Huawei's Mate X2 is a new generation foldable from the company that turns the older Mate X on its head - or rather, inside out. 

Whereas the Mate X (and revised Xs version) had the foldable display on the outside, the Mate X2 folds its 8-inch, 2,480 x 2,200 pixel display (413ppi, 8:7.1 aspect ratio) inwards (like Samsung's Galaxy Fold series) but also has a full-size 6.45-inch OLED 21:9 display plus dual cut-out cameras on the 'front' of the phone when it is folded. 

That means it can act more like a standard smartphone when closed up than other foldables we've previously seen that compromise on their front displays. A newly-designed 'nano-optical' layer minimises reflections.

Each half of the display is a wedge shape, meaning the two halves fold together thanks to a 'multi-dimensional hinge' that Huawei says it has worked on for five years. The hinge is pretty clever and creates a water drop-shaped cavity for stowing the display when the phone is folded, meaning there's virtually no gap when it's closed up. 

When unfolded, the display is 4.4mm thick at its thinnest point, though notably we don't have information on the phone's overall thickness when closed as yet. 

Huawei's Mate X2 is a new foldable phone that's just as usable when it's closed photo 2
Huawei

The phone is a 5G model as you'd expect, built on top of Huawei's own 5nm Kirin 9000 platform. There's a 2,100 mAh battery and quad camera on the rear - as usual, featuring Leica tech. The array includes a 50 megapixel wide lens, 10x telephoto and a 16 megapixel ultrawide. 

One very interesting detail is that the Mate X2 can have Huawei's own Harmony OS installed instead of the company's usual EMUI interface running on top of Android. Huawei says it has worked hard to improve the multitasking features in EMUI for the new device, including new transition effects.  

The Huawei Mate X2 is available in China initially in 256 and 512GB versions and will cost RMB 17,999 or 18,999, starting at the equivalent of $2,785 or £1,985.