Huawei Mate X2 vs Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G: Samsung gets beat at its own foldable game

First off, the Mate X2 has the better, more refined, and more useful as a daily driver design and displays. Don't get us wrong, both foldables are still ten-ounce fatsos that are a chore to lug around, open or closed, but at least the Mate X2 halves align perfectly when closed, unlike the visible Fold 2 gap at the hinge side. 

Speaking of the hinge, Huawei has done a better job than Samsung here, simplifying its design, and making it easier to open and close with no strange noises created in the process. The new hinge design with less yet reinforced moving parts, has allowed for the least visible crease among foldable phones. 

In our Z Fold 2 review we were talking that you get used to the crease, whereas with the Mate X2 you forget there is one, as it is way more shallow than what's on Samsung's phone. This fact, and the excellent side-sloping design with perfect weight balance in the palm when opened, make the X2 the most refined and ergonomic foldable phone so far.

Moving on to the all-important display(s) part - besides a larger, 7.6" vs 8" real estate when unfurled, the Mate X2 offers a panel that is much less reflective hence easier to use outdoors than Samsung's shinier thing, thanks to a unique nanolayer that minimizes the annoying mirror reflections to under 1.5", a new phone record. 

That is three times less than what the best antireflective coatings were able to achieve so far. The Fold 2's glossier screen surface, on the other hand, is not very conducive to outdoorsy usage. These are not the Mate X2's 8" panel of BOE making only virtues, though, as it is also very color-accurate, as you can see from our display tests below, and the screen has a higher 90Hz refresh rate making scrolling and animations smoother than on the Z Fold 2.

When it comes to the external displays, there is no contest as well. Besides the higher refresh rate, the 6.5" panel of the X2 is much larger than the extremely tall and narrow 6.2-incher of the Fold. The 21:9 aspect ratio makes for one very usable daily driver, and the 8" internal display can also split in two 21:9 halves for easier multitasking. Here the Z Fold 2 has a slight edge, as it can split the internal panel in three resizable parts, instead of taking the third app out as a pop-up screen like Huawei does, but we struggled to find an application for that particular feature.

One needn't look much further than the sheer Mate X2 camera specs to deduce which phone takes the better photos, as not only does it have a big-pixel 50MP main sensor, but also both 3x telephoto and 10x periscope zoom, against the 12MP . Specs are not always everything, but in this case they are. 

Back when we did our Z Fold 2 review, we were extremely disappointed by the camera software especially in low-light conditions. Samsung has since improved things a lot via a bunch of updates but the Mate X2's superior sensors and periscope zoom can't be matched by the Fold's camera kit.

That's not to say that the Z Fold 2 can't produce pleasing results, especially in daylight but when it comes to indoor and especially zoom shots, the Mate X2 has the upper hand. Both phones allow you to take selfies with the rear camera as well, but the process is much more streamlined on the X2. It has a shutter button on the external display in that dedicated mode, whereas Samsung simply uses it as a viewfinder, and you have to contort to take a selfie with the rocker instead.