Huawei breaks price ceiling with $2,600 folding 5G smartphone

Wonder how long the screen is going to last without "lines" appearing in the fold?

Yubaru, you are not a scientist, are you ? The foldable screen is a special kind of glass and will last as long as a handkerchief.

Whatever. This price is too expensive for me. My phone still worked. My 5G dream will have to wait for another 3-4years.

Huawei's chairman said on Sunday recent comments by U.S. President Donald Trump that the U.S. needed to get ahead in mobile communications through competition rather than seeking to block technology was "clear and correct".

Competition trumps protectionism and tariffs in many industries and markets.

Hiro, it is actually very cheap. Do you know how powerful it is ? It is like a super computer of 1980s.

I'm with Hiro on this. For me it is too expensive. Regardless of how it compares to anything else in performance I simply couldn't justify spending that money on one at this time.

One, it's a Chinese Huawei device so noooo thanks, China. And at that price heck noooo way. Why would anyone spend all that money on a device to look at Google maps and chat online?

So, let's see...

Price: Nope, not paying that much for a mobile phone!

5G: Well, that's cool, but.... where's the 5G network?!

Maker: Yeah, um, no...... Google and Apple already scare the heck out of me with their ability to track / spy on me. Huawei? No, thanks!!

But, hey, it looks nice!

Of course it's expensive now, typical early adopter tax. At first 4K TVs would also run you a month's salary but nowadays you can buy them easily for under 100,000yen. This is more about the proof of technology and eventually it will get cheaper and become a standard feature that most phones have.

 It is like a super computer of 1980s.

Bad analogy. Any smartphone would be super computer back in the 80's.

Garthgoyle, I am talking a super computer that cost you $millions to buy and another $millions to operate. Unfortunately to Japanese people, expensive or not, you are out of luck, because there is embargo against Japan, like 2000 years ago when Chinese goods were so luxury to Japanese population due to secondary status of Japan compared to Vietnam.

All things set aside, I am never, ever buying a Huawei again

The advertising force is strong with this article especially with certain posters defending every single comment about it.

Now two screens will spy on you, whilst it folds away

There really isn't much difference between 5G and 4G LTE. While the real speed is supposed to be 100x faster. Phones do not properly incorporate the technology to support the speed even if it can connect to the bandwidth. It is simply another selling point to hike up the price of the phone. Also, that price point is crazy. They wanted to be the first to beat Samsung to the market and the Samsung phone is rumored to start around $1,900.

Samsung has been working on that folding screen since 2006.

JJ Jetplane, I have two Sumsung phones to give away, if you want to be cheap.

Even more expensive than Samsung's

(Probably the same criticisms too)

Will Apple rise to the challenge and come up with a $3000 phone? Let's see.

@Akie

So you mean, that Japan didn't have access to the 2 millions dollars super computer manufactured in China, in the year AD 19. But then made available in the decade of the 1980 after the almost 2000 years long embargo was finally over? Man, those people should have been very unlucky having to wait 2000 years for a chance to get that super computer.

I'm in the market for a new computer. Likely an imac as my current one is 10 years old and whilst still going strong, can't compete with new technology requirements. I can definitely justify spending over $2,500 on a computer and accessories, but not on a phone and certainly not on a Huawei!

Belrick, Samsung makes good phones because no others make better phones, that is changing now. In 5 years, you will see a different world, very different one, and you will be different too.

I don't like these folding phones.

I do however, much like the scroll slide-out display that we saw on the Avatar Movie... now that would be super cool. You start with a small display, then pull a slider out to one side, which makes it into a much larger display platform and retracts again when not needed.

Foldable displays will consume way more power unnecessarily and pose problems for the ubiquitous Screen-guards.

I wish, people would look more towards the imagination of Sci-Fi for future devices, than mere extrapolations upon current devices. Tech these days appears to have become rather... boring.

@Yubaru

Wonder how long the screen is going to last without "lines" appearing in the fold?

It's not called lines, but crease. And yes, the Huawei Mate X has tons of crease.

@JJ Jetplane

There really isn't much difference between 5G and 4G LTE. 

There are two kinds of 5G. 

One is called Sub-6 Ghz 5G. This is indeed not much different from LTE and this is what most of world including Japan is getting.

One is called mmwave 5G. This thing is insanely fast, but the problem is that only Samsung can sell equipment for this, and only two countries are deploying this tech now, Korea and USA. Japan won't deploy its mmwave 5G network until 2025.

Yes, I want to pay $2600 for a phone with a back door. No thanks.

@bearandrodent

Yes, I want to pay $2600 for a phone with a back door. No thanks.

This will serve as a new status symbol for patriotic Chinese, so Huawei have no problem selling out 200K units that it can produce for the next 12 month. Huawei is essentially constricted by supply.

The Galaxy Fold is a bit more problematic. Samsung has a minimum production run of 1 million units that can scale to 2 million units. How will Samsung sell that many? Rich Koreans who spend top dollar(or won) can swallow about 500K units, but what about the rest? Can poor Americans pick up 500K units?

Crazy price, few will buy it and even if the price goes down by half, I think it would still be out of reach for most people. And as mentioned above, that flexible screen is always on the outside, and I doubt very much it will last. Sure a nice flashy toy to impress your friends if you can afford it but it doesn't do anything for me at all. I am very pleased my phone is built strong and waterproof. I doubt they will give you much of a guarantee.

I honestly think they will lose money on this, it will be a niche market

Thanks but no thanks.

It's a smoke screen to sidetrack masses away from the real issue of 5G global service. Truth to be told, based on facts from countries that are up and running 5G wi-fi, is bad news. NTT/Docomo is to install 5G antennas (underground) commencing March of this year.