Huawei has launched a brand new flip cellphone that upends the shape issue, opening sideways relatively than vertically to create a wider gadget with a tablet-esque facet ratio. It’s the primary Huawei cellphone to ship with out Android app compatibility, and debuts the corporate’s in-house AI assistant, Concord Intelligence — one thing the trade shouldn’t ignore, Nvidia’s CEO admits.
The Pura X appears to be like just like a Samsung Galaxy Flip or Motorola Razr when it’s closed, with a palm-sized design and a sq. cowl display beneath its triple digicam. The giveaway that one thing’s up is that the hinge is on the cellphone’s facet, not its prime — flip that and also you discover a 6.3-inch show in a 16:10 facet ratio, wider than different flip telephones and nearer to tablets in its proportions. It appears to be a method of splitting the distinction between flip telephones and bigger book-style foldables.
That is additionally the primary Huawei cellphone to depart Android behind for good. It runs the brand new HarmonyOS Subsequent, which doesn’t use Android Open Supply Venture code and isn’t suitable with Android apps. The OS launched in November 2024 alongside the Mate 70 collection, however homeowners of these telephones got a selection between Subsequent or the Android-based HarmonyOS, whereas the Pura X is simply accessible with the brand new software program.
The Pura X can be the primary cellphone to ship with Concord Intelligence, an AI assistant based mostly on Huawei’s in-house Pangu mannequin and enhanced by DeepSeek. Huawei can be creating its personal in-house Ascend AI chips, and this week Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admitted that Huawei’s “presence in AI is rising each single 12 months,” including that “We are able to’t assume that they aren’t going to be an element.” He additionally famous that US commerce restrictions on the corporate have “carried out poorly,” calling Huawei “the only most formidable expertise firm in China.”
The Pura X is simply accessible in China for now, the place it begins at 7,499 yuan (round $1,037). Early teasers for the Pura X highlighting its wider facet ratio seemed that it is likely to be Huawei’s first business rollable cellphone. Lenovo has confirmed that its rollable laptop computer will go on sale this 12 months, however the look forward to a rolling cellphone continues.
