Huawei Mate X3

Huawei Mate X3 Review

Design

The Huawei Mate X3 is a foldable smartphone, measuring 156.9 mm in height, 141.5 mm in width when unfolded, and a mere 5.3 mm in thickness. It weighs 239 grams. Its foldable design uses a robust hinge mechanism, and is available in Gold, Black, White, Violet, and Dark Green finishes. The device utilizes a side-mounted fingerprint sensor for biometric authentication.

Display

The Mate X3 boasts a primary 7.85-inch foldable OLED display with a resolution of 2224 x 2496 pixels, resulting in a pixel density of 426 ppi. The display supports 1 billion colors and a 120Hz refresh rate. The foldable panel itself utilizes LTPO technology allowing adaptive refresh rates. A 6.4" cover display is also present with a resolution of 1080 x 2504 pixels, an aspect ratio of 21:9 and a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. This cover display features a hole-punch notch and is made of OLED. The cover display also utilizes 1440 Hz PWM dimming. Both displays support DCI-P3 color gamut and a 10-bit color depth.

Performance

Under the hood, the Mate X3 is powered by the Qualcomm SM8475 Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 4G chipset, built on a 4nm process. The CPU is an octa-core configuration consisting of one 3.19 GHz Cortex-X2 core, three 2.75 GHz Cortex-A710 cores, and four 2.0 GHz Cortex-A510 cores. Graphics are handled by the Adreno 730 GPU operating at 875 MHz. The device scored 1,238,400 on the Antutu v10 benchmark. It is available in multiple RAM configurations of 8GB and 12GB alongside storage options of 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB depending on the region. Storage is not expandable.

Camera

The Mate X3 features a triple-camera system on the rear, developed in collaboration with Leica. The primary 50MP camera utilizes a Sony IMX766 CMOS sensor (1/1.56") with an f/1.8 aperture, 1.00 µm pixel size, and 1-4 (2x2) pixel binning. The secondary 12MP ultra-wide and macro lens uses a Sony IMX688 CMOS sensor with an f/2.2 aperture. Finally, a 16MP telephoto lens utilizes a Sony IMX351 Exmor RS CMOS sensor (1/3.09"), f/3.4 aperture, 1.00 µm pixel size, and 1-4 (2x2) pixel binning, providing 5x optical zoom, 20x hybrid zoom and 100x digital zoom. The rear setup includes features like optical image stabilization (OIS), 4K video recording with electronic image stabilization (EIS), macro capabilities up to 2.5cm, and dual LED flash. The front-facing camera is an 8MP sensor with an f/2.4 aperture and is used for selfies. Camera features include HDR, panorama, face detection, and RAW capture support. Video capabilities include 4K recording at 30 and 60fps, and slow-motion video capture at 960 fps.

Battery Life

The device is powered by a 4800 mAh Li-Polymer battery and supports 66W fast charging and 50W wireless charging. The battery is non-removable.

Software

The provided data does not specify the operating system (OS) and its version.

Connectivity

The Mate X3 features Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) with dual-band support, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display, and Wi-Fi MIMO. Bluetooth 5.2 LE includes A2DP, EDR, LE, LDAC, SBC, and AAC codecs. GPS capabilities include GPS, A-GPS, Beidou, QZSS, and Galileo. This device uses a dual SIM full active configuration using two Nano SIM cards. It features 4G LTE, 3G, and 2G network bands. It also features a USB Type-C 3.1 port with DisplayPort 1.2, OTG, and USB Mass Storage functionality. NFC is present for contactless payments and device pairing.

Pricing

The Huawei Mate X3 is positioned within the high-price range. The 12GB/512GB version is priced around $2,361.66.

Overall Verdict

The Huawei Mate X3 is a premium foldable smartphone with a high-quality foldable display, powerful performance, and a versatile camera system co-engineered with Leica. Its sleek design, fast charging capabilities, and comprehensive connectivity options make it a strong contender in the high-end foldable market. The lack of 5G connectivity and the higher price point are important considerations for potential buyers.