Huawei this week delayed its first foldable smartphone … again. The Chinese company says there is “no possibility” of the Mate X making its debut in September.
The exciting new handset was originally scheduled to launch in June. Huawei pushed back its launch and admitted it was taking a “cautious” approach after Samsung’s struggled with the Fold.
Foldable smartphones were shaping up to be an interesting peek at the future of mobile devices. But it seems every manufacturer working on one has run into issues with their first crop of devices.
None more so than Samsung, which actually starting issuing Galaxy Fold units to reviewers before realizing there was a major design issue with its foldable screen that had been missed earlier.
Huawei wants to ensure a slip-up like this doesn’t happen, so it is delaying the Mate X for a second time.
Mate X may arrive in November
The company told TechRadar at a recent press event that there is “no possibility” of the device arriving in September as promised.
A reason for the delay wasn’t given, so we do know if Huawei is simply spending more time on testing to ensure that problems with the Mate X don’t occur when it starts shipping to consumers, or if it has already identified some issues and is now working to fix them.
There is a possibility the problems Huawei has run into with crucial partners like ARM and Google — thanks to being blacklisted by the U.S. government — has something to do with it.
Huawei issues statement
Huawei contacted TechRadar after its original report was published to say that the “Mate X is still scheduled for launch between September and November 2019.”
That’s a lot less specific than the “September” launch we were given in June, so it’s certainly looking like fans will have to wait longer to get their hands on the device.
The original source of the story said the Mate X won’t be appearing until November at the earliest. However, Huawei is determined to start shipping it before the end of the year.
