Rumor | Huawei will launch an e-ink tablet as well as the Mate X3 and Mate 50 in 2022

The prolific leaker Digital Chat Station now claims to have heard that Huawei plans to launch a successor for its most premium device, the foldable Mate X2 phablet, "as normal". This can, therefore, be taken to mean that the putative X3 will debut in or around February 2022, approximately 12 months after its inward-folding forebear.

Furthermore, the tipster hints that the newer model will come with some potentially important upgrades. They include an under-display fingerprint reader for its main display, as opposed to the frame-mounted sensor of the X2. Its hypothetical successor's OLED panel is also to be "pol less", a term that might be interpreted a number of ways, including an indication of a refresh rate greater than the 90Hz of the current Huawei flagship.

However, this device's debut is to be preceded by that for the Mate 50 (and possible variants thereof), now slated to take place in January 2022. This phablet is thought to be powered by the top-end Snapdragon 898 - albeit a 4G/LTE-only version of the potential flagship SoC. Therefore, it may find itself floundering in a market increasingly used to its 5G-capable high-end mobile devices.

This might explain Huawei's alleged diversification into a whole new area: one for slates with e-ink displays. Digital Chat Station now asserts that this first-gen device is to be called the MatePad Paper (or HMW-AL10). However, the leaker has already cast doubt on the success of this new venture, as the market for such tablets, typically pitched as e-readers, is apparently not great, not even in the OEM's native China.

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