as well as a powerfully fast 66 watt charging brick and some corded USB-C headphones.
At just shy of $3,000, it costs about $1,000 more than Samsung's folding smartphone. But you
do get this sweet little kick stand, which might just be worth $1,000 to some people. Everybody's
different. It's time for a durability test. This video is sponsored by Audible. Let's get started.
[Intro]
As I'm starting up the phone we get this list full of good ideas for my durability test,
like “do not press on the screen with hard or sharp objects.”
And this one down here: “don't expose your phone to sand.” I'm sure these are good warnings for
the average person who wants their phone to last, but we're here to find out if the phone can last.
Weirdly enough this thing is shaped like a carrot. I wasn't expecting that.
Apparently it's supposed to help with the weight and balance or something when using it one-handed.
There are also some carbon fiber supports inside that we'll have to look for during the teardown.
Closed up and folded shut, it's just a tad smaller than my almost 2 year old Note 10 Plus.
And just about the same thickness as my phone inside of it's Teardown grip case from dbrand.
It's interesting that the entire X2 is basically the same size as my phone in a case,
yet has 3x the screen real estate. The folding action itself feels a bit easier to maneuver
than the Fold 2, as well as the crease in the center seems to be a bit more gentle,
not as sharp. I'd compare the two if my Fold 2 was still alive, but it's not.
Speaking of dying, it's time for the scratch test. Huawei has given us a
removable plastic screen protector on the front display. Very nice of them. We know
that with the Mohs scratch test a plastic screen will start scratching a level 2 or 3,
a glass screen will scratch at a 5 or 6.
And a sapphire screen would scratch at level 8 or 9. And as we can see from the scratches at a level
6, with deeper grooves at a level 7, this front display on the X2 is made from tempered glass.
It can use glass on the surface since it's not doing any bending.
The larger inner display, however, is doing a lot of bending and we start seeing marks at level 2,
with deeper grooves at a level 3 since it's so soft. My level 3 pick is pretty much
just cutting into the plastic, and it's also pretty much just what we were expecting,
with, once again, my fingernail being able to leave marks on the surface of this inner screen.
Folding phones are super cool, of course, they just need a little more tender loving care than
your average smartphone, and I don't see that changing much in the near future. For this inner
screen at least. The outer screen is pretty much business as usual with the glass protecting its
16 megapixel front facing camera. There's also a plastic earpiece grill up here, and the sides of
the X2 are made from metal. The power button is scratchable, along with the metal volume rocker.
It's kind of cool we can test both the left and right sides of the phone at the exact same time.
The top of the phone has one of those dual loudspeaker grills,
as well as a SIM card tray which has a proprietary nano memory card slot built in.
The metal spine of the phone has no branding which is kind of refreshing.
And then we have the back glass with a super large camera bump up in the top left corner.
And finally, the bottom of the phone has it's USB-C port and the second stereo loudspeaker. I
do like that this X2 has more of a teardrop shaped cavity for the screen to fold into.
The sharper and more abrupt the crease, the more likely it is that the plastic and pixels
are to fatigue and crack over time. So this softer curve should help the X2 last longer.
The hinge also wants to be closed or opened all the way.
It's not multi positional like the Galaxy Fold is, which is something to consider.
There are plenty of cameras though. This big boy up here is a 10x optical zoom periscope camera.
Then we have the 50 megapixel main sensor, a 16 megapixel ultrawide, and a 3x optical zoom down
at the bottom, with the dual colored LED flash, all sitting inside the rather large camera bump.
One thing that's rather hard to avoid here on earth though is earth itself. You're kind of going
to find earth wherever you go. So finding out how dustproof this hinge really is is definitely worth
our time. With how many gears and precision engineering components inside of the hinge,
one grain of sand could really mess things up. We'll make sure that the dust is sufficiently
jiggled up and shaken around. It's interesting that the diagonal seam of the X2 is so tight
that it's not letting the dust escape, which means it would probably do a decent job of keeping the
dust from entering as well...hopefully. Otherwise it would turn into a $3,000 Etch-a-Sketch.
Even with this forayed into a sandpit though, the hinge has stayed pretty clean
and smooth, without any discernible noise difference or grinding gears.
Nice work, Huawei. There is dust resistance.
Let's turn up the heat a little. From what I've seen, people are in 3 tribes concerning
folding phones. Some people are all about them. Some people hate them. And some people couldn't
care less. Personally, I think I'd be using one if the price point was in the same ballpark as
the average flagship, which right now it's not. The 6.4 inch 90 hertz front display
lasted about 25 seconds under the heat from my lighter before going white and not recovering.
Humans have been dividing themselves up into opinionated tribes since the dawn of time.
I recently finished an audiobook from Audible called AC/DC by Tom McNichol. The savage tale
of the first standards war, where he very interestingly explains how brutal the alternating
current and direct current debates were back in the late 1800s when humans were learning to
harness electricity. Tesla, Westinghouse, and Edison pretty much shaped the course of global
history, and it got pretty intense. They even electrocuted an elephant just to prove a point.
Things were pretty weird back then. You can listen to this audiobook yourself with a free
30 day trial of Audible at audible.com/jerryrig. Or by texting the word “jerryrig” to 500-500.
Every month you'll get one free audiobook and full access to the Audible Plus catalog,
which has podcasts, fitness and meditation programs,
and all kinds of Audible Originals. But for real, AC/DC is a really good listen, and it shows that
fiery tribal like opinions have been around for a really long time. Audible.com/jerryrig.
Or text “jerryrig” to 500-500. And huge thanks to Audible for sponsoring this video.
As you can see, the inner screen doesn't last near as long under the flame. Without the glass to
dissipate the heat, the plastic covered pixels go black and permanently die after about 10 seconds.
The inner screen is just more fragile than the exterior screens.
Finally, the bend test. The X2 is a pretty beefy boy when the phone is closed,
so there's no surprise that there's no flex from either side.
And then, of course, we have the open and closing motion between the two halves, which means we're
done. The phone does bend. There's no need to test anything else, right? It definitely folds.
Thanks a ton for watching...Oh, you want to see it bent the other direction? I guess that
can be arranged. The hinge still feels good and solid, even after our dust adventures.
But I personally don't have high hopes for this thin carrot stick looking tablet
to survive the bend test the wrong direction. But when bent from the back,
the two halves meet in the center with the hinge giving some pretty solid internal structure.
And the Mate X2 is unable to fold in the wrong direction, which is pretty
impressive considering we've already had two non-folding gaming phones fold in half this year.
At this point, a folding phone is more durable than a gaming phone, minus the soft inner screen
part. My current phone is about 2 years old at the moment and still going strong.
So I think I'll keep it for another year or two, but after that I'll most definitely consider a
folding phone as my daily driver...especially with how far we've come in the past two years.
It'll be cool to see where we end up in the next few...assuming we can all work
together long enough to end the pandemic of course. Either way, nice work Huawei.
Hit that subscribe button so you don't miss the teardown. And come hang out
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