Huawei Mate X7 review

The competition

The Mate X7 will soon launch globally with a price tag of about €2,000 - a premium price for what looks to be a very premium foldable. If you can look past its inherent limitations, the Mate X7 is a smartphone that delivers a great user experience with a solid focus on camera performance.

Naturally, the first competitor that comes to mind is Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold7. The 256GB model is priced around €1,300 and offers similarly impressive design and screens, a solid camera kit, and more importantly - a higher performing chipset with a rich software package, including DeX and AI functions.

Honor's Magic V5 is an impressively built foldable with a thin profile and luxurious design. Not only is Magic V5 a more powerful, but it also counters Huawei's offering with a similarly great camera versatility, great screens, and superb battery life. And, yes, it's far cheaper.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 • Honor Magic V5

Our verdict

We really enjoyed our time with the Huawei Mate X7 - we loved the leather-like back, the thin profile, and the two great screens. Battery life and charging speed turned out solid, too.

The camera department was also one of the phone's highlights. The primary camera on the Mate X7 offers excellent photos and videos, and notably better performance in low-light conditions compared to the Mate X6. We only wish the white balance were a bit more consistent and that the telephoto cam's low-light performance could be optimized a bit more.

The Kirin 9030 is extracting as much performance as possible from its fabrication process. However, on a constrained node and with limited architectural headroom, any performance gains will come at the expense of higher power draw, and that's pushing the thermal limits of a thin smartphone chassis.

Pricing at launch also works against the Mate X7. As it stands, its value proposition only starts to make sense once prices come down, particularly for buyers who prioritize camera quality in a foldable over raw performance, 5G, or the latest AI features.

Pros

• Top-notch build quality, IP58/IP59-rated. Thin.
• Bright OLED screens, HDR, 120Hz.
• Great battery life, fast to charge.
• Impressive cameras, photos and videos, day and night,
• Great video stabilization.
• Improved graphics over the Mate X6.

Cons

• Expensive at launch.
• Mid-range chipset performance with heavy thermal throttling.
• No 5G.
• Basic AI features, if any.
• No Google Mobile Services out of the box, and some apps still won't work despite available workarounds.