The Huawei Mate X7 is now an international phone. It’s available in White, Black, and this lovely Nebula Red color. You get the one configuration, but it’s a solid 16/512GB. The price is €2,099, a bit more than similar phones like the Honor Magic V5 (€1,599).
For the price, you get a solid retail experience. You get a USB-A to USB-C cable, a 66W charger, and a case with a detachable kickstand. The Nebula Red model we have here has a vegan leather finish, just like the Black model. The Brokade White model’s rear panel has a woven brocade finish, essentially a textured layer made up of tiny threads woven together.
Inside the box – a case and charger
The Huawei Mate X7 is among the prettiest foldables this year. Its sides are lightly curved, which is arguably a detriment to the ease of opening and closing, but looks nicer, somehow crafted better than the plain flat sides on a Galaxy Z Fold7.
And while the Samsung is a slimmer and lighter phone, the Huawei Mate X7 has a 30% bigger battery with much faster charging.
The cover screen is slightly bigger than on last year’s Mate X6 – it measures 6.49″ in diagonal. It’s also slightly brighter at a 3,000 nit peak brightness. It’s still covered by Huawei’s in-house Kunlun Glass 2.
The inner screen is also slightly larger at 8 inches, compared to Mate X6’s 7.93″ display. It’s an excellent panel with nearly no creases. Huawei’s hinge design is very sturdy and solid-feeling.
The Huawei Mate X7
The main 24mm shooter is seemingly the same – Huawei kept the variable aperture f/1.4-f4.0 lens. Ditto the 40MP ultrawide and 8MP dual selfies.
But the periscope zoom camera is new. It’s a 50MP sensor with an 81mm f/2.2 (3.5x) lens, which is brighter than the 90mm f/3.0 unit on the old model. We’ll assess its performance in our review, but it sounds like an improvement on paper.
The other ways in which the Huawei Mate X7 is better than the Mate X6 are the battery and the chipset. The Mate X7 adds 400mAh to the Mate X6’s 5,200mAh unit, which should translate to better endurance.
Then there’s the 6nm Kirin 9030, up from the 7nm Kirin 9020. It has a new 9-core processor with higher clock speeds across all cores, and a newer GPU. It will be interesting to compare its performance, performance-wise, to the old chip in the Mate X6.
All of that and more is coming with our full review – stay tuned!
The screens
