Huawei 'cautious' with its foldable device following Galaxy Fold troubles

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Here's a good one from Huawei, the Chinese manufacturer that has seen its reputation going down the drain recently thanks to the sanctions placed on it by the Trump administration: Huawei has delayed the launch of its foldable smartphone from June to September because it's “being more ‘cautious' after Samsung’s foldable device, the Galaxy Fold, began to break when tested by reviewers in April.” That's according to a report from CNBC, who were told by a Huawei spokesperson that the company doesn't “want to launch a product to destroy our reputation.”

However, while you may think Huawei is being more cautious with the hardware design of its foldable device (the Mate X), the report says the delays are a result of Huawei “doing extra testing with mobile carriers around the world and developers to make sure their apps work when the device is fully unfolded.” It just seems like the Chinese OEM has name-dropped Samsung for the sake of it, perhaps as a way of getting some brownie points by reminding people that Samsung's grand launch of its foldable phone didn't go according to plan.

Galaxy Fold's problems weren't software-related

Samsung did mess up the Galaxy Fold's launch, but it was because of a couple of hardware issues. The Fold's software experience could do with improvements, and Samsung is seemingly working hard on that front, but none of it was a part of why the Fold missed its April release. It looks like Huawei is simply using the Fold's troubles as an excuse to take extra time with its foldable device's software before putting it in the hands of consumers instead of doing so with software updates, which is what it probably planned to do until it was blacklisted by Google and other North American companies.

Sadly, while Huawei is now aiming for a September launch for its foldable device, there's still no word on when the Galaxy Fold will go on sale. Samsung hasn't been very clear with information on that front, and the latest is that the Galaxy Fold won't come out in July. Additional delay might see the Galaxy Fold and the Galaxy Note 10 hitting retail very close to each other, although we're guessing the Fold won't majorly affect Note 10 sales considering the former's $2000 price tag and lack of support for the S Pen.

Abhijeet Mishra - Editor-in-Chief

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First Samsung device: SGH-D500

Abhijeet's writing career started with guides for custom firmware for Samsung devices (including the original Galaxy S), and he moved to SamMobile in mid-2013 and worked up the ranks to Editor-in-chief. In addition to phones and mobile devices, his interests include gaming on both PC and console, PC hardware, and spending countless hours on YouTube watching videos on tech, movies, games, politics, and internet dramas.