Huawei’s newly-announced folding Mate X2 will launch on 22 February

Huawei’s smartphone woes are far from over but the company is putting on a brave face. Case in point: The announcement of the new Mate X2, Huawei’s next folding smartphone.

Announced on Chinese social media platform Weibo, we’ve got a weirdly ambiguous look at what the Mate X2 will look like. More on that in a second, though. We also know when it’ll be revealed — 22 February this year.

What’s better than a Mate? A Mate X2, of course

But, beyond the official date, there’s little the company is giving away. The launch takes place in China, with the lack of an English-language announcement suggesting availability will be in Huawei’s home country only, at least for a while.

The teaser image is also deceptively designed. The Huawei Mate Xs, the last iteration of the company’s folding hardware, folded around its hinge. The image above suggests a similar design to the Galaxy Fold 2, down to the little raised section in the corner — if it’s closing towards the viewer. If you look at the image another way, the Mate X2 folds like PacMan chomping on Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. It depends on whether we’re looking at the inner crease or the spine of the phone. Like we said, ambiguous.

There are also questions about the phone’s hardware. Huawei’s had its supplies cut off in all sorts of ways, so we’d expect this one to launch mostly with Huawei’s own hardware inside. The company’s Kirin 9000 processor is expected, but it’ll likely use Google-less Android or Huawei’s HarmonyOS as its operating operating system. Everything else? That’ll probably be a surprise — but in a good (though expensive) way.