Huawei has trouble sourcing 5G components due to the trade war with the US, so the company has taken to re-releasing some of its existing 5G phones as 4G-only models. The latest to take the plunge is the foldable Huawei Mate X2. The 4G model went on sale in China for the first time today at 10:08 local time. Besides dropping the 5G connectivity, the phone is almost unchanged - it still uses a Kirin 9000 chipset, for example (the 4G version of it, anyway).
There is a small price cut involved too, though it barely makes a scratch on the CNY 17,800 price tag of the Mate X2 5G. The 4G version costs CNY 17,500 on Vmall, that converts to US$ 2,710/€ 2,275. The CNY 300 price difference (US$ 46 or so) isn’t really noticeable at this scale. Anyway, connectivity is not the only thing that changed on the Mate X2 4G. Huawei took the opportunity to preload Harmony OS 2.0 on the phone, instead of having it launch with Android 10 as the 5G model did (which is one of the first to get Harmony over the air).
It’s not just the foldable phone either, a few days ago Huawei launched 4G versions of the Mate 40 Pro, Mate 40E and nova8 Pro, all of which originally began life as 5G phones with Android. Yes, the OS was swapped for Harmony on these models as well. They went up on store shelves a few days ago.
You can still order a Huawei Mate X2 4G from Chinese retailers, though shipping dates have slipped to July 11. It’s not clear if any of these models will be sold abroad.
