Huawei's foldable phone may beat the Samsung Galaxy Fold right out of the gate

While Samsung has been teasing us with a flexible phone for over a year, we’ve recently also started to head about other manufacturers dabbling in the futuristic tech. For one, Xiaomi straight up showed us footage of a foldable prototype phone, and Huawei has also been vocal about wanting to join in on the fun.

A week ago, Huawei’s Consumer Business Group CEO — Richard Yu — straight up confirmed that the company will be showing off its own foldable smartphone on this year’s MWC (in the last week of February!). This would directly compete with Samsung’s long-awaited reveal of its own Galaxy Fold.

If you needed any more confirmation — Huawei just threw its hat into the ring. The company posted an official to its pre-MWC event on its Twitter profile:



Interesting thing in this picture:

It depicts a phone that folds with its display outwards

When it comes to foldable phones, we’ve got two options — either have a device that folds in on the display, kind of like a notebook, or have one that folds outwards, basically having the display cover the front and back of the phone, wrapping around the side.

Tech pundits and fans alike are much more excited for the latter option since it would allow for a much cleaner device that could potentially have a dual screen mode with new ways to interact by tapping on the back, or simply flipping the folded phone around.

Reports say that Samsung did want to make a phone that folds outwards, but was unable to get it ready for this year. Reason being that outwards folds put a lot of strain on the display, as it needs to stretch multiple times right at the point of the bend. This creates durability concerns.

So, instead, Samsung has chosen to go with a device that folds in, like a notebook, and has another display on its outer shell, which allows you to use it as a regular handset when it is folded. Even the prototype, which Samsung teased us with at its Developer Conference, 3 months ago had this exact design.

Is Huawei ahead in the game?

The tweeted image clearly shows us a phone that folds with its display outwards. Basically, Huawei is low-key throwing shade at the competition.

Of course, this could be just an announcement and a demo. The phone itself may take months or maybe a year to release. We’ve seen this before — manufacturers that don’t want to stay out of the game for too long will announce a device that’s nowhere near ready for mass production, but they just need to let their fans know that it’s coming. Apple, for example, announced the Apple Watch six whole months before it was ready to sell it. The company just knew it was a bit behind on the wearable market and needed to let its customers know that something is coming.

And, if Huawei does actually release its foldable phone in the first half of this year, we would be:

• Extremely impressed
• Very curious to know if it’s durable enough to survive a couple thousand folds / unfols

In any case, our excitement for this year's MWC just went from 11 to 12! Of course, we will be there to cover these futuristic jewels first-hand.