Huawei’s Mate X7 might be the new foldable to beat – but a big question mark remains

Huawei has announced its brand-new flagship foldable phone in the form of the Mate X7.

As a successor to the beautifully engineered Huawei Mate X6, it appears to be ticking all the right boxes, with a focus on improved durability and enhanced photography. But will it be the new best foldable phone you can buy?

Here’s what Huawei announced with its new foldable, plus several interesting products that launched alongside it.

Huawei Mate X7 camera

The big pitch with the Huawei Mate X7 seems to be photography. Apparently, it will be the company’s first slim-profile foldable smartphone with the same level of imaging capabilities as its flagship phones.

Huawei has packed in a 50Mp 1/1.28-inch Ultra Lighting HDR Camera, which can apparently take in twice the amount of light as the iPhone 17 Pro Max. It also features a 10-stage adjustable physical aperture.

This is accompanied by a 40Mp ultra-wide and 50Mo telephoto macro camera. All three sensors are backed up by a separate upgraded second-gen ‘True-to-Color Camera’ that provides 43% improved colour accuracy.

Huawei Mate X7 design

All this is stashed in a 235g, 9.5mm-thin foldable form factor. It doesn’t dip below the magic 9mm mark, like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Honor Magic V5, but it beats the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

Huawei seems to be going for robustness here, with an outer display made of ‘Ultra Durable Crystal Armor Kunlun Glass’ and a triple-layer ‘Composite Ultra-Tough Structure’ that’s supposedly twice as resistant to bending and 20% more impact-resistant. The new Advanced Precision Hinge is said to be much tougher, too.

This is Huawei’s most water-resistant foldable, too, with both IP59 and IP58 certification, though not quite the IP68 of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

Huawei Mate X7 display and battery

There’s an 8-inch 2416 x 2210 inner display with a 2,500 nit peak brightness. It’s an LTPO panel with a refresh rate that scales from 1 to 120Hz.

The outer display is a 6.49-inch LTPO OLED with a 2,44 x 1,080 (FHD+) resolution, a 3,000 nit peak brightness, and a 120Hz top refresh rate.

The battery will either be 5,600mAh or 5,300mAh. We’re getting conflicting information from Huawei on this one, but either would be an advance on the Mate X6’s 5,110mAh battery. There’s 66W wired and 50W wireless charging, too.

Huawei Mate X7 performance and availability

Huawei hasn’t focused too hard on the processor in any of its press materials, and that’s because it’s the Kirin 9030 Pro, which is fairly limited compared to the MediaTek and Qualcomm competition as a result of US sanctions.

What it does shout about is its “SuperCool Ultra-Large VC & Graphene Heat Dissipation System” – a 3,550 mm² vapour chamber that Huawei claims keeps everything ticking along evenly. Given that the Kirin 9030 Pro is built using a less efficient 6nm process, that should come in useful.

It seems availability for the Huawei Mate X7 will be limited, as it was for the company’s previous foldable. It’s apparently headed for European markets (in Nebula Red and Black), but not here in the UK. Given these impressive specs, that’s a real shame.

Huawei FreeClip 2, MatePad 11.5 S, and WiFi Mesh X3 Pro

Huawei has also announced a trio of other devices: the Huawei FreeClip 2 earbuds, the MatePad 11.5 S tablet, and the WiFi Mesh X3 Pro router.

The Huawei FreeClip 2 supplies a lightweight open-ear form factor, dual-driver, three-mic call noise cancellation, and IP57 certification. It’ll be available in the UK from 21 January for £179.99.

The Huawei MatePad 11.5 S offers a crisp and glare-free PaperMatte Display, as well as bundling in an M-Pencil Pro stylus and a magnetic keyboard. You’ll be able to buy it from 15 January for £349.99.

Then there’s the WiFi Mesh X3 Pro, with its “fashionable and functional” design, which looks more like an ornament than a tech device. It boasts Wi-Fi 7 support and its dual-band peak speeds of 3.6 Gbps.

There’s a new Huawei Watch Ultimate Design, too, with a snazzy purple ceramic bezel with 18K gold inlay design and a bunch of features tailored for deep-sea divers. That’s going to cost you a double-take-inducing £2999.99 when it hits the UK on 15 January.