Huawei Mate X tipped to get major camera and power upgrade before release

The Huawei Mate X foldable phone launch has been delayed several times since we first saw it in February, with November currently the likely date according to an exclusive TechRadar report – you'd be right, therefore, in thinking it could be a little out-of-date when it eventually launches, but it seems like Huawei has a solution.

That's according to Neowin, who got hands-on with the Huawei Mate X recently, only to discover that it wasn't exactly the same device that Huawei unveiled to the world earlier in 2019. It's seen a few spec upgrades, to bring it up to speed with 2019's tech.

The most important change in the new Huawei Mate X is the camera array. Previously the foldable phone had camera specs on par with the Huawei Mate 20, but now it seems it has the snappers from the Huawei P30 instead.

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That means it'll have a main sensor of 40MP instead of 12MP, and the 8MP telephoto lens will be bigger with a smaller aperture. The 16MP wide-angle shooter is the same in both phones, though. The main sensor will also be RYYB instead of RGB, which in short makes it much better at 'seeing' in low light conditions, as well as taking snaps of vivid colors.

A Mate X test model snapped at an airport in July clued us in on the fact Huawei may be changing the device's camera array from what we saw originally, but the device pictured seemed to have more lenses than this Mate X – it's possible Huawei considered using the P30 Pro camera array before sticking with what it's currently using.

The other key change to the Huawei Mate X is that it's now said to run on the Kirin 990 chipset. This processor hasn't actually been announced yet, as we're expecting it to debut in the Huawei Mate 30 range, so we don't know exactly what upgrades this chipset will bring.

However what we do know is that, by putting its most advanced chipset in the device, Huawei is future-proofing its device a little further, and ensuring it lasts longer – which you'd expect thanks to its exorbitant price.

We're expecting the Huawei Mate 30 range to launch in October, before the Mate X, so it's likely the upcoming range of smartphones helps shine a light on what this new-and-improved foldable can do. It's also possible that Huawei launches the foldable with the 'rigid' phones – but highly unlikely.