The Mate X3 is the latest foldable smartphone from Huawei, which is the successor of the Mate Xs 2 and for the first time no longer relies on an external panel, but shifts the foldable screen to the inside, as is the case with the competition.
Huawei's smartphone relies on upscale features, but it is not quite inexpensive at 2,199 Euros (~$4,000). Find out everything about the Mate X3 in the following review.
The Huawei Mate X3 is available in black and dark green. Unlike all its predecessors, the foldable display is no longer on the outside, but moved to the inside, while an additional panel is integrated on the outside so that the Mate X3 can also be used when folded. It features a very slim design and is also the lightest foldable in the comparison field. Even when folded, it does not look too thick (H x W x D: 156.9 x 72.4 x 11.08 mm). The protruding camera hump pleases us visually and at least when folded, the Mate X3 does not wobble back and forth.
The build quality is convincing. The gaps are tight and very even. Careful twisting attempts do not affect the foldable and do not elicit any creaking. While Kunlun glass is used on the outside, which we already know from the P60 Pro the foldable panel is protected by a protective film that cannot be removed and is made up of several layers. One of them is made of a non-Newtonian, liquid material that is supposed to increase the impact resistance by four times. Huawei displays a corresponding note for handling the smartphone when setting it up (see screenshot).
The hinge has been reworked once again and is not only more durable but can also keep the folding display of the Mate X3 in a stable position continuously within a 130° angle. Furthermore, the phone is waterproof according to IPX8 and thus protected against complete and permanent submersion in fresh water. The Mate X3 is not spared from the typical folds of a foldable, but the edges close flush when folded and no unsightly gaps remain.
Huawei's Mate X3 offers 512 GB of internal storage and the additional option to expand it with a NanoMemory Card, which can hold up to 256 GB.
The USB 3.2 (Gen. 1) port supports wired image output, including desktop mode, as well as OTG. The data transfer presents itself as very fast with 391.13 MB/s in the test.
Furthermore, an IR blaster, NFC and Bluetooth 5.2 are also on board.
The Mate X3 cannot use microSD cards, but Huawei's own NanoMemory cards, which can reach a capacity of up to 256 GB.
The card reader's speed is really fast and almost completely uses the standard's possibilities (max. 90 MB/s).
The Huawei Mate X3 ships with EMUI 13.1 in Europe, which is based on Android 12. Harmony OS 3.1 is used in the Asian markets, which does not differ in terms of looks and structure. Huawei does not provide detailed information about the update supply, but it has always been good in the past. The security patches were updated on April 1, 2023 at the time of the test and are thus no longer up-to-date.
As in the past years, the Mate X3 still has to do without Google services and the corresponding apps. Huawei's own AppGallery contains many well-known apps, but major American providers like Meta, Netflix, and Disney are missing. Many of these apps can be downloaded and installed via other platforms using the Petal search, but this is anything but easy, especially for less tech-savvy users. A better alternative can be the GBox, which is easy to install and provides the Play Store and most Google services. However, this can lead to increased battery consumption, and it is not harmless in terms of data protection.
Like its predecessor, Huawei is not allowed to integrate 5G mobile in the Mate X3. Accordingly, LTE is available at best, but it has a broad frequency coverage.
Huawei's smartphone achieves fast and stable transmission rates in combination with our reference router Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000. However, it does not support Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 and thus no 6 GHz WLAN. Huawei promises the use of VHT160, which should allow data rates beyond 1 GBit/s in the 5 GHz network without problems. However, the Mate X3 did not achieve these in the test.
With broad GNSS support and an integrated barometer, the Huawei Mate X3 has the best prerequisites to guide its owner safely through unknown terrain. The Satfix is very fast and accurate even indoors.
During a short bike ride, the foldable has to face comparison with the Garmin Venu 2. The recorded route of around 10 kilometers is 90 meters shorter on the X3, but the altitude meters are almost identical. A look at the detailed route shows that Huawei's smartphone records the route well, but it is sometimes a bit off track.
Huawei's Mate X3 supports features like VoLTE and WLAN calls, but SIP account control is not implemented into the system. It can take up to two nano-SIM cards as long as one slot is not occupied by an optional memory card. The Foldable does not have an eSIM.
The voice quality is very good when held to the ear and even louder ambient noise is reliably filtered out. The speaker is also decent but reverberates a bit.
Each display of the Mate X3 has its own 8 MPix camera, both of which have an f/2.4 aperture and allow decent selfies. Videos can be recorded in Ultra HD at best, but the optics on the small display are limited to 30 FPS, while the one on the foldable panel is also capable of 60 FPS despite the identical resolution.
If you like, you can also use the main camera setup as the front camera. All you have to do is press a button in the app and the additional display then serves as a viewfinder. But especially for conventional photography, the Huawei Mate X3 can fully show its strengths and takes good pictures in daylight. Low-light pictures also turn out well, but they are a bit too reddish. The ultra wide-angle lens could have emphasized contours a bit more and the lens curvature becomes quite visible towards the edge, but it does a good job otherwise and is also responsible for macro subjects. The periscope optics allow a five-fold optical magnification, including optical image stabilization (OIS), which no other foldable smartphone offers. Digitally, even a 50x magnification is possible.
Videos can be recorded in Ultra HD with 30 or 60 FPS.
The Huawei Mate X3 has a 24-month warranty in Germany. It comes with a clear protective case that clips onto the back with the camera. A modular 66-Watt power supply is also included, as well as a matching USB cable (Type-A to Type-C), an additional protective film for the cover display, and a SIM tool.
Both capacitive touchscreens of the Huawei Mate X3 work very reliably in the test. However, the surface of the cover display is noticeably more slippery and offers less resistance to the fingers. Like the Galaxy Z Fold4, Huawei's foldable also supports active pen input for the main display, but the necessary Huawei M-Pen 2s is currently only available in Asia. However, it can be imported via AliExpress (148 euro).
A fingerprint sensor in the power button is available for biometric security. It has very good recognition rates and unlocks the X3 quickly. Face recognition can be used additionally or alternatively, but it is less secure.
The X3 is again capable of finger-touch input, supports numerous gestures and even has a senior mode on board, which can be used to adjust the display size and control the touchscreen's typing time, among other things.
The main display of the Huawei Mate X3 is now on the inside and grows minimally to 7.85 inches. It supports the HDR standards HLG, HDR10, and HDR10+. The refresh rate of the LTPO OLED panel reaches up to 120 Hz, the system dynamically adjusts this between 1 and 120 Hz, alternatively, it is possible to fix the refresh rate to 60 or 120 Hz.
The brightness has been improved compared to the Mate Xs 2 and now reaches an average of 969 cd/m2 when the ambient light sensor is active. This value remains on the same level even with an even distribution of bright and dark areas (APL18), and the brightness is not increased further even in HDR rendering. Those who prefer to adjust the brightness manually have 476 cd/m2 at their disposal.
The smaller cover display on the outside also relies on OLED technology, but it can get even brighter. While the brightness is almost identical in manual mode (max. 479 cd/m2), the smaller panel can increase a bit in the APL18 test and reaches up to 1,239 cd/m2.
OLED flickering is very similar in both displays. We measured a fairly constant 90 Hz depending on the zoom level, which could be a burn-in protection or black frame insertion. Zooming in closer, we can measure a frequency between 425 and 549 Hz at minimum display brightness. The Mate X3 uses PWM dimming with 1,440 Hz for both displays, which is considered comparatively easy on the eyes.
The analysis with Calman shows that the two displays of the Huawei Mate X3 are both well-calibrated and matched.
Outdoors, the Mate X3 remains easy to read even in sunlight and the ambient light sensors always adjust the brightness quickly.
The viewing angle stability of the foldable display remains a bit better in terms of color representation because the cover display shows a slightly warmer picture at flat viewing angles. However, this does not bother in everyday use.
The graphics calculations are handled by the integrated Adreno 730 which was the fastest GPU for Android smartphones in 2022. The Mate X3 delivers a convincing performance in the benchmarks and can often place itself at the top of the comparison field. Thus, there is more than enough performance for games and other graphics-intensive apps.
The surfaces of Huawei's Mate X3 remain cool over a large area even under constant load, although the demanding Burnout benchmark is already used in this test.
Unfortunately, the performance stability of the SoC is similarly weak. Although it remains largely stable for the first six runs of the 3DMark Wild Life stress test, it then drops sharply so that only 40% of the original performance is still available.
The two speakers of Huawei's Mate X3 provide a pleasant soundscape at medium volume, but the mids and lows are about too thin at maximum.
The USB port can be used to connect headphones and external speakers to the smartphone. Bluetooth 5.2 is available wirelessly, which supports the audio codecs SBC, AAC, LDAC and L2HC.
The power consumption measurements already show that the Mate X3's foldable display is quite energy-hungry despite LTPO. The comparatively high power consumption under load is due to the Burnout benchmark.
The 4,800 mAh battery is charged with up to 66 watts via cable, which took less than 50 minutes in the test. Up to 50 watts are possible wirelessly, and the X3 can also handle reverse wireless charging.
We first tested the battery runtimes with the foldable main display and dynamic refresh rate. In the WLAN test with adjusted display brightness (150 cd/m²), the runtime is short at less than eight hours. If you only use the cover display, you can achieve about 10.5 hours. That is more, but not a particularly good result.
Huawei's Mate X3 is technically a good foldable smartphone that can convince with bright and accurate displays that also offer PWM dimming with 1,440 Hz. In addition, Huawei provides ample memory, an IR blaster, an optional memory expansion, and a really good camera setup, but its good overall rating is reduced by the color management.
The Huawei Mate X3 will remain an exotic device. Not only the missing Google services are responsible for that, but especially the high price and the weak battery runtimes.
Despite the high price, buyers will have to put up with a few cuts: Besides 5G, the lack of support for the 6 GHz WLAN, no Google services, no eSIM support, and especially the comparatively short battery runtimes. In addition, there is an uncertain update schedule. That is a pity because the Mate X3 is the slimmest and lightest foldable so far and can convince in many other areas.
Strong alternatives are above all the Galaxy Z Fold4 but also the Honor Magic Vs.
The Mate X3 can be purchased for 2,199 Euros directly from the Huawei store but is also available from Cyberport or MediaMarkt.
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June 24, 2023 at 04:32PM
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