Huawei announces the launch of a new foldable smartphone with surprising design choices

Huawei's Richard Yu (or Yu Chendong) has taken to Weibo to confirm that it will debut its fifth foldable mobile device soon. The executive asserts that the impending device will "surpass everyone's imagination"; however, it now seems that this new addition to the high-end Mate series will not offer much that has not been seen before.

Its immediate predecessor graduated to the book-like form-factor also popular with big names in this emerging market such as Samsung, not to mention fresh and potentially influential players such as OPPO and Xiaomi. However, it seems that the Mate X2's maker now intends to switch back to an older design in its latest flexible model.

Yes, Huawei's next premium foldable is now officially slated to launch as the Mate Xs 2, which, as the name suggests, has the same opening mechanism as its forebear the Xs. Despite the tendency of foldables that go the other way (quite literally) to be better received and frankly come across as more practical, it now seems Huawei has decided to regress to its original form factor rather than move on to the potential upgrades hinted at in leaks concerning the "Mate X3" alternative.

Then again, it is possible Huawei has resorted to its current strategy in order to shift more units at more attractive prices: some leaks also now circulating on Weibo hint that it is coming with "last year's" chipset that will probably also have to be 4G/LTE-only on top of that.

In any case, based on hints dropped in the course of this new announcement, the Mate Xs 2 may launch alongside an entire "scenario" of products, which just might include Mate 50-series phablets, new smartwatches and more. This event is now scheduled for April 28, 2022.