Huawei will delay the release of its foldable phone, the Mate X, from June to September this year to make room for additional testing to be done to the device.
The Chinese manufacturer is cautious after what had happened to Samsung when it released its own version of a folding phone — the Galaxy Fold — to reviewers.
A Huawei spokesperson told CNBC that the company was more “cautious” after a number of the Galaxy Fold review units began to fail spectacularly — particularly the folding display — so much so that Samsung had to push back the market release of the device indefinitely.
“We don’t want to launch a product to destroy our reputation,” the spokesperson told CNBC.
Huawei was scheduled to unveil a new MateBook laptop this week at the CES Asia 2019 trade show that took place in Shanghai but had to postpone the launch due to the U.S. ban restricting American companies from doing business with the Chinese company.
While there’s no doubt that the Mate X could also be affected by the restrictions being imposed against Huawei, the company’s spokesperson said that the Mate X will run on Android because it was launched before Huawei was placed on the Entity List. He added that Huawei is “confident” it can deliver the Mate X to consumers.
