Huawei 5G Folding Smartphone Rumored To Debut At MWC 2019

Samsung isn't the only major smartphone OEM looking to rock a folding smartphone in the coming months. Huawei previously announced its plans to release a similar smartphone, and we're now hearing that development on the device has been completed.

According to ET News, Huawei has shown finalized prototypes to South Korean wireless carriers who will be tasked with pushing the phones to customers. In a move that will allow Huawei to one-up Samsung's Galaxy F, this folding smartphone will have integrated 5G support. In this instance, the phone will be using the company’s Balong 5G01 5G modem.

South Korea's first 5G networks are expected to light up during the first half of 2019, and the Huawei folding phone will be one of the first devices that will be able to take advantage of the ultra-fast wireless networks. Although it hasn’t been verified at this point, it’s likely that the smartphone will be powered by Huawei’s 7nm Kirin 980 SoC, which packs quite a punch with an octa-core Cortex-A76 design and Mali-G76 GPU. There are also rumors that there will support an in-display fingerprint reader (potentially embedded in the secondary display).

We don't have many other confirmed specs for the device, but it's been reported that when unfolded, there will be a large 8-inch display for users to interact with (which is said to be manufactured by Chinese firm BOE). When folded, there will be a secondary 5-inch display on the front of the smartphone. This is compared to the Galaxy F, which is confirmed to have a 7.3-inch (2152x1536) primary folding display and a 4.58-inch (1920x840) secondary display. 

We're expecting Huawei to first unveil its folding Android smartphone at next year's Mobile World Congress (MWC 2019), with a launch occurring sometime after.