The 5G Huawei Mate 20 X variant could feature a drastically smaller battery

Huawei currently has two 5G-ready smartphones on the way. The first (and most expensive) is the foldable Huawei Mate X which will be available in limited quantities starting this summer. But for consumers with smaller budgets the Chinese brand is also developing a 5G variant of last year’s Huawei Mate 20 X.

The regular model, for those of you that don’t already know, sports a triple-camera setup on the rear that produces impressive photos even in low-light scenarios. In addition to this, it includes Huawei’s own Kirin 980 – which is almost on par with the Snapdragon 855 in terms of performance – a minimum of 6GB of RAM, and a massive 7.2-inch OLED display which is paired with a huge 5,000mAh battery and support for 22.5W fast charging.

Until today, the 5G variant of the Huawei Mate X was expected to sport almost identical specs. But as revealed by one industry insider, support for the next-generation networks could come a pretty big cost. In fact, rather than featuring a huge 5,000mAh battery like its 4G sibling, it's claimed that the 5G model will debut with a drastically smaller 4,200mAh cell.

To compensate this 800mAh reduction slightly, the Huawei Mate 20 X 5G will apparently support Huawei’s improved 40W fast charging technology. This means that, just like the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and P30 Pro, users of the Mate 20 X’s 5G model should be able to achieve a 70% charge in just 30 minutes.

The 4,200mAh battery inside both the Mate 20 Pro and P30 Pro produces stellar battery life results, but both phones do feature significantly smaller displays – 6.4 and 6.5-inches respectively – so it’ll remain to be seen how the battery holds up against that 7.2-inch panel found on the 5G Mate 20 X. It’s also worth pointing out that 5G modems are less efficient than standard 4G LTE ones, something that will further impact battery life.