Huawei was one of the first manufacturers to offer a foldable phone, and the company’s latest bendy device has been introduced in the brand's home country. The device is called the Mate Xs 2, and it is currently limited to China, but we may see it launch in other markets later. It’s a refined version of the Mate Xs, and while the differences aren’t super apparent at first glance, this looks to be an exciting addition to the foldable phone market.

Don’t confuse this with the Huawei Mate X2 launched in early 2021 with an inward folding screen. Instead, this is a follow-up to the company’s outward-folding design handsets. Quietly, Huawei has become one of the most prolific foldable phone makers, with as many choices as Samsung right now. They're just not as easy to buy as Samsung's Fold or Flip series.

The Mate Xs 2 features the same outward-folding design as its predecessor, but this time it features a 7.8-inch OLED display when you unfurl it. It has a resolution of 2,480 x 2,200, while on the inside, you’ll find a 6.5-inch 19:9 aspect ratio screen. Huawei claims its new hinge technology means it doesn’t leave a visible crease on display, and so far, the marketing materials make that clear. We'll want to try the device before knowing for sure that it isn't visible.

The camera is remarkably different on this model with a 50MP f/1.8 primary shooter, an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and a 12MP 120-degree field-of-view ultrawide camera. The selfie camera on this handset is on the main display, so you can use it when you’ve unfurled the larger screen. It’s a 10MP f/2.2 punch-hole in the top right-hand corner of the display.

Other specs include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 4G chipset inside with the choice of either 8GB or 12GB of RAM. The former model comes with 256GB of storage and a 4,600mAh battery, while the latter comes with 512GB of storage and a larger 4,880mAh battery. Both phones feature 66W charging, and there are no wireless charging features.

As is often the case with Huawei handsets, this phone doesn’t feature 5G connectivity. That’s owing to trade restrictions colloquially known as the Huawei ban, which also affected the company’s use of Google Mobile Services. This handset features the company’s own Harmony OS 2 software, too.

In China, the Mate Xs 2 is cheaper than its previous handsets, with the lowest spec model costing 9,999 Yuan, which translates to around $1,500. Even the highest spec model comes in at under $2,000, far less than the cheapest version of the original Mate Xs that sold for around $2,500. It’s unlikely we’ll see this phone in many other markets, but Huawei did sell the original Mate Xs in the UK and other parts of Europe. We could see this handset make its way outside China, but it’s improbable it’ll ever come to the US.