Huawei Technologies Co is supposed to put the Mate X foldable phone on the market next month, but it probably won't achieve mass production yet due to quality concerns, an industry insider said on Monday. 

"There are still concerns over the Mate X, such as unstable output, quality control and compatibility problems, and these could be barriers for the foldable phone," Xiang Ligang, a veteran industry analyst, told the Global Times.

The biggest concern is the screen, as a foldable phone's screen may start to have problems after being folded 20,000 times, and the expanded screen is good for watching videos, but not in compliance with vision in terms of the aspect ratio, Xiang said. 

"Given these issues, mass production isn't feasible. Maybe there will be hundreds of thousands of units," Xiang forecast. 

Media reported that Huawei may announce information about the phone's release date at a developer conference on Friday.

However, Huawei declined to comment when asked by the Global Times when the Mate X will hit the market.

He Gang, director of Huawei's consumer business mobile phone line, said at the end of July that the Mate X is not ready for the market. He said the company is still busy optimizing and perfecting the phone to meet demand, as it turns out that there are more challenges than anticipated. 

Compared with the high profile of Samsung's Galaxy Fold, Huawei has kept a low profile on foldable phones but moved at a fast pace.

Huawei introduced the Mate X at the Mobile World Congress held in February in London. 

Ushering in the 5G revolution with the Huawei Balong 5000 chip, the world's first 7-nanometer multi-mode 5G chipset achieves the industry-leading 5G download speed, according to the website of Huawei. 

In comparison, Samsung will begin selling its Galaxy Fold in September, resurrecting a device that it pulled months ago after early reviewers reported defects in the gadget's much-touted flexible screen, according to businesstimes.com.sg. 

Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp on Monday started selling its 5G smartphones, the first such phone model hitting the market in China, the company said on its official WeChat account.

 

Newspaper headline: Huawei’s foldable phone moves forward: insider