After months of radio silence, it looks like foldable phones are back in the spotlight this week — just a few days ago there were reports that Samsung was working on a second foldable phone, despite their Galaxy Fold being put on indefinite hold.
And now, the folks at Huawei have assured customers that despite the recent US ban, the Mate X will still ship with Android OS.
Revealed in an interview with TechRadar, Vincent Pang — President of Huawei’s Western European Region — explained that this was because the phone was “already announced”, and therefore does not fall under the jurisdiction of the ban.
Pang also revealed that the Mate X would be released in September “at the latest”, and reiterated that the delay (the Mate X was originally expected to be released this month) was not due to the ban, but rather Huawei waiting for 5G networks to stabilise around the world.
Considering that the Mate X is a 5G phone, it’s not outside the realm of possibility to think that Huawei would want the phone to be released in an environment where users could get the most out of their device.
On that note, Pang said The Mate X will be available in “any country that has 5G”, so we could possibly see a release in Singapore if all goes well. We haven’t had the chance to get our hands on a foldable or 5G phone so far, so it would be pretty cool to get both at the same time.
Header Image Credit: Huawei