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HUAWEI Mate 20 X hands-on: This is HUAWEI’s gaming-focused phablet (Video!)
July 10, 2025
Huaweihas announced the Mate 20 X at an event in London. The gaming phone arrives with a 7.21-inch OLED display, HUAWEI’s largest smartphone screen ever, and an optional stylus, making it a rare device in the Chinese OEM’s catalog.
The Mate 20 X features aKirin 980 chipset, triple rear camera, and dual speakers, while it’s running onAndroid Pie(with HUAWEI’s EMUI 9.0 skin). The waterdrop notch-bearing screen is even bigger than the 7.12-inch display on theHONOR 8X Max(from HUAWEI sub-brand HONOR) and is primed for media viewing and gaming. It’s coming with FHD+ resolution (2244 x 1080) and HDR.
Related:The last thing HUAWEI should do is compare the Mate 20 X with the Nintendo Switch
The large display should also befit HUAWEI’s new stylus, though this will be sold separately. We’re still waiting on more details regarding what this will offer, but it didn’t lookSamsung S Pen-standard in HUAWEI’s presentation.
Keeping the Mate 20 X going during all that gaming is a 5000mAh battery and a new, graphene-based cooling system — a first for the smartphone industry. This is said to provide superior cooling during long play sessions, which you might be in for thanks to the gamepad attachment HUAWEI is releasing with for the 20 X.
This will feature an analog stick and D-pad and will clip the left-hand side of the unit to offer better handling. HUAWEI consumer business group CEO Richard Yu noted on stage that the Mate 20 X has a larger display and double the battery life of a Nintendo Switch. It could make it the better handset to playStardew Valleyon if nothing else…
Though it has dabbled with astylus-wielding tabletand agaming-focused phonebefore, this is the first time HUAWEI has put the two ideas together. Housing this new device under the banner of possibly its most famous smartphone series indicates HUAWEI has a lot of faith in it, but we’ll have to wait for some hands-on time with to see how it performs.
Release Date
The Mate 20 X is now available in Europe for 899 euros (~$1040) for 6GB RAM and 128GB ROM. It’s comes in Midnight Blue and Phantom Silver colors, though it’s not yet clear if it will be available in any other memory configurations. In the U.S. you can get the international version on Amazon for $887.
That’s all we’ve got on theMate 20Xfor now but we should have more soon. In the meantime, let us know what you think of HUAWEI’s new gaming phone in the comments.
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