Huawei Mate X's Super Fast Charging Is Exclusive: Here’s Why

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Huawei's foldable Mate X can charge a dead battery to 85 percent in 30 minutes, but Huawei says that technology isn't coming to other phones.

The Huawei Mate X is a beautiful foldable. It also has some amazing specs, including a 4500mAh battery that will charge from 0 to 85 percent in just 30 minutes. But sadly, that fast-charging feature isn’t going to find its way to any standard phones that go for less than the Mate X’s $2,600 asking price any time soon.

The Mate X uses two batteries to power the foldable phone. (Credit: Huawei)

(Image credit: The Mate X uses two batteries to power the foldable phone. (Credit: Huawei))

For reference, the charging rate of the Mate X is 600 percent faster than the iPhone XS Max. In 10 minutes, the Mate X is capable of charging one third of its power capacity.

MORE: All the Incoming Foldable Phones

There’s a technical reason why Huawei is keeping things exclusive. The company says that it can achieve that speed — compared to the usual 40W fast charging of its current flagships — because the Mate X has two batteries instead of one.

But that kind of sounds iffy to me. If that’s the case, why not use two batteries instead of one in the other phones to get the same speed?

Credit: Tom's Guide

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The Huawei Mate X runs on a Kirin 970 processor with 8GB of RAM and half a gigabyte of storage. It comes with an 8-inch foldable AMOLED panel, a 5G modem, double selfie cameras, and wide, ultra-wide, and telephone lens co-developed with Leica to match 40MP, 16MP, and 8MP sensors. Adding to the impressive specs, the dual battery and fast charging is one of the many reasons why it beats the Galaxy Fold.

Jesus Diaz
Jesus Diaz

Jesus Diaz founded the new Sploid for Gawker Media after seven years working at Gizmodo, where he helmed the lost-in-a-bar iPhone 4 story and wrote old angry man rants, among other things. He's a creative director, screenwriter, and producer at The Magic Sauce, and currently writes for Fast Company and Tom's Guide.