Huawei Mate X2 in-depth experience: from being able to use to easy to use, the folding screen finally graduated

March 5, 2021 Savior

Starting at 17,999 yuan, the sale starts in seconds, and there is a "scalper" increase of 20,000…Huawei Mate X2 was born with the label of "annual wealth management product" and was ridiculed as the Moutai of the mobile phone industry.

After I got this phone, I didn't install the test software in the first time. I followed the process of evaluating mobile phones in the past to treat this product that is not destined to be a mass spec.

Instead, install your frequently used apps on this phone in turn. Set up the page layout and wallpaper, and use it as the main machine for a period of time.

My purpose is very simple. I want to explore the difference between the folding screen and the common "bar screen", as the main machine, in terms of experience. In other words, whether "folding screens are the main machine" is still a false proposition.

If possible, I also hope to be able to peel off the coat of price and supply, throw away the halo of the brand, and explore the meaning of the current and even the future of the folding screen with a normal heart.

From usable to easy to use

For ordinary consumers, "main machine" may not be a down-to-earth concept. After all, most people only have one mobile phone in service, and there is no so-called backup machine.

For them, communication and social networking, audio-visual entertainment, photographing and recording, etc., all rely on a mobile phone. Therefore, this phone is best to be reliable, balanced, and even has a skill in one's favorite field.

According to this criterion, the past folding screen mobile phones seem to have no competitiveness at all. The high price, but it is difficult to change the feel, battery life, durability and other aspects of peace of mind.

So will Huawei Mate X2 be better? I locked the iPhone 12 Pro Max into the drawer and started this "folding journey".

From the appearance point of view, Huawei Mate X2 is definitely a mobile phone with both texture and design. It is really suitable for those who want to show their extraordinary taste and personality. This is my biggest feeling when I first started.

The gorgeous texture comes from the combination of high-end materials. The fuselage of Huawei Mate X2 is mainly composed of glossy glass, super strong steel and carbon fiber composite materials. The workmanship is indeed worth the price. Every opening and seam are very uniform, tight and precise.

The sense of design comes from the novel shape. The two fuselages of Huawei Mate X2 are wedge-shaped and have different thicknesses. When folded, the seam is a diagonal line, but the whole body is a rectangle of equal height.

This is called the "double-wedge one-piece design" by Huawei. The wonderful thing is that the unfolded form of the fuselage presents a smooth beveled surface. The side held by the right hand is relatively thick, while the suspended screen gradually narrows.

This shape brings a comfortable grip. The center of gravity lies in the palm of your hand, so you don't feel unbalanced when you lift it up with one hand. But for "left-handers", this design is hard to praise.

Coupled with the included mobile phone case, when the Huawei Mate X2 is unfolded and stood on the desktop, the relatively thick body is placed below, and the center of gravity will be more stable. In this state, sliding or tapping the screen will keep the phone stable without shaking.

If you look closely at the fuselage, you can see that the corners are rounded. For heavier fuselages, this design is of great help in improving the grip, at least not in the hands.

When it comes to the weight of the fuselage, although Huawei Mate X2 uses a large area of carbon fiber composite material to compress its own weight, the finished product still reaches 295 grams, which is about 320 grams after wearing the official shell.

For me, who is used to the 226g iPhone 12 Pro Max, it is not so easy to play Huawei Mate X2 with one hand. In order to avoid tenosynovitis, I usually hold it with both hands, or stand it on the table with the help of a mobile phone case.

When I put it in my trouser pocket, although the bulge is acceptable, I have to lift my trouser waist from time to time. So in the past few days of experience, I either held it tightly in a handshake when I went out, or put it in a messenger bag.

Compared with the weight, the battery life of the mobile phone has a greater impact on my daily experience.

With the development of fast charging technology, the battery life of mobile phones is not only a question of how long the battery can last, but also the efficiency of charging.

The battery capacity of Huawei Mate X2 is 4500mAh (typical value) and supports 55W fast charging (the phone case comes with a 66W charging head).

To be honest, in my stereotype, folding screen phones consume power faster. After all, the screen area after unfolding is almost twice that of ordinary mobile phones, and the poor battery life seems to be excusable.

But Huawei Mate X2 has changed my view of the folding screen. During the experience, I recorded a typical day with moderate to heavy use. The battery life performance did not make me feel any difference between it and ordinary mobile phones:

After waking up at 9am on Sunday morning, the phone was charged to 100% at night. Intermittently swiping Weibo and watching videos for about an hour, chatting on WeChat and Moments for about half an hour, and then playing music on the screen for about half an hour. Approaching 12 o'clock noon, about 82% of the power remaining.

While washing and dressing, plug the mobile phone into the power and charge it to 100%. Then I went out to take pictures, drink afternoon tea, go shopping, and go home at 8 o'clock in the evening, with 26% of the battery remaining.

During this process, the phone’s screen is on for about 4.5 hours, and the ratio between folding and unfolding is about 7:3. The main apps used are Weibo, WeChat, camera, and navigation, of which WeChat is still a resident background application.

The speed of power consumption is within a controllable range. Even if the internal and external screens like me turn on the 90Hz refresh rate at the same time, the power is still enough to support a day's work and life.

And the dual-cell battery it uses, although the charging power is only 55W, the charging efficiency is faster than the 66W single-cell Mate40 Pro. It can be charged from 0 to 50% in 15 minutes, to 83% in 30 minutes, and fully charged in 47 minutes.

In fact, after eating a meal or drinking a cup of coffee, the battery of the phone can be quickly "recovered", and the charging process is basically insensitive. This is one of the important reasons why I think Huawei Mate X2 can be used as the main machine.

A mobile phone, in addition to appearance, feel and battery life, performance and durability are also extremely important.

There is no need to go into details about performance. The performance of the Kirin 9000 chip used in Huawei Mate X2 on the Mate40 Pro series has been obvious to all. With 5nm process technology and flagship level of performance, it can be easily dealt with whether it is daily refreshing on Douyin's Weibo or gaming.

A little bit is more obvious. Huawei Mate X2 has a large body area, which provides good conditions for heat dissipation. In the past few days of experience, no matter it is folded or unfolded, no obvious heating was felt except when charging.

When we talk about the durability of folding screens, we generally refer to the longevity of hinges and screens.

Huawei Mate X2 has done a lot of work on durability. For example, the use of super-strength steel materials enhances the robustness of the hinge; the double-rotating water drop hinge design minimizes screen bending marks while eliminating the gap between the folded fuselage to prevent foreign objects from entering and scratching the screen.

But because the experience time is not long, I cannot give a responsible answer on the service life for the time being.

Judging from the usage in the past few days, the hinge is slightly slippery than when I first got it in my hand. The crease of the screen is almost invisible from the first hand, and it is a little heavier, but it does not affect the look and feel at present.

▲After nearly a week of use, the crease has deepened

These physical changes should be difficult to avoid. It remains to be seen whether the creases of the screen will continue to increase, and whether the hinges will become looser as they are used.

Between opening and closing, it’s not just playing cool

Although the performance and endurance are the standards of the flagship aircraft. But do we need to bear nearly 100 grams more weight than ordinary mobile phones in order to fold-look more cool? From another perspective, is the money worth it?

This is about discussing the folding form and what it means for users.

From physical keys to screen touch, from small screen to full screen. It can be found that the changes in the form of mobile phones are not only driven by appearance. In essence, people's acceptance of innovative forms stems from the ingestion of information and the improvement of interaction efficiency.

So can the folding screen do it? Judging from my feelings over the past few days, it is indeed possible.

Compared with other brands of internal folding phones, Huawei Mate X2 has a major feature that its external screen parameters are very close to ordinary phones. 6.45 inches, 2700*1160 resolution, 90Hz refresh rate, 21:9 display ratio, so that the usability of the external screen is very high.

Swipe a Weibo, reply to a WeChat, the external screen is enough. The size of the keyboard is similar to that of a normal mobile phone, so it won’t feel too crowded to adapt to it.

However, using only the external screen, it seems a bit "violent." Only by unfolding it can you enjoy the pleasure of information acquisition and the improvement of interaction efficiency.

The size of the internal screen of Huawei Mate X2 is 8 inches, and the display area is about twice that of the external screen. The increase of the screen area has enriched the information display.

Take the Fung Huashun app as an example. In the folded state, the content displayed on the external screen is basically the same as that of a normal mobile phone. But after unfolding, more information can be observed on the same interface, and the layout is more relaxed.

▲Comparison of folded and unfolded information presentation

The larger screen also brings a more shocking viewing experience. I have become accustomed to unfolding the screen when watching a video. Whether it is on the subway or at the dinner table, it has become my favorite viewing tool.

It is worth mentioning that Huawei Mate X2 has a great effect with dual speakers with carbon fiber domes. The sense of layering is obvious, the bass has both dive and texture, and the experience of listening to music or watching videos is quite good.

I did not mention the camera quality of Huawei Mate X2 above. This is because its main camera, telephoto and periscope telephoto lens, the specifications are basically the same as Mate40 Pro+. So imaging quality is nothing to worry about, a word "stable" is enough to sum it up.

Huawei Mate X2 is a "retouching artifact" for photography enthusiasts. After the mobile phone is unfolded, the P3 color gamut screen without digging holes looks particularly comfortable. The larger display area and the improvement of interactive efficiency bring a lot of convenience to the work of retouching.

▲ The repaired picture was taken by the periscope telephoto lens of Huawei Mate X2

In addition, due to the folding design of Huawei Mate X2, the rear four cameras can be used as the front. It’s very suitable to take a Vlog or do a live video broadcast. The expanded large screen is also more convenient for video editing.

In addition to watching videos and retouching pictures, my motivation for expanding my mobile phone lies in more efficient split-screen operation and a better input experience.

For example, I often browse the web while opening Graphite documents, collecting and preparing topics for the morning meeting every day.

For another example, while chatting on WeChat, while scanning Weibo. As long as I reply to the message fast enough, the other party will not know that I am not intent on chatting. You can also open two e-commerce apps at the same time to "shop around" before shopping.

Huawei Mate X2 also supports drag and drop sharing. Whether it is a picture or a file, you can drag it directly from one side to the chat box of WeChat and other applications, which is efficient and convenient.

Sometimes, even if I don't need split screen operation, I will unfold the phone to improve the efficiency of text input. The position and size of the keyboard can also be adjusted at will, which is simply a weapon for text workers.

The improvement of such interaction efficiency depends on the convenience brought by the large screen. Some people may think that these operations can be done with a tablet computer, or even better.

However, the advantage of the folding screen lies in the miniaturization and portability of the tablet computer and the integration of the mobile phone. When I go out, I don’t need to carry a bag for a tablet, and I can enjoy a tablet-like experience anytime, anywhere.

This is just like today's mobile phone photography ability is getting stronger and stronger, photography enthusiasts can take one less camera when going out, and can also record the shining moments. The integration and precision of consumer electronics must be the direction of technological development.

Will folding screens be the future of mobile phones?

I've talked about the positive experience that a lot of folding screens have brought me above, but it doesn't mean that Huawei Mate X2 is a perfect phone.

Despite the large-screen software adaptation, Huawei Mate X2 is already ahead of its peers. At the press conference, Huawei stated that it has achieved 95% large-screen adaptation for Top1000 applications. However, in terms of detailed experience, there are still many directions that can be optimized. For example, apps such as Meituan still zoom in proportionally, and apps such as WeChat do not yet support automatic rotation.

In terms of adaptation, the current system version does not currently support operations related to screen hover, which is expected to be achieved through OTA upgrade in the future.

In addition, whether it is a 256GB or 512GB version, the RAM capacity is 8GB. Sometimes there is a situation of "killing the backstage". For example, after opening the "Understanding Car Emperor" app, I opened 13 apps such as Meituan, WeChat, Enterprise WeChat, WPS, NetEase Cloud Music, etc. The first app opened at this time was "killed" in the background. .

In addition, the inner screen of Huawei Mate X2 uses a magnetron nano-optical film. Although the control of glare is excellent, the disadvantage is that it is easy to get fingerprints, which is especially obvious when the screen is off.

In terms of system, Huawei Mate X2 currently uses EMUI 11 based on Android 10. According to the information at the press conference, in April this year, Huawei Mate X2 will have priority to upgrade and experience the Hongmeng operating system.

When I used to experience folding screen phones, I always thought about what scenarios are suitable for folding screens. This time the Huawei Mate X2 gave me a different feeling. I no longer actively look for scenes, but in some scenes, I will inadvertently switch between folding and unfolding forms. The whole process is natural and easy.

During the period of using Huawei Mate X2, I have been thinking: Will folding screen mobile phones be the future of mobile phones?

I have seen fans of folding screens vying for folding screens, believing that it is the future development direction of mobile phones. However, more voices criticized the folding screen for being "flashy."

Whether it is a folding screen or the "scrolling screen" that is still in the concept stage, it essentially increases the screen size to provide more efficient interaction efficiency.

However, in the pursuit of interactive efficiency, the folding screen can only be regarded as the product of the latest technology and craftsmanship. There is no need to be too high in pursuit, and there is no need to deliberately belittle.

As for the next form of communication tools, there may be a lot of room for imagination. Just like "the horse-drawn carriage has never been replaced by a faster horse-drawn carriage, but a car."