The Huawei Mate X6 looks like a huge step forward for foldable phone photography, and I’m annoyed that I probably won’t be able to get one jamie.richards@futurenet.com (Jamie Richards) | usagoldmines.com

• Huawei has revealed the Mate X6 folding phone
• The main camera has 10 manually selectable aperture stops
• Unlikely to be available in the US or UK

Huawei has revealed the Mate X6, the latest addition to its Mate X line of booklet-style foldables, with a major focus on photography.

The phone comes equipped with a 50MP main camera with an impressive 10 physical aperture stops, allowing users to determine the depth of field and light intake of the camera manually. That’s a step up from even the best camera phones – think Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro – which almost always have a fixed aperture.

The camera system also features a 40MP ultra-wide camera and a 48MP telephoto camera with 4x optical zoom and a 5cm super macro mode.

As a folding phone, the Mate X6 boasts a 6.45-inch 1080 x 2440 external screen and a 7.93-inch 2240 x 2440 internal screen, both of which are OLED panels. A new multitasking feature allows users to run three apps simultaneously.

We’re still waiting for details on the internals of the new device, but we do know that the phone’s heat dissipation area has increased by 30% thanks to the use of new, cooler materials such as graphene.

However, even if we did have the internal specs of the Mate X6, it’s unlikely they’d be of much use – Huawei hasn’t sold phones in the US for years due to a legislative ban, and the company is currently absent from the UK market.

This would make the Mate X6 the second especially innovative foldable released by Huawei in recent memory. The Mate XT tri-fold device, for instance, arrived in September 2024 and made huge waves with audiences and commentators despite only being available in China (that said, we’ll be publishing our own hands-on review of the device very soon).

The Huawei Mate X6 is available in three colors: Nebula Gray, Nebula Red, and Black, with the Nebula colors featuring a textured exterior. Regional availability beyond Europe – where the phone will begin shipping for €1,999 on January 6 – has yet to be confirmed.

For the latest official updates as we hear them, be sure to keep up with our dedicated Huawei phones coverage, as well as our more general phones coverage.

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