Huawei's rumored foldable flip phone said to employ a next-generation hinge

You might not know in the face of U.S. bans against Huawei, that the company has produced two foldable phones. The Mate X and its refreshed Mate Xs version was an outward folding with a 6.6-inch primary OLED display (1148 x 2480 resolution), and a 6.38-inch secondary OLED screen (892 x 2480 resolution) on the back. When unfolded, the device offered an 8-inch tablet-sized OLED screen with a 2200 x 2480 resolution.

The Kirin 990 5G chipset was under the hood paired with 8GB of memory and 512GB of storage. The rear camera array consisted of a 40MP Wide Angle camera, 16MP Ultra Wide-Angle camera, an 8MP Telephoto with OIS, and a Time-of-Flight camera. A 4500mAh battery kept the lights on.

This past February, Huawei released the Mate X2 with an inward folding design leaving just one external display weighing in at 6.45-inches with a resolution of 1160 x 2700 and refresh rate up to 90Hz. When fully opened, the device featured an 8-inch display with a 2200 x 2480 resolution and up to a 90Hz refresh rate. Powering the sequel is the Kirin 9000, the last Kirin chipset that foundries using U.S. technology have been allowed to deliver to the manufacturer thanks to U.S. export rules put in place last year.

The Mate X2 is equipped with 8GB of memory and 256GB or 512GB of storage. The camera system includes a 50 MP Ultra Vision Camera, a 16 MP Cine Camera (Ultra-Wide Angle), a 12 MP Telephoto Camera (3x Optical Zoom), and an 8 MP SuperZoom Camera (10x Optical Zoom). A 16MP Wide-Angle selfie snapper is also included and a 4500mAh battery keeps the lights on.

Huawei's next foldable is supposedly going to be a clamshel-style flipper similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. According to a post on Weibo (via GSMArena), this new foldable will reportedly employ a next-generation hinge from Zhaoli Technology that has been  in development for some time. While the company only says that a smartphone manufacturer is about to use its new hinge, Huawei is the only name that makes sense right now.

The new hinge uses fewer parts which makes it less expensive. And despite the fact that it is considered less complicated than previous hinges, the component is more reliable than others used in the past.

While the Weibo post includes some renders, the images might not be legitimate so keep that in mind as you stare at them. The unnamed Huawei clamshell is expected to be a colorful device and when closed, it should easily fit into a pocket. When open, it will deliver a screen that will probably be in the neighborhood of 6.7-inches to match the typical flagship experience these days.

Of course, no matter how badly you might want a Huawei Mate X2 or the upcoming clamshell foldable, you cannot simply walk into a store in the U.S. and purchase one. The company has been declared a national security threat in the U.S. because of its rumored ties to the communist Chinese government. Additionally, over the years there has been concern that Huawei's handsets and networking equipment use back doors to collect private data from companies and consumers and send that info to a server in Beijing.

No matter how many times Huawei is asked about its ties to the government and possible backdoors in its products, it always denies the accusations. Currently, the company remains on the U.S. Commerce Department entity list which prevents it from accessing its U.S. supply chain, including Google, without a license. It also, as we mentioned earlier, is banned from obtaining cutting-edge chips from any foundry that builds such parts using U.S. technology.

Huawei was able to procure Snapdragon 888 chips for its photography-based P50 flagship series this year by purchasing the component without support for 5G. Huawei obtained permission from the U.S. to buy these chips because they do not offer cutting-edge 5G service.