A Huawei Mate X user takes a photo on Wednesday. Photo: Courtesy of Huawei

Game lovers can now play Honor of Kings, a popular online game, on a larger screen and enjoy immersive experiences. Online shoppers can also browse multiple products simultaneously on e-commerce platforms like Alibaba's Taobao marketplace, improving the ease of item comparison. These possibilities became a reality with the launch of the Huawei Mate X.  

The launch of the latest 5G foldable phone from the Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies on Wednesday has aroused public interest in 5G smartphones. Major domestic vendors have begun rushing to offer gadgets capable of operating under the new cellular network, and have pledged to launch more products in the upcoming months. 

China, the world's largest telecommunications market, has been rolling out 5G services over the past year as the promising next generation of wireless technology could empower industries with its ultra-fast speed and low latency. 

Although various 5G smartphones have already entered the market, the network's services have not yet been popularized, according to industry representatives. 

According to a survey conducted on China's Twitter-like Weibo on Wednesday, nearly 80 percent of participants still hold a "wait-and-see" attitude when it comes to buying a 5G phone, while only 22 percent said they would follow the trend. Roughly 21,000 people took part in the survey. 

In the first nine months of 2019, a total of 287 million smartphone units were shipped, down 5.7 percent from the same period of 2018. This figure included 787,000 5G units, reflecting tepid growth, according to media reports, citing a report from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

The Mate X 5G, which is now available for purchase, is widely seen as a major rival to the Samsung Galaxy Ford. It is made not only for today's 5G, but also for 5G of the future, as it can provide the fastest speeds, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer division, was quoted as saying in media reports on Wednesday. 

The tech giant also announced that it was beginning sales of the Huawei Mate 30 5G and the Huawei Mate 30 Pro 5G, truly launching the era of 5G in China's consumption arena, according to analysts. 

5G accelerated 

With a Kirin 990 processor and built-in 5G support, the Mate X 5G supports standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) 5G modes, Huawei said. Empowered by faster CPU clusters and two large NPU cores, it can achieve a faster performance thanks to higher bandwidth speeds. 

Three Chinese telecom carriers will begin to offer 5G packages in November, and other smartphone vendors like OPPO and vivo will also launch 5G phone products in the fourth quarter of 2019. 

Honor, a smartphone brand owned by Huawei that targets young consumers, is also expected to release the V30 and Honor V30 Pro products with 5G support in November, media reported on Wednesday. It will support both SA and NSA 5G standards. 

"It is forecasted that Chinese market will see sales of 5G phones reach about 3 million units this year, which will be boosted early next year," said James Yan, a Beijing-based research director at Counterpoint. 

From February to March in 2020, chipmakers like HiSilicon and Qualcomm will put their chipsets into the market, which will accelerate the sale of 5G end products, the analyst said. 

Regarding the potentially overheated 5G consumer market, industry representatives said it still needs time for products to become more mature. 

"The concept is heated, not the product, as the level of maturity is not high enough," Zhao Ming, head of Honor, was quoted to have said in media reports on Tuesday. 

The sales of 5G smartphones in the domestic market will surge in 2020 to 100 million units, he said.  

Time to switch?  

While more 5G smartphones will soon be available in the market, some Chinese consumers said they were still hesitant to switch to such phones at this time. 

"If you live in first and second-tier cities, you may consider buying one given the coverage of the 5G signal," said an online user on China's Quora-like Zhihu.

Before the three Chinese carriers unveil their 5G packages, the number of subscribers who made reservations for 5G services has already reached 10 million, showing full commercialization could be seen within a year. 

"When the construction of more 5G base stations is completed, and prices of 5G phones lower, 2020 will be the year of full-scale development for the next generation of wireless technologies," Jia Mo, an analyst at Canalys, told the Global Times. There have been 17 5G products launched in the Chinese market so far. 

Overall, 5G smartphones need to be cheaper and of enhanced quality, though it is expected that costs will be lifted after March 2019, Fu Liang, a veteran industry analyst, wrote in a research note published on Wednesday. "If you are not in rush, you may wait until then," he said.