Huawei has a new folding smartphone heading to market in the next couple of weeks. The Huawei Pocket S was originally known as the ‘Huawei P50 Pocket New’, before the Chinese company made the device — and its launch date — official.
The official launch is on 2 November for the Chinese market. If the folding Huawei Pocket S follows the pattern set by the P50 Pocket’s launch in 2020, other markets (like South Africa) will see it around April 2023. For now, though, it’s confined to China.
Pick a Pocket S
Huawei Pocket S teaser pic.twitter.com/sIL8VfQB0Q
— Deng Li (@MrDengLi) October 24, 2022
But what exactly is the Huawei Pocket S? Most sources agree that it’s a version of the P50 Pocket, the company’s clamshell folding smartphone that borrows some design inspiration from Samsung’s Galaxy Flip series. But there’s one serious difference.
A leak to TENAA, the Chinese certification agency (a bit like ICASA), shows that this folding phone lacks a second screen. That’s one reason why the Pocket S is expected to be cheaper than its predecessor. However, the official teaser for the pending device doesn’t give the game away at all. If you want to confirm exactly what Huawei’s new folding phone looks like, you’ll have to check out the launch.
It’ll apparently feature a 120Hz folding display, a Snapdragon 778G processor (which will almost certainly be the LTE version of the chip), and will arrive in 256GB and 512GB flavours. HarmonyOS 3 is installed, and Huawei’s packing in its XMAGE imaging software. Camera info is a mystery, at least for now.
In terms of pricing, the handset is expected to launch at around R12,650 over in the Chinese market. This makes sense. The S is a step down from the folding P50 in just about every department. We’re expecting the same from the cameras in this one as well. Still, owning a folding smartphone without needing to rob a bank could make the reduced spec worth putting up with.