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The Good
- Great Design
- Brilliant Camera
The Bad
- Some stabilisation issues in video
Love them or loathe them (or simply do not understand them at all), it’s been a very interesting year for foldable devices.
Samsung once again swept demands for a significant redesign of its Z Fold series under the carpet, Honor appeared to defy physics with its brilliantly thin Magic V3, OnePlus smashed it with the incredible OnePlus Open Apex Edition, and Google came good in several areas with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Oh, and there was indeed a Vivo foldable that I didn’t get to try. Although I hear that’s pretty awesome, too.
Last week, I headed to Dubai for the last smartphone launch of the year, and the first foldable device to enter the 2025 market – the Huawei Mate X6.
You probably have many questions. Is it as good as the phones I’ve just mentioned? How much is it and where can it be bought? What do you need to know about Huawei phones before taking the plunge?
I have the answers.
Read our Huawei Pura 70 Ultra review
Specs and pricing
Huawei doesn’t publicly confirm the chipset that powers its devices, and you won’t find it mentioned anywhere in Settings, but a quick Google search suggests that the Mate X6 is powered by the Kirin 9020.
There’s just one RAM and storage option, which is 12GB and 512GB, respectively. Powering everything is a 5,110mAh battery which is capable of 66w fast charging and 50w wireless charging.
The Mate X6 weighs 239g and, as for the only dimensions that seem to matter in the world of foldables, I can confirm that it is 9.85mm thick when folded, and 4.6mm thick when unfolded.
On display duties, we have a 7.93-inch internal screen and a 6.45-inch cover screen. Both are OLED and have a variable 120Hz refresh rate. They also benefit from 1,440Hz high-frequency PWM dimming and near-identical 2K resolutions. The cover screen is the brightest at 2,500 nits, but the 1,800 nits internal display doesn’t exactly struggle in direct sunlight.
There are three colours to choose from – Nebula Gray, Black, and Nebula Red (the colour I was given to review).
The price? In Europe, the Mate X6 will cost €1,999. That’s expensive – even for a foldable. Therefore, the Mate X6 needs to display some serious prowess over the competition if it’s to be on your 2025 purchase list.
What about the XT Tri-Fold Smartphone?
Hardware
Good news – the Mate X6 feels and looks as flagship and as expensive as that price tag suggests. Getting the design of a foldable smartphone right is incredibly difficult. You have to balance ergonomics with a confidence-inspiring hinge. This has, in the past (and still with Samsung’s Z Fold series) resulted in chunky devices which are a far cry from regular phones in terms of pocketability.
Huawei has, in my opinion, struck just the right balance with its ‘Space-Age Orbit’ design of the Mate X6. The thickness, weight, and hinge design are knocking on the right side of perfection. It’s not as ludicrously thin as the Honor Magic V3 and not quite as one-handed as the Z Fold6 when closed, but neither of those elements feels like a compromise.
The Mate X6 unfolds smoothly and snaps satisfyingly flat. There was also a case included in the box of my review unit which features a handy kickstand to aid content consumption. And on the subject of the displays – they’re lovely; just the right size, and with bezels that shouldn’t be any smaller. The fact Huawei has chosen Kunlun 2nd generation glass should offer even more reassurance about the Mate X6’s durability.
It’s hard to find a better-looking and constructed foldable smartphone than the Mate X6.
When it comes to power and performance, I’m not the person to rely on for benchmarks, because I can’t think of anything I’d rather do less than generate meaningless numbers. Like all modern smartphones, the Mate X6 feels fast, and fluid, and will, I’m sure, cope with most gaming situations. The fact it uses graphene to help cool the chip is, however, pretty cool (I even got to try this out during the launch event by gently slicing an ice cube clean in half with a piece of the same graphene that’s found in the Mate X6).
Camera
The Mate X6 features a triple camera system with the following specs:
- 50MP Ultra Aperture Camera (F1.4-F4.0, OIS)
- 40MP Ultra-Wide Angle Camera (F2.2)
- 48MP Telephoto Macro Camera (F3.0, OIS)
There’s also an Ultra Chroma camera which is used in conjunction with the other cameras to enhance colour accuracy.
In terms of selfies, you can of course use the main camera system, what with the Mate X6 being a foldable, but there are two selfie cameras available for the traditionalists:
- Folded: 8MP Camera (F2.4 aperture)
- Unfolded: 8MP Camera (F2.2 aperture)
The Mate X6 takes great photos. They’re not too saturated, nor too contrasty or over-sharpened. This is, as I always say, a very subjective part of smartphone reviews, but it’s hard to imagine anyone wagging their finger at the photos taken at the Mate X6’s optical focal lengths.
Those optical focal lengths top out at 4x, after which you head into the realm of digital and AI-infused photography. Just like every smartphone I’ve tested, once you stray into that area, the results are rather inconsistent. With the right conditions, you’ll grab some impressive far-away shots, but on other occasions, the processing is just a bit too much.
Stick with the standard focal lengths, however, and the Mate X6 shines.
All of the photos you can see on this page were taken in Dubai during the launch event and the Mate X6 dealt very well with varying lighting conditions, piercing sunlight, and lots of dynamic range-testing shadows.
It’s a fast camera, too, as demonstrated by this shot of a falcon flying beneath its trainer.
Switch to video shooting, and you’ll be able to get some great footage out of the Mate X6. The only issue I spotted was some slightly odd behaviour from the stabilisation system at times.
⌚ Want more Huawei? Here’s my Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro review
What you need to know about Huawei phones
Buying a Huawei phone isn’t as straightforward as, say, a regular Android phone – because the Mate X6, just like its siblings, doesn’t run Android. There’s no Google Services installed by default, either.
Huawei is also still subject to sanctions that prevent it from selling its devices in the US. You can, however, buy them in Europe and Asia. You can also get Google Services and most apps running on devices like the Mate X6 if you do a brief bit of research to find the instructions for doing so.
The other thing you should know about Huawei devices is that they are really good. The Mate X6 is no different. People always show a lot of interest in Huawei gear within the comments sections of my YouTube videos, too, with US residents expressing their frustration at the inability to buy.
These challenges aren’t the fault of Huawei – they have been forced upon the Chinese brand by the US government. It’s something I deeply hope will be resolved one day. Despite this, where there’s a will, there’s a way – always.
Conclusion
The Huawei Mate X6 is the best-looking and feeling foldable smartphone I’ve used so far. It has a great camera system which snapped some of the nicest photos I’ve taken while visiting another country.
The performance and battery life are superb and befit a phone of this price. The non-Android stuff takes some getting used to but, once again, I can confirm that, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
The Mate X6 is expensive and, being a foldable, will only be of interest to a very specific portion of the smartphone market, but Huawei has, once again, nailed it with the key elements of this fascinating product category.
Special mention must also go to the FreeBuds Pro 4, which were launched alongside the Mate X6 in Dubai. At €199, they’re a competitively priced and great-sounding pair of noise-cancelling earbuds which feature an impressive voice isolation feature for taking calls.
