HUAWEI Mate X6 True Experience: Simply The Best Foldable Phone

The HUAWEI Mate X6 has just been released, we are going to cover it in two articles. In this one, we will talk about the overall design, the performance, the imaging system, and some other system highlights. If you are into some of the hardware and technical stuff, there will also be another article, should be interesting also. Now Let’s get into the first half of the review for the HUAWEI Mate X6.

Design

First of all, HUAWEI always puts some fine textures on the back of the phone, and also, the unique camera module design has been carried over gen after gen for the last couple of years. This variant we have here is called the Nebula Gray, it looks very sophisticated and opens up your imagination. The material at the back is reinforced fiber material, the touch is smooth, and it claims to be extra tough and durable. The camera bump is designed in a balanced way, when the phone is on the table folded, it does not wobble.   

Overall, the phone weighs 239 grams, 9.85mm thick folded, and 4.6mm thick unfolded. The weight and size have not changed much I would say, but it still remains the top one when it comes to these specs.The hinge can hover at extreme angles, although nobody would use a foldable like that, but it certainly shows that the tech behind the hinge has again evolved.

The screens are basically the same size as before, and the specs are the same, with no significant changes. But the inner screen is better anti-reflective, from certain angles, you can see the screen is darker, which means in some scenarios you can be more immersive in watching content. The crease is also very well controlled, you can’t really see it in everyday use. The protective glass and the structure however, have again been tougher, we will talk about it in the other article.

There are also another two colors to choose from, the Nebula Gray is new to the collection, which could be a bit better looking.

Performance

The performance of the Mate X6 has evolved a lot, you can get very good experience in day to day use. It can run some games well, but again, it’s not suitable for running big games. As a matter of fact, almost nobody would play big games on such a device. For some daily use scenarios, it still performs very well, which we will show you later in this article. Next let’s talk about the imaging system.

Imaging

So this time, the camera system is better in many ways, and the new 1.5MP Ultra Chroma camera can help with capturing the real colors of everything, and then work with other cameras and algorithms, to produce the best photos with the most accurate colors.

I did take some photos in a beautiful little town, to mainly test the color consistency in each focal length, where I found that everything looked and felt like Christmas, all these Santa and Christmas trees just remind you again and again that the happiest time of the year is around the corner.

Then I move on to see the color consistency of all the cameras, mainly on the Original mode in the XMAGE system, For example, the red on the boxes, the beige and blue paint on the ground, the colors on these art followers, they all remain accurate and appealing to the eyes. Or the oranges and lemons in the basket, they looks all tasty in the shots under different focal lengths.

And we know that XMAGE has evolved a lot these years, and you can pretty much just press the shutter when you see something attractive. Most of the time, you can take a great photo in the Original mode, then the Vivid mode will add an extra bit of touch to it, to create some vintage feel, then the Bright mode will light up the subject, but be careful in situations like this, sometimes it will be a bit too much.

I was on a mission to see if I can find some red maple there, fortunately I found one, although it’s artificial, it still looks good. I am happy to take the Chinese painting at night, it stands out there quite, waiting for a camera to see it, and in the Vivid mode it looks the best. Overall, I prefer the photos produced in the original mode, you can also comment down below about which mode you would prefer.

For the telephoto camera, the best feature that HUAWEI has a leg in front of others, which is that you can get really close to the subject, and still be able to take micro photos. You can also shoot subject in a good distance, the details are kept well.  

Lastly, the low light filming test between the X6 and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. First I found out that in extreme low light situations, the X6 has better control in 1x and 2x, but once we zoom in to 5x, 4x for the Mate X6 in this case, iPhone still has that edge.

Then the X6 just completely dusted the iPhone, it presented the night way better, and it has better dynamic range, whether in the dark areas like the corners and the sky. Then the light box really tells them apart, X6 really kick iPhone’s butt here, it just blew me away.

So while I was taking these photos and pictures, suddenly I understood why HUAWEI embodied the technical terms in an artistic way, and it is because you really need to get out there and take photos, which will definitely make you love life more.

Daily Experience

So the Mate X6 global version is still with EMUI, jumping in between apps is buttery smooth, and you can have that classic foldable experience in note-taking, dual section in the Apps. The new feature here is the three Apps multi-tasking, you can have one app running at the biggest size, then the other two just stand by at the side, a tap will bring one of them to the front, so this makes multi-tasking very easy. Watching content on this device is also an enjoyment, the 7.93-inch screen, like other foldables, is just really good for watching videos, especially on the go.  

There are also two fun themes, one is the emoji crush, and the other is the air hoops. I will start with the air hoops, I love basketball as you may know. So while the phone is locked, you raise your hand, a ball will hover in the air, you shoot, then score, most of the time if you don’t do it too quickly, the ball always gets in, I mean of course. So this feature is actually utilizing the camera to do motion detection, you can do it both on the outer screen and the inner screen, which is fun. The other is the emoji crush, it’s like all the emojis are cramped into a box, once you move the phone, they will just roll and stake up differently, also an interesting experience.  

The battery capacity is 5110mAh, with 66W wired charging and 50W wireless charging, I can say that it can last for a day of use without any worry. The battery is actually bigger than last gen, while it’s slimmer both folded and unfolded, which makes me look at the hardware in a new way.

Verdict

This is a true experience and review of the HUAWEI Mate X6 global version. We see the big leap in the overall hardware and design, as well as the huge improvements in the cameras, that’s why you can see that the X6 is confident in showing you the internals. As a matter of fact, you can just peel the film on the outer screen and use it in whatever way you want. Also, the photography system is really amazing, we had a lot of fun taking those photos outside. Well for the system experience, still very good. 

Now we have covered a lot of devices from HUAWEI over the years, we are comfortable to say that if you really dive into the ecosystem, your life and work will be elevated a lot. Any thoughts about this Mate X6, leave them in the comment section.