Huawei Mate X7 review: the best foldable, but one I can't recommend without reservations

I am a self-declared foldable fan, and until now I was always willing to compromise on camera and battery. The Huawei Mate X7 has destroyed that willingness to compromise. I say: it is the best foldable on the market, and still I can’t recommend it without reservations.

Design: slim, elegant, well built

Like its predecessor, the Mate X6, the Mate X7 is slim, elegant and very well built. I find the color Nebula Red overly elegant, and there is a matching case with a stand. The outer display measures 6.49 inches and is a perfectly normal usable smartphone, and unfolded it is 8 inches, so a small tablet.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 looks thinner at first glance. In fact, it is only 0.3 mm when unfolded and 0.6 mm when folded. The Mate X7 has a rounded frame, while the Z Fold 7 has a completely flat-edged one. The Mate X7 is also heavier, but you only notice that when you hold both at the same time. The Z Fold 7 weighs 215 g.

Battery: 5,300 mAh versus 4,400 mAh

The battery is what really matters. The Z Fold 7 has a frugal 4,400 mAh, and the Mate X7 has a 5,300 mAh silicon-carbon battery. The extra hours make a clear difference in use, especially if you are out and about a lot and don’t always have an outlet.

Camera: by far the best among foldables

The camera makes the difference compared to all other foldables available in Germany. It is by far the best of them all.

• Main camera: 50 megapixels with a very large 1/1.28-inch sensor and a physically adjustable aperture. Where other manufacturers trick with software, the Mate X7 offers hardware like a professional camera.
• Macro telephoto: My highlight is the 50-megapixel macro telephoto camera with 3.5x optical zoom. Zoomed photos keep their quality, and for macro shots it is gigantic, for photos and for videos. Videos with the 3.5x optical zoom have a strong bokeh effect and are apparently stabilized by the software. Normally you can throw away videos at 3.5x magnification, but not with the Mate X7.
• Ultra-wide: 40 megapixels, also takes really good shots.

I was especially impressed by the low-light shots in a direct comparison with the Z Fold 7. I was always happy with my Z Fold 7, but after the Mate X7 I wouldn’t use any other foldable anymore, if it weren’t for a few catches.

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The criticisms

Google services: If you want to use them, you download the Aurora Store from AppGallery and sign in there with your Google account via MicroG. I wouldn’t shy away from that; it’s super easy, you are guided through everything, and it’s done in less than 2 minutes. Then you have access to the Google Play Store and services such as Chrome, Drive, Maps and YouTube. Even Gemini works flawlessly. A few things don’t work, though:

1. YouTube downloads: Saving videos offline didn’t work on my last flight. When I retested in airplane mode, it worked. I don’t know why it failed at the airport, maybe it was because of the hotspot of my other smartphone. The odds seem to be 50-50, so try it yourself.
2. Contacts sync: Syncing contacts with my Google account used to work, but now it doesn’t, not even with the additional plugin. I now use the Outlook app to access my contacts. That is super cumbersome.
3. Google Wallet: Doesn’t work, so I pay through the PayPal app.
4. 5G: You have to do without it.

Otherwise, everything runs like clockwork.

Price: €2,099 recommended retail price (RRP), with 512 GB of storage and 16 GB of RAM. That is €100 more than the Z Fold 7 with the same storage size, which, however, only has 12 GB of RAM. In a store, I have already seen the Mate X7 for just under €1,800, and there are surely even cheaper deals here and there. Even so, with the hassle of the Google services and without 5G, you need quite some confidence for this price. Huawei apparently draws it from the brutally good camera and the bigger battery.

Who is the Mate X7 worth it for?

If you value camera and battery and have no problem with the workaround or deliberately don’t want to use Google services, I can only recommend the Mate X7 wholeheartedly. It’s a knockout. If camera and battery aren’t that important to you and you simply want a solid foldable, you are better off with Samsung, Google and Honor.