With more users shifting to mobile devices to play games, smartphone makers have increased their efforts to woo such gamers. Asus recently announced that its gaming phone will be up for preorder soon in the U.S. Now Huawei has announced a gaming phone of its own: the Mate 20X.
Mate 20X will be Huawei’s first gaming phone
Huawei is scheduled to launch the much-anticipated Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro on Oct. 16. Now the Chinese smartphone maker has also announced that it will unveil its gaming phone on the same day. Huawei also released a teaser for the Mate 20X, suggesting it will be cool enough to withstand intense gaming sessions and will offer a long battery life.
In the heat of battle, stay cool with #HUAWEIMate20X. 16.10.18 #HigherIntelligence #UltimatePerformance pic.twitter.com/bZeRKhnOC3
— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) October 8, 2018
As of now, there are no more details on the Mate 20X. However, it is expected that Huawei’s gaming phone will have a bigger display than the other two Mate 20 phones, possibly a 7.21-inch OLED screen. It’s expected to boast a resolution of 2240 x 1080.
Like the other two handsets, the Mate 20X will also likely feature the Kirin 980 SoC. It could also come with up to 8 GB of RAM and more storage options, possibly up to 512 GB. The gaming phone could also have Huawei’s GPU Turbo technology.
The 128 GB Mate 20 is expected to cost about $806, while the Pro variant could carry a $1,100 price tag. The Mate 20X may get a higher price tag due to its bigger screen. However, Huawei may also trim some other features to make it more affordable despite the larger display. The Mate 20X will be the first Huawei-branded gaming phone, although the company has long been offering gaming phones under its Honor brand.
ROG Phone preorders to start soon
Asus’ gaming phone, referred to as the ROG Phone, is coming to the U.S. soon as well. The phone was first showcased at Computex earlier this year, and it will be available for preorder on Oct. 18. Buyers can preorder the phone through the Asus Store, Amazon and Microsoft. One can also buy the phone from the Microsoft Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City, where it will officially be launched. Shipping details haven’t been revealed yet.
The ROG Phone is powered by a 2.96GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and the gaming-optimized Adreno 630 graphics chip. The handset sports a 6-inch 2,160 x 1,080 AMOLED screen with a 90 Hz refresh rate. It comes with 8 GB of RAM in 128 GB and 512 GB storage options and a 4,000 mAh battery.
To withstand long gaming sessions, the handset features Asus’ vapor-chamber cooling system. It also has a detachable AeroActive Cooler, which can be connected to the phone via a USB-C port. The gaming phone has an 8-megapixel selfie camera and a dual-lens rear camera with 12-megapixel and 8-megapixel lenses.
Accessories for the phone will come later this year, but the company has announced their pricing. The Mobile Desktop Dock will cost $229.99; the TwinView Dock will be $399.99; the Gamevice Controller costs $89.99; the WiGig Dock will sell for $329.99; the ROG phone case will sell for $59.99; and the Asus Professional Dock is priced at $119.99.
The 512 GB variant of the phone will set you back $1,099. If you buy a few accessories as well, the total cost could match the price of a decent gaming PC. The 128 GB model costs $899.
Kirin 980 SoC claimed to be the best
Huawei has been claiming the Kirin 980 SoC will be better than Apple’s A12 chipset, which is powering the latest iPhones. Though the Kirin 980 has yet to go public, leaked benchmarking scores show it fails to overtake Apple’s A12 chipset. However, the Huawei Mate 20 with Kirin 980 surpassed other Android phones by a noticeable margin.
Huawei’s Mate 20 scored 3,390 points on a single core test at Geekbench. In the multi-core test, the handset scored 1,0318 points. Huawei’s Kirin 980 surpassed not only the Kirin 970, but also the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. Similarly, in AnTuTu benchmarks, the Kirin 980 bagged 356,918 points, well above the Snapdragon Galaxy Note 9, which is powered by the Snapdragon 845.
Huawei announced the Kirin 980 SoC at IFA 2018. The Chinese company claims it is the first commercial 7nm system-on-chip (SoC) which comes with AI capabilities. The 7nm process offers better SoC performance and is 40% more efficient than the 10nm process.
