In the increasingly crowded midrange phone market, the Motorola Moto Z3 is under more pressure to stand out. And it does, thanks to its respectable (if slightly dated) specs and Motorola’s signature Mods add-ons – all for under $500. 

Admittedly, this review is late – the Moto Z3 officially launched in August 2018 – but the phone has a curious advantage that makes it relevant in 2019. The 5G Moto Mod, already on sale, will enable the phone to link up to 5G networks – including Verizon's, which is the only active one in the US thus far.

This is the year 5G is supposed to arrive in force, promising much faster speeds and downloads. When 5G networks will actually get up and running isn’t clear, but there are already 5G phones coming this year by big companies, including the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, LG V50 ThinQ, and the foldable Huawei Mate X. 

If the already-released Moto Z3 beats these others to the punch, that’s another feather in its cap. But some of those manufacturers, like Honor, will likely release a more affordable model that will compete with Motorola’s midrange phone – so the Moto Z3 may not end up being the most affordable 5G answer on the market for long.

Otherwise, the phone incrementally improves on its predecessor, the Moto Z2 – but you’d do better to think of it as taking nearly all the best parts of the Moto Z2 Force and stuffing them into the Moto Z3 Play’s slightly larger frame. 

The Moto Z3 5G story...so far

While the Moto Z3 is a worthwhile choice for the budget-conscious on its own, it’s also, currently, the only 5G phone in the US. Not alone, of course: you need the 5G Moto Mod, which clips on to the phone’s rear (securely, thanks to some strong magnets) and must remain in place to connect to Verizon’s just-launched 5G network.

It’s not as simple as dropping into a Verizon store and walking out with the mod, as we found out. Among our first reactions, starting from the day the telecom switched on its 5G network, was surprise: Verizon requires you to show proof of ownership of a Moto Z3 when picking up a 5G Moto Mod, or to buy a phone on the spot. You’ll need to be subscribed to one of the telecom’s Unlimited plans, and then pay a $10 monthly fee above that. (You do get 3 months of free 5G data, though.)

The 5G Moto Mod is pricey, retailing for $350, though Verizon is selling them in-store for $200 at the moment. Couple that with the $350 pricetag for the Moto Z3 and the whole setup is solidly in the midrange expense tier, though that’s far less expensive than the Galaxy S10 5G and LG V50 ThinQ 5G are expected to cost (at or above the $1,000 threshold that their non-5G versions have been priced at).

As for the coverage, well...Verizon did activate its 5G network in early April a week earlier than expected, true. But it only went live in parts of two US cities. In Chicago, this included Magnificent Mile (specifically the Verizon store), Gold Coast, Old Town, River North, and portions of South Loop and West Loop. Minneapolis' 5G coverage areas are in Downtown West, Downtown East, Elliot Park, and the Mall of America's Verizon Store.

Verizon is relying on millimeter wave technology that requires line-of-site with the 5G-broadcasting signal tower, which don’t cover nearly as large of area as those broadcasting 4G LTE. As such, we found it difficult to pick up 5G in the network’s first few days, and Verizon wasn’t providing coverage maps. 

Once you step outside the 5G coverage zones (or if your phone can’t connect), the 5G mod-packing phone should switch automatically to 4G, which we’ve found. When we have found 5G signal, we’ve seen speeds up to 448Mbps, which is about where Verizon placed its tamped-down expected rates before it improves its network. Compare that to the 45-60Mbps we saw on the 4G side of things.

One last quick note: the 5G Moto Mod clips to the back of your Moto Z3 (and will be compatible with other Moto phones later on), but don’t worry about missing out on a battery pack: The 5G mod includes a 2,000mAh battery expansion, too. Worry instead at the beefy girth of the mod, which nearly doubles the thickness of the Moto Z3.

Moto Z3 price and release date

The Moto Z3’s launched in August 2018 at a $480 (about £370, AU$650) baseline cost, though that’s dipped down to $349 on Motorola’s official store. That’s below the lower-specced Moto Z3 Play’s $399 price, though the latter is typically bundled with a 2,200mAh battery pack Moto Mod, which typically retail for $50. 

We’ll get into the Mods lineup later, but suffice to say they’re an important factor in the Moto Z3’s value – so if you’re just looking for a basic model with Mod accessibility, you might be satisfied with the Z3 Play.

Unfortunately, the Moto Z3 is only carried by and available through Verizon. That’s certainly different from previous models like the Moto Z2 and Moto Z3 Play that you could buy unlocked or through different carriers, but you’ll have to go through Verizon if you want the Moto Z3.

Design

Picture the Moto Z3 Play. Got it? Great – that’s the design of the full-fledged Moto Z3. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the phone is a sleek, thin smartphone with attractive glass front-and-rear that will easily fit in your pocket. 

Well, so long as the camera bump doesn’t get in the way: the signature photo-blister returns, and while it’s not cumbersome, it’s not small. But since it’s a key component to Moto’s Mod system (each add-on fits snugly around the bump), it’s a particular choice you’ll learn to live with if you opt for Motorola’s Z-line phones.

The phone weighs 156g, which is on the lighter side compared to flagships like the iPhone XS (171 g) and Samsung Note 9 (201g). This is offset by the Mods, which can be hefty: the basic 2,200mAh power pack, by far the most useful Mod of the bunch, adds around 70 g. At 5mm thick, it covers the camera bump and then some, nearly doubling the thickness of the 6.8mm phone.

Otherwise, the Moto Z3 looks textbook Motorola, with thin bezels on the sides, a chin thick enough to stick a company logo, and a thin top with no notch. From a distance, you’d be hard-pressed to tell this apart from some of the cheaper G-series phones. The big difference is the glass back (some G-phones have glass, but others have aluminum or plastic), the sizable camera bump, and the strip on the back filled with contact pins for the Mods to connect.

Motorola retained the side-mounted fingerprint scanner. It’s conveniently placed right where your thumb rests, so we never had a problem logging in. In fact, it’s almost too convenient: when grabbing the phone, we accidentally pressed it and unlocked the phone when all we wanted was to check the lock screen notifications. It’s an odd annoyance, to be sure.

The Z3 has a USB-C port at the bottom, but sadly, there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack. That’s something the newer and lower-market G7 phones have on their pricier cousin – let alone the Samsung S10 line, which still retain the port as a bragging point.

Display

As previously mentioned, the Moto Z3 keeps the 6.01-inch (2,160 x 1,080) 18:9 display of the Moto Z3 Play, which is large, bright and crisp. It’s not quite the resolution of expensive flagships, but the Full HD display is certainly a step up from the lower-priced G7 phones with their HD (1,570 x 720) screens. 

Sadly, the Moto Z3’s display is a step down in resolution of the 5.5-inch Quad HD screen (2,560 x 1,440) in the Moto Z2 Force, though it is slightly larger. 

Also notable for phones in 2019: the display has a black bar at the top that houses the front-facing camera, leaving the display an unbroken rectangle. That will please anyone who refuses to compromise on an unblemished display, but with more and more top-tier phones attempting workarounds for better screen-to-body ratio (like the Samsung S10 series’ punch-hole display or the Mi Mix 3’s sliding front screen), it makes the Z3 look less flagship.

Camera

The Moto Z3 packs a 12MP f/2.0 lens paired with a 12MP f/2.0 monochrome for low-light photos, and shoots a respectable but unimpressive 2160p@30fps video or up to 1080p@60fps. 

The phone’s main camera suite manages decent daytime photography but suffers in low light. This is expected from the basic camera setup. Most flagships these days sport two or even three cameras – but they’re varied in field-of-view and/or telephoto capabilities. Compared to those, the Z3’s setup is limited to point-and-shoot, managing an 8x digital zoom that comes out grainy.

Of course, this isn’t just due to the Z3’s lower price point – it’s a compromise of design, too. The central camera blister has roughly the same dimensions as those of the entire Moto Z line so that it can work with past and future Moto Mods. In that sense, the phone series may never build out more than two lenses. But as we’ve seen with the Samsung Galaxy S10e’s twin shooters, it’s not the amount of cameras that necessarily limits your capability, but how they’re used.

And the Moto Z3 makes decent use of its lenses. The software has the expected plethora of modes, from Portrait to spot color to a cute (if spotty) “cutout” option letting you slice out a foreground object and slip in a background. There’s even a text-recognizing mode that lets you convert typed words (on a screen or page) into a simple PDF or word doc. Handy.

The 8MP front-facing camera is, well, fine. It works for the immediate subject, but expect the backgrounds to blow out if they're bright and sink into darkness if they're the opposite. There are a few cute modes, like group selfie, that essentially creates a mini-panorama of about one photo-width on either side of the central subject.

Battery life

The Moto Z3 packs a 3,000mAh battery, which lasts through the end of the day without serious issue. It uses Motorola’s 15W Turbopower brand of fast charging, which doesn’t keep up with the much higher wattage of Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0, 3.0 (18W) and 4.0+ (27W) formats. Still, any fast charging is better than none.

But that’s not whole battery story. The Moto Power Pack mod adds another 2,220 mAh, which should provide another 16 hours of juice, per Motorola’s site. Customer reviews aren’t entirely positive for the add-on, though, with some decrying its quick burnout and charging issues while others complain that it doesn’t have a port of its own, and must be charged through the Moto Z3. 

On the plus side, unlike battery pack cases, the Power Pack mod doesn’t obstruct the side buttons or bottom USB-C port.

Performance

The Moto Z3 packs a Snapdragon 835, which was outdated when the phone launched in August 2018 and is even more so today. But the processor still outperforms the midrange Snapdragon 632 chip found in the Moto G7 or the slightly beefier Snapdragon 636 found in the Moto G7 Plus. 

The Moto Z3’s baseline setup (Snapdragon 835, 4GB RAM) achieved a 6,549 score on Geekbench 4, putting it around other phones sporting that chipset (the Galaxy S8 Plus, for example, hit a score of 6,630 in our testing). That’s obviously far below today’s top chips – the Galaxy S10 Plus, for example, hit 11,002 on the same test – but it’s respectable.

And, at long last, the Moto Z3 finally has Android 9 Pie. The update was originally announced in February and then delayed, per The Android Soul; conveniently enough, it was finally rolled out the day Verizon unleashed its 5G network and Motorola started selling the 5G Moto Mod, according to XDA Developers. 

By ‘convenient’ we mean ‘essential,’ as long as you want to hook up to that 5G network: Pie is required to support the new 5G mod. But the update brings a host of other better-late-than-never upgrades: gesture navigation, a refreshed dashboard, optimized app switching and screentime-managing features like app timers. 

The Mods

Aside from the 5G Moto Mod, Motorola has a plethora of mods on the market – and others that were released for earlier Moto phones that the phonemaker is no longer selling, but which you can still find on eBay, Amazon and elsewhere.

Motorola’s official list of mods has been trimmed down to just over a dozen battery packs, speakers, cameras and oddiments, like a gamepad that wraps around each end of your Moto phone. 

Sure, it’s nice to have a speaker to blast tunes every once in awhile, or perhaps even an Amazon Alexa-sporting speaker ($149) or very nice Hasselblad 10x optical camera ($299). But far and away, the mod you get the most use out of are the battery mods.

Everyone wants more battery, and the mods (like the $49 official Moto Power Pack) grant almost another day’s worth of juice. That’s a no-brainer...but by clamping one to the back of your slim and admirably light Moto Z3, you’re adding weight and nearly doubling the thickness. 

To put it bluntly: these aren’t as slick as the battery pack cases out for most phones. On the plus side, they don’t obstruct the side buttons or expand the length and width of the Z3. And yet, you won’t be able to protect your phone with a case…

You get the gist – there are drawbacks. But at least most of the mods won’t obstruct the camera while you have them clipped on (the Amazon Alexa speaker being a notable exception). 

Final verdict

Not counting the Moto Mods, the Moto Z3 keeps abreast of the pack of other midrange phones while coming in cheap at $349 – and even inches ahead with its old but still sturdy Snapdragon 835 chip. For a bit more, the $549 / £499 (around AU$771) OnePlus 6T packs better specs across the board, but that’s another price tier entirely.

If you’re considering the Moto Z3, you’re either looking around for a less pricey option within Verizon...or you want 5G network speeds at a discount. 

And that discount is nothing to ignore – for a fraction of the price of leading 5G-compatible phones, you’ll get a phone that works fine, shoots okay photos and runs your favorite apps in a slim body with a 6-inch screen. You could do far worse at this price point -- including, curiously, the less-powerful Moto Z3 Play released shortly before it that costs about the same.

If you’re intending to buy it for 5G, be forewarned: in these early days, we don’t know much about how these networks will unfold nor whether lower-powered devices will have lower network performance than the highly-priced flagships coming out later in 2019 that are specialized to work on 5G, like the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G or the LG V50 ThinQ 5G. 

In other words, the Z3 could be a blessing for Verizon to undercut pricey competition and lure people over to its 5G network with a far cheaper entry-level phone...or just a decent phone option should its 5G network get outclassed by other carriers. 

Like its sibling, the LG G8, there's a great smartphone nestled inside the LG V50. From the impressive media capabilities to the large battery, combined with the 5G connectivity, on paper it might be hard to fault this phone.

LG does like to throw a curve ball though, and while the sum of its parts seemed strong in our testing of the phone at MWC 2019, if you're considering switching to the V50 from another brand there's still something that doesn't quite fit together.

If you're an LG fan though, and you're looking to replace something like the LG G6, you'll probably fall instantly in love with this phone - and that's before you even hear that you can slot a second screen on the side.

LG V50 release date and price

There's no word on the LG V50 price at the moment, but the V40 (with which this phone shares a number of characteristics) cost $900 (around £690 / AU$1260) at launch. 

We're thinking that will increase somewhat, with the addition of the larger battery and the 5G connection adding a premium. We're not sure on the LG V50 release date yet either, as LG is working with carriers to get it out in the first half of this year.

Design and screen

There's a design heritage to LG phones that its fans seem to like, but as a generic smartphone layout it's not the most impressive out there. The smooth back feels a little to plasic in the hand, and is a fingerprint magnet (although that's hardly anything new for a number of smartphones out there).

For a premium, flagship handset from LG though, we did hope for something a little more alternative here - maybe upping the premium materials used to create a new hand feel.

That said, LG has addressed one key element here: this is an IP68-rated handset with military-grade drop protection. To have achieved that while still making an attractive-looking handset, and if it stands up to the rigors of daily life then LG should be applauded here.

There are three pogo pins at the bottom of the phone on the rear, below the fingerprint sensor and camera array, and these are used to clip on the LG DualScreen attachment. This bolts a second screen onto the phone, and you can see more about it right here.

The rest of the phone is as you might expect a modern smartphone to be - picking this up in a store won't elicit any shocks. The power button on the right-hand side is a little hard to push in properly, but ultimately everything is just... fine.

The 6.4-inch OLED QHD+ display, which runs at 19.5:9 ratio, is bright and colorful, and it's hard to criticize it in any way really. There's a richness to the color and a clarity that OLED technology brings, and that's on top of the HDR-playback the phone offers.

There's a notch at the top of the phone, but LG offers you the chance to 'hide' it with a black bar either side, which is partly down to the high-contrast ratio of the OLED tech.

Camera and battery life

The LG V50's camera - or should we say, cameras, as it has a triple array - also seem pretty powerful in many ways. However, they're coming into a world where we're seeing artificial intelligence (AI) enhancements instantly improving the look and feel of photos, and high-powered, multiple sensors combining to offer a brilliant snap.

In our early tests, which admittedly were conducted indoors, we found the performance of all three snappers rather good. 

There was a richness to the textures in the 'standard' camera, the wide-angle, 107-degree sensor lacked distortion at the edges (something previous LG phones were guilty of) and the telephoto zoom lens worked pretty much as advertised.

Doing some early low-light testing, the V50 was adept at handling the difference in conditions, although the AI camera gave everything an odd, yellow-ish tinge when it decided that it was indeed looking at night mode. That's not to say that the final version will look like this, as this was very much a pre-production unit we were checking out.

The front-facing cameras, which come in at 8MP and 5MP, wasn't the most impressive we've seen - the general look and feel of photos was OK, but experimenting with the portrait mode wasn't as accurate as we'd like. 

You can add in colored backgrounds, but all that does is highlight the poor capability of cropping around hair, for instance. Again, given this is a pre-production unit, we won't castigate it too much, but the performance on the LG G8 camera with its time of flight camera was more impressive.

In terms of battery life, we weren't able to test this too fully on the LG V50, but with the larger 4,000mAh power pack inside (which is why it's tipping the scales at 183g and is now 8.3mm thick) should keep things powering on for longer.

With a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset inside pumping things along, things should be more efficient, but we'll need to test things harder to find out in our full LG V50 review - especially with a 5G connection.

Interface and media

Arguably the most maddening thing about the LG V50, and its current suite of phones, is the interface. Not that there's anything wrong with it, per se, or that it's too weak... there's just too much going on.

That's a real shame, as there's a lot going for this phone. Swiping right will see a helpful side menu from the home screen giving you helpful hints, a swipe down takes you to a handy search bar and the interface feels fairly similar to Android.

But there are dozens of apps in there that are too hard to fathom - LG TV, LG Pay and a host more, and all of them require a bit of tappery to work out what's going on. Nothing is too tricky, but equally nothing is really that intuitive.

This is mostly annoying as the musical performance of the phone is one of the most impressive elements - the Boombox capability when laying it flat on the table is truly pleasurable to hear, the DTS:X and Quad DAC modes really do make the sound through headphones incredible (and yes, it does have a headphone jack) and this could easily be one of our favorite phones for music.

But the LG V50 just doesn't quite tie that all up, make it easy to use this feature, with everything buried beneath toggles and switches.

Early verdict

The slight niggles we found in the LG V50, like an odd AI camera or funny portrait modes, can be explained by early software. But we can't expect the interface to change dramatically in the near future, and that's the key issue we've got here.

It feels like LG needs to focus on bringing its key features to the fore: sure, people will get used to the interface, but if there was more intuition inside then the amazing audio, strong camera, top screen and powerful innards would really be able to shine.

MWC (Mobile World Congress) is the world's largest showcase for the mobile industry, stuffed full of the newest phones, tablets, wearables and more. TechRadar is reporting live from Barcelona all week to bring you the very latest from the show floor. Head to our dedicated MWC 2019 hub to see all the new releases, along with TechRadar's world-class analysis and buying advice about your next phone. 

Update: We've spent three days in South Korea testing our the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G on home soil, and have updated our hands on review with our findings. We're also working on a full review, which will be available soon.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G gives us a glimpse of the future, even if it doesn't have the game-changing (though problematic) design Samsung's new foldable phone. It's what's on the inside of the supersized S10 5G that will have you excited.

It's one of the first 5G phones in the world, promising faster download speeds and more reliable connectivity than 4G LTE. But it's not just about the connectivity, as you’ll also find a huge display, big battery, plenty of storage and four rear cameras rounding out this behemoth of a mobile.

While it was announced alongside the Galaxy S10, S10 Plus and S10e, the Galaxy S10 5G release date was in April in Korea and May 16 in the US. It may take even longer to launch in other parts of the world or not come out at all. A lot depends on 5G rollout from your local carrier.

What's it like? We’ve been fortunate enough to get hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G to bring you our initial thoughts.

• Read our Samsung Galaxy S10 review
• Read our Samsung Galaxy S10e review
• Read our Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus review
• Our hands-on Samsung Galaxy Fold review

Samsung Galaxy S10 5G release date and price

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G release date was May 16 in the US, and it first launched in Korea on April 5 (making it the second 5G phone in the world behind the Moto Z3 – by two days), while UK release date was June 7.

The S10 5G price is, no joke, either: $1,299, £1099 (around AU$1,850) for the 256GB version and $1,399 (around £1,100, AU$1,990) for the 512GB version. Verizon, the first American carrier with the phone, is charging monthly rates of $54.16 and $58.33, respectively.

In the UK, the 256GB Galaxy S10 5G is available through Vodafone and EE, where monthly prices start at £58 (with £129.99 up front). 

If the S105G US price jumped to $1,299 from the S10 Plus price of $999, then expect it to far exceed the S10 Plus price of £899 / AU$1,499 / AED 3,599. Its bigger screen, double the storage, four rear cameras and 5G support carry a premium.

Design and display

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G is a big, big phone, which is unsurprising considering its 6.7-inch display.

That said, at 162.6 x 77.1mm it’s only fractionally wider and taller than the Galaxy Note 9 and Note 8, which had 6.4-inch and 6.3-inch screens respectively, while at 7.94mm the Galaxy S10 5G is thinner than both, despite packing a larger battery.

Take that into account and the Galaxy S10 5G is surprisingly compact for the amount of screen real estate you’ll enjoy. Sure, those with smaller palms will struggle to hold it one-handed, but it’s not as overbearing as you might expect.

It’s no heavier than the previous Note handsets either, tipping the scales at 198g; that isn’t exactly light for a smartphone, but again, considering the size it’s acceptable.

The power key is located on the right of the handset, and is reasonably easy to reach, while the volume rocker sits above the Bixby key on the left, with the latter giving you quick access to Samsung’s digital assistant.

We weren’t able to put the latest version of Bixby through its paces during our hands-on time with the Galaxy S10 5G, as the handset was in airplane mode and was locked, so you’ll have to wait for our full review to find out how it performs.

On the base of the S10 5G there’s a welcome addition to one side of the centrally-placed USB-C port: a headphone jack. The 3.5mm port allows you to plug in your traditional set of headphones without the need for a fiddly adapter that’s easily lost/left at home.

Shifting your attention to the mammoth display, you’ll notice the 6.74-inch, 19:9 AMOLED screen is big, bright and sporting a ‘punch-hole’ camera block in the top-right corner.

It’s the biggest punch-hole on any of the new S10 handsets, making it the most noticeable as well. It technically sits in the notification bar, though, so it’s unlikely to cause an issue during general usage.

The only times we see it potentially getting in the way are during video playback and gaming, although we weren’t able to test either during our hands-on time with the Galaxy S10 5G.

The screen has a QHD+ resolution, providing pin-sharp visuals, and during our time staring at the lock screen and using the camera we didn’t experience any obvious issues with it.

The display also curves over the edges of the handset, creating the familiar, futuristic finish we’ve become accustomed to on Samsung’s flagship phones.

Embedded within the screen is an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, which enables a clean design on the rear of the Galaxy S10 5G – slight camera bump aside – and Samsung claims the scanner will work even if your fingers are wet or cold.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G is the only S10 handset to boast four rear cameras, and it’s only the second device from the brand to pack this number (the other being the Galaxy A9 2018).

The first three cameras are identical to the triple-sensor setups on the Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus, with a main 12MP variable-aperture camera, a 16MP 123-degree ultrawide snapper, and a 12MP telephoto lens – you can read more about these three cameras in our Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus hands-on reviews.

It’s the fourth camera on the Galaxy S10 5G which is the most interesting: a hQVGA 3D depth-sensing camera, also known as a time-of-flight camera.

Time-of-flight (TOF) cameras aren’t new, and we’ve seen them used by Apple in the iPhone X onwards, while the LG G8 ThinQ and several other smartphones also pack this type of sensor.

What TOF provides is detailed, accurate depth sensing, which is helpful for face recognition, 3D imaging, VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality). Combined with 5G network speeds in this handset, the technology opens up a vast array of new VR and AR experiences which simply aren’t possible on 4G phones.

It can also help to optimize the photos taken by the other cameras, providing better background blurring in Samsung’s ‘Live Focus’ portrait mode. 

What’s more, you also get a hQVGA 3D depth-sensing camera on the front of the phone, alongside the same 10MP camera found on the other S10 handsets. If you’ve not been keeping up, that takes the total camera count on the Galaxy S10 5G to six.

The Galaxy S10 5G we got hands-on with was secured with a screen lock that Samsung wouldn’t let us through, but we were able to jump into the camera app from the lockscreen.

It’s easy to use, and jumping between the main lens and the wider sensors is quick and easy thanks to an on-screen toggle. Moving all the way to the ultra-wide sensor, we were impressed by just how much of our surroundings the Galaxy S10 5G was able to see.

Shutter speeds were fast, and the Live Focus background blur mode provides a live blur effect before you hit the shutter button, which does an excellent job of separating your in-focus subject from their background.

We weren’t able to fully test all six cameras on the S10 5G during our limited time with the handset, however, so you’ll have to wait for our in-depth review to see how they perform.

Battery

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G comes with a huge 4,500mAh battery – which, when you think about it, isn’t a surprise.

There’s that massive QHD+ display to run, along with a heap of power under the hood and 5G connectivity – all things that will take their toll on the battery.

Samsung claims the Galaxy S10 5G will be able to last for 24 hours on a single charge, and our time using the handset so far it appears to be right.

We used the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G for three days in Korea, where we were using the handset’s 5G connection as a hotspot for our other devices for several hours each day, and the battery life was impressive.

We managed to get through a whole day (7am until midnight) on a single charge, with still double digits left in the tank by the time we got to bed. 

We’ll continue to test the battery with our US review unit to give you a clearer picture of general usage, but the early signs are certainly positive for the Galaxy S10 5G battery.

The S10 5G can be charged wirelessly, with support for Samsung Fast Wireless Charging 2.0 technology enabling you to top it up in an efficient manner. 

Like the other S10 handsets, the S10 5G also comes with Wireless PowerShare, which lets you wirelessly charge other Qi-compatible devices (including iPhones!) by placing them on the rear of the Samsung.

This means you can plug the S10 5G into the mains via a cable, and then effectively use it as a wireless charging pad for other devices, such as the Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Buds, and other phones you or your friends/family may have.

It isn’t an overly fast way of charging other devices, but it does mean you only need one power outlet and charging cable.

Specs and performance

There’s plenty of power crammed inside the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, with a high-end octa-core processor joined by 8GB of RAM to keep Android 9 Pie ticking over nicely.

It’s the same power setup as in the Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus, two handsets we were able to use more extensively, so the differences between them should be minimal, and Samsung’s Android overlay should provide a smooth, slick experience, with fast load times and no sign of lag.

You also get a generous 256GB or 512GB of storage inside the Galaxy S10 5G. 

5G performance

We’re currently reviewing the Galaxy S10 5G in the US, but we’ve also spent some time with the handset in Seoul, Korea, where we were able to achieve 5G speeds of up to 830Mbps – although we did have to find the 5G coverage first.

5G coverage in cities which have the next generation network, is patchy and you may find yourself having to roam the streets in order to find a good 5G signal. 

When the Galaxy S10 5G did manage to lock onto a 5G network, app downloads we’re almost instantaneous (for the likes of WhatsApp and Instagram) and we were able to stream 4K video from YouTube without having to wait for it to buffer.

Early verdict

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G probably won’t take the world by storm, but it lays important foundations for the future of mobile.

Its huge screen, and abundant power and storage, will likely appeal to power users keen to get aboard the 5G hype train as early as possible, but for most consumers the standard S10 and S10 Plus represent better buys, and we found the S10e to be a perfect value pick for people on a budget.

Even when 5G does come to your region, the likelihood is that coverage will be limited to major cities, while as we’ve mentioned this handset (and others like it) is expensive, as will the 5G plan you’ll need to commit to in order to make the most of its 5G capabilities.

It’s going to be at least a year before 5G becomes widespread and consistent enough to matter to anyone but early adopters. And that's who this phone is for. Someone who demands the best, doesn't want to take a chance of the Fold, and doesn't want to wait for the 5G Samsung Galaxy Note 10.

All images credit: TechRadar

The Samsung Galaxy S10 is engineered and designed to be a conversation-changer, a phone that's crafted to turn everyone's yearly question of "Do I really need to upgrade?" into a more exclamatory "I really need to upgrade!"

The S10 does make this case, according to the six months we've spent testing Samsung's new flagship phone for 2019 – with some clear caveats... and competition. The even more ambitious Samsung Galaxy Note 10 has come out, with S Pen stylus and more features to appeal to folks who need the absolute top of the line.

It's the 6.1-inch Infinity Display that really sets this phone apart. The handset introduces a nearly-edge-to-edge look that stretches top to bottom, with pixels spilling over the curved edges at the sides – there's no room for big bezels on Samsung's new smartphone. For the most part, bezels don't exist here.

Its new Infinity-O screen – also a feature of the bigger Galaxy S10 Plus and cheaper Galaxy S10e – is so large it actually displaces the front camera, consigning it to a small 'punch-hole' in the screen. All of the important sensors are neatly tucked behind this vibrant and bright Super AMOLED display.

Also behind the glass is the new ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. You won't find a fingerprint pad on the back anymore, or anywhere visibly on the phone. Samsung put its sensor – now invisible – on the front, where we feel it belongs.

• Read our Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus review
• Read our Samsung Galaxy S10e review
• Read our hands-on Samsung Galaxy S10 5G review
• And here's all you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy Fold

The Samsung S10 officially makes punch-hole displays a trend after the idea debuted on the Honor View 20, and in-screen fingerprint sensors more mainstream after they appeared on the OnePlus 6T, Huawei Mate 20 Pro and a few Vivo phones. 

It’s all designed to achieving that impressive 93.1% screen-to-body ratio on the front of the phone. And, frankly, we like it a bit better than a traditional notch. So far, only the OnePlus 7 Pro's pop-up selfie camera idea offers a cleaner-looking alternative on a very similar curved display. But Samsung's punch-hole won't bug you after a couple of hours with the Galaxy S10.

Maximization is also the idea behind the Samsung S10's rear-facing triple-lens camera. Samsung’s camera array has lenses to take normal, telephoto and new ultra-wide photos. The ultra-wide camera is all about capturing more of what’s in front of you without having to back up.

Sure, LG phones have touted ultra-wide camera lenses for years, most recently the LG V40, but Samsung’s cameras have been more consistent in low-light conditions. The feature is finally in a flagship-level phone you want.

The Samsung S10 also has features everyone can get. Its Wireless PowerShare feature lets you use the back of the S10 to Qi charge another phone or the new Galaxy Buds, cloning the reverse wireless charging idea in the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, a phone that’s not widely available in certain territories, including the US.

The Samsung S10 is an amalgam of other handsets’ single hallmark features packed into one phone, while Samsung pioneers as many technical features as it can cram in – faster Wi-Fi 6 and HDR10+ are both firsts for smartphones. And that’s what Samsung does best really. 

The Samsung Galaxy S10 marks a decade of Galaxy S phones, and while there’s been little innovation in recent years from the most popular smartphone brands, including Samsung (Bixby and AR EMoji don’t cut it), the S10 has enough newness to tempt you to upgrade.

What's not to like? Well, if you can handle the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus size, it's our No. 1 pick thanks to its extra battery life, bigger screen and better performance as a gaming phone – and the price hike isn't so terrible. And if you're considering the S10 to save money or want a smaller screen, the better value is in the 5.8-inch S10e. Samsung has the best phones for 2019 (so far), but its biggest competition is none other than Samsung. 

Of course, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 is just around the corner, so if you're desperate for a new Samsung smartphone it might be worth waiting for that. Or, if you've got a lot of money burning a hole in your pocket, you could wait until the Samsung Galaxy Fold comes out – whenever it actually does.

Samsung Galaxy S10 release date and price

The Samsung Galaxy S10 release date was Friday, March 8 and it was announced on February 20, with pre-orders opening right away in some countries. In the US, Galaxy S10 pre-orders started on February 21.

There's a hitch or two in Samsung's masterplan to get everyone to upgrade to this particular handset. The  Samsung  S10 launch price was expensive, more so than the Galaxy S9, although it's markedly better value than the iPhone XS, which is more expensive and has a smaller 5.8-inch screen.

It's on sale through Amazon in the US and B&H Photo, though it's still a considerable investment. The Galaxy S10e is cheaper and almost as good, while the Galaxy S10 Plus is the phone you’ll want if you can handle its price and screen size – and that’s to say nothing of the Galaxy S10 5G and the Samsung Galaxy Fold, which early adopters may look for true innovation at a higher price.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 price starts at $899 / £799 / AU$1,349 / AED 3,199 for the 128GB of storage model, meaning you're spending an additional $180 / £60 / AED 100 on this phone over the S9 launch price.

If you need more storage (and don't want to use the microSD slot inside the Galaxy S10) you can opt for the 512GB model which costs $1,149 / £999 / AU$1,699.

If you like the look of this phone but think that price is a tad high realize that Apple charges $100 / £200 / AU$430 more for the smaller 5.8-inch iPhone XS with half the internal storage, 64GB.

Display

Samsung’s screens are so good "our competitors are even using them", Samsung brand manager Paul Guzek told TechRadar, an all-too-obvious dig at Apple. It's hard to disagree.

In fact, the  Samsung S10's 6.1-inch 19:9 Super AMOLED display panel looks better than anything Samsung sells its rivals, and it's been crowned the most color accurate smartphone display ever.

It has elegantly curved edges with pixels that spill over the sides, amped-up brightness for better outdoor visibility, and HDR10+ support for superior contrast and color.

There's a QHD+ resolution too, which creates a pixel density of 550ppi, ensuring everything on screen is highly detailed. However, the phone defaults to Full HD+, which looks as good and you probably won't notice a difference on a phone this size, unless you're using it for VR two inches from your face. It also saves battery life by burning fewer pixels.

The new Infinity-O display type is what stands out – for better or worse. Samsung has successfully avoided a notch cut-out at the top of its flagship phones, instead using a laser-cut hole in the top-right corner of the screen to embed the front-facing camera, as on the Honor View 20.

Is a 'punch-hole' camera more or less distracting than a notch? From our time with the  Samsung  S10 so far, we'd say less. It sits comfortably to the right in the notification bar, providing plenty of space for the time, battery and connectivity icons, as well as any notifications you may have.

It’s also given Samsung more screen real estate to play with than ever, and don’t let the bigger 6.1-inch screen size scare you off. 

The S10’s dimensions are 149.9 x 70.4 x 7.8mm (and it weighs 157g), so it’s only marginally taller and wider than the S9 with its 5.8-inch screen, and noticeably thinner and a bit lighter.

Those marginal increases in height and width are due to the  Samsung S10’s screen-to-body ratio of 93.1% (the S9 was 83.6%). The S10 Plus sports that 6.4-inch screen with the same screen-to-body ratio and a nice size if you can handle it. However, if you're wary of false corner touches (especially when typing) due to the bezel-less edges, stick with the normal S10.

Bezel does outline the top and bottom of this display, even if we said it wasn’t big. Samsung’s top speaker still reigns, and there’s a thin but noticeable chin across the bottom; it’s less bezel rather than bezel-less. 

And the fact that the bottom bezel is larger than the top one catches our eye – it may be more distracting than the punch-hole.

There’s little to dislike regarding the new display – if the Infinity-O doesn’t distract day-to-day, and as mentioned we’ll update this review when we have more hands-on time with the S10.

Design

You’re not going to be overly surprised by the rest of the Samsung Galaxy S10 design, though there are a few notable enhancements, two hidden surprises, and an old classic here.

Its thinner aluminum frame is sandwiched between smooth glass, with the back coming in your choice of color: Flamingo Pink, Prism Black, Prism Blue, Prism White, Canary Yellow and Prism Green. Samsung Galaxy S10 colors will vary by region, with the US getting all but yellow and green.

There’s the smallest of camera bumps on the back, housing the triple-lens camera array, while we saw no signs of Samsung’s invisible reverse wireless charging module below this. It’s a particularly clean look in a world of camera bumps and rear-fingerprint sensors.

We had no difficulty activating Samsung’s Wireless PowerShare feature after turning it on via the quick settings notification shade. We placed our Galaxy Buds case on the lower third of the S10 back and the earbuds began charging almost instantly. It even charged our iPhone XS Max.

Samsung laid out two scenarios in which Wireless PowerShare would be helpful: charging a friend’s phone, or charging your Galaxy Buds at night, effectively making your plugged-in S10 a mobile Qi charger pad. Samsung noted, though, that PowerShare won’t work when the phone is below 30%.

Possibly the best bit about the Samsung Galaxy S10 though is its size. As we've already mentioned, it measures 149.9 x 70.4 x 7.8mm, and considering the size of the screen is nestles surprisingly well in the palm.

View our Samsung Galaxy S10 hands-on gallery

It's possible to use the  Samsung S10 one-handed, with the curved edges on the front and rear helping to give the effect that the phone is narrower than it actually is.

That said, the glass and metal body doesn't offer up a huge amount of grip, so if you're accident prone we'd recommend picking up a case - even if it's just a slim silicon job - to provide extra traction in your hand.

Also invisible – this time around the front – is the fingerprint sensor. While a lot of Android phones have used a rear-facing fingerprint sensor, Samsung stuck with the front-facing physical sensor pad all the way up to the Galaxy S7. 

So the switch to the back felt foreign on Samsung phones – but it’s come back to the front in the S10, this time tucked underneath the glass.

This is an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, different from the optical sensors on the OnePlus 6T and Huawei Mate 20 Pro, for example. 

Samsung uses Qualcomm-backed tech that’s said to be better, and more secure, by making a 3D scan of your print, plus it'll work if your fingers are wet or cold - two scenarios optical scanners struggle with. 

It works reasonably well, but it's not a fast as an optical fingerprint scanner. You won't be left waiting - it still takes less than a second to read, register and unlock the S10, but it lacks the zip of scanners not embedded in the display.

There also seems to be a slightly higher failure rate too. You need to be precise with your finger placement, and you'll need to apply a little pressure for it to work. It takes a little getting used to, but things do improve.

And here’s a welcomed classic that hasn’t changed since the first S phone a decade ago: the 3.5mm headphone jack. 

Samsung is one of the few phone makers that includes the standard headphone jack in 2019 – and it’s doing it despite introducing the wireless Galaxy Buds and reducing the thickness of the Galaxy S10.

Camera

Samsung wants you to take photos at any angle, so the Galaxy S10 has a triple-lens camera on back with a 12MP regular lens, 12MP optically zoomed telephoto lens, and a brand new 16MP ultra-wide lens.

We found that the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus have the same cameras – on the back at least. Here's our mix of shots during of month and a half of testing:

We've taken a hard look at the Galaxy S10 camera and how its photos compare to those of the class-leading Pixel 3, then determined how good the ultra-wide photos look. Our conclusion? Samsung's camera comes close, but Google's post-processing software still engineers a better photo. 

The main S10 camera exhibit punchy, Instagram-ready colors and looks better than the muted photos out of an iPhone in most cases. It's one of the best camera phones out now. However, its HDR prowess can, at times, blow out bright backgrounds during daytime shots. And lowlight, while good enough, does have serious noise reduction to reduce grain. That only leads to a lot of skin smoothing, as if you put on beauty mode when you didn't.  

The good news is that we found the Galaxy S10 camera to be more versatile and fun in some ways. Take for instance, the ultra-wide camera's 123-degree field of view. It serves the purpose of not having to back up to get everything in a shot, something you won't get on the Pixel 3.

The ultra-wide camera isn't always sharp (there's no OIS on this lens like there is on the other rear lenses) and you'll have to watch out for unnatural fisheye look at the edges. Anyone unfortunate to be on the edges of a group photo can exhibit 'fat face.' But when it works, you're really glad you have this option. Just pack everyone into the center of group shots, and leave the scenery on the edges. Ultra-wide photos do work really well for landscape shots, when people aren't the main subject.

What we got the most use out of is the new Live Focus filter option. Specifically, the Color Point filter allows you to go beyond simple bokeh by making the background black-and-white, while keeping your subject in the foreground in color. The camera doesn't always get the snap right, but keep pressing the shutter button and it'll adjust and figure out how to separate the monochrome background from the color foreground eventually.

On the front, we have a single 10MP camera. If you upgrade to the S10 Plus, you’ll also get an 8MP camera meant for enhancing depth in portrait photos. In our tests, the difference are minor. Samsung's S10 single front-facing camera relied heavily on software to blur the edges around our hair. The S10 Plus dual-selfie cam did better.

Scene optimizer gains 10 new categories, with Samsung’s camera AI now able to tell the difference between a cat and dog to fine tune things like white balance. Shot Suggestions is a new feature that uses the neural processor engine to nudge you to properly level your shots or frame subjects better.

On the video side, the software has been upgraded to record offer Digital Video Stabilization. Samsung says that this is meant to make all of your Ultra HD video as smooth as an action cam. Shots fired, GoPro Hero7 Black.

There's also HDR10+ video recording, which is significant because last year's S9 didn't offer HDR recording at all (when other phones from Sony had this feature). It pulls in a wider amount of contrast, though the HEVC (smaller files) codec turns off when you enable Samsung's lab-labeled HDR10+ feature in the settings. It worked well for us, but expect higher file sizes and maybe a few hiccups, as it appears to be experimental.

Specs and performance

The Samsung Galaxy S10 gets proper under-the-hood upgrades, touting the new top-of-the-line Snapdragon or Exynos chipsets, depending on which country you live in. 

It's plenty fast. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset we benchmarked came back with a record-breaking multi-score speed... for Android. The iPhone XS is still a bit faster, but Samsung is very close at 11,002 to Apple's 11,481. This is the first time we can say this. The gap is usually a lot wider.

It also comes with 8GB of RAM – a serious upgrade over the 4GB of RAM in last year’s S9 – and includes options for 128GB or 512GB of internal storage. There’s no 64GB version to worry about here, and Samsung still supports expandable storage.

Also onboard is next-gen Wi-Fi 6, which will support seamless transition between Wi-Fi routers and is four times faster than 802.11ax. It should deliver a 20% speed boost, but you’ll need a new router to really get any use out of this feature.

What you won’t get on this phone is the S10 Plus and Note 9-exclusive vapor chamber cooling. If you’re a gamer, you may want to upgrade to the larger phone for more than just the bigger screen.

You're also going to miss out on Android Q for a while. Google's ongoing beta for the Pixel 3 and other phones doesn't include any Samsung phones and probably won't long after the final software launches in August. Samsung is notoriously slow to update its S phones to the next version of Android, sometimes taking a whole year to do so. By then, the Samsung Galaxy S11 will be out.

Battery life

The Samsung Galaxy S10 packs in a 3,400mAh battery, an upgrade over the 3,000mAh capacity of the Galaxy S9. 

However, because of the increase in screen size, Samsung is still quoting the same "all-day" battery life for the S10 as it did for its predecessor, and we found this to be true.

We regularly got to the end of day with around 20% left in the tank, with our usage including a couple of hours of Spotify streaming, another two hours of video, a range of social messaging, an hour or two of gaming and a smattering of emails, web browsing and camera use throughout the day.

With more reserved use, it’s possible to get a day and a half from the Galaxy S10 before you have to considering finding a charger.

Running the TechRadar battery test, where we play a 90 minute full HD video with the screen at full brightness and accounts syncing over Wi-Fi in the background, the Galaxy S10 lost just 11%.

That’s the same result as the iPhone XS, and a marked improvement over the Galaxy S9 which dropped 17% in the same test. It means you’ll be able to knock back a couple of movies on the S10 and still have plenty of juice left in the tank.

The Galaxy S10 supports wireless charging, like the previous generation, but Samsung has added a new feature here too. It’s called Wireless PowerShare and allows you to use the Galaxy S10 as a wireless charging mat for your other wirelessly charging devices.

Any device which supports the Qi wireless charging standard can be charged by being placed on the rear of the S10, including the new Samsung Galaxy Buds as well as the most recent iPhones.

Charging speeds are slow, but if your friend is in desperate need of some power and there’s no charger in sight, you could potentially become even more popular.

Final verdict

The Galaxy S10 is a deserved 10th anniversary phone for Samsung and its storied S series. Its new display type lays out more pixels across less body, the phone has a triple-lens camera so you can now take ultra-wide photos, and inside you'll find a bigger battery surrounded by beefier specs.

You’ll like all of these powerful features, while your friends will like the new Wireless PowerShare perk – it helps them out more than you. The S10 marks an anniversary, but it also marks something a bit different among smartphones. It disrupts the sameness of smartphones just enough to become a tempting upgrade.

But the real winner this upgrade cycle is the Galaxy S10 Plus – if you can handle the price and its lager 6.4-inch screen size. It's an easy choice for us if you're deciding between the two. The Galaxy S10 is too expensive (and got the largest price hike this year among Samsung's new phones) not to consider the ultimate upgrade. And, if the price of either Samsung phone is giving you second thoughts, this is where the cheaper Galaxy S10e plays an important role.

Who's it for?

The Samsung Galaxy S10 is for a very particular person. It's a great smartphone, but it's for someone who wants the 6.1-inch display, telephoto lens and curved edges. The 5.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S10E skips the telephoto camera and has a flat screen. We find the 6.4-inch Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus to be better with its bigger battery and larger screen, but it is more expensive (but not so much more that it should turn you off).

The S10 falls in the middle of two convincing Samsung S10 variants: a larger and by-in-large better phone, and a smaller, more affordable option. It's a tougher sell in 2019, even though it has the superb features and the proper S10 name.

Should I buy it?

Yes, if you're absolutely sure you don't want the cheaper S10e or the S10 Plus. It's an undeniably great phone. We loved the curves edges, 93.1% screen-to-body ratio, and overall performance. If you want the best camera phone, look toward the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, and if you want a foldable phone or a 5G phone, wait for the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Galaxy 5G.

This phone isn't for everyone, even people upgrading from older Samsung S phones. Luckily for Samsung, the alternatives we're recommending you check out in its palce are two great S10 variants.

Competition

Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus

This is our favorite version of the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus, but it's for meaty pawns and larger wallets. Its 6.4-inch screen really sells this version of the S10, with the same 93.1% screen-to-body ratio.

Power users will love the extra battery life and the vapor chamber cooling system that's designed to withstand your mobile gaming marathons. It does have two front-facing camera, but we found only marginal differences in our testing. Don't take on the bigger S10 Plus just for this feature.

• Read our: Samsung Galaxy 10 Plus review

Samsung Galaxy S10e

This is the cheaper version of the S10 with a couple of fewer thrills. It has a flat 5.8-inch screen instead of curved edges and there's no telephoto lens, only regular and ultra-wide on the back. The battery is somewhat smaller, but still lasts all day in our tests, and more importantly it's cheaper.

If you're itching for a smaller phone or a cheaper price, this is your best option for both, while getting the performance and most of the features of the S10. Samsung designed it to be an iPhone XR competitor, but it's really one of the S10's biggest rivals.

• Read our: Samsung Galaxy 10e review

Google Pixel 3 or Google Pixel 3 XL

Samsung offers an excellent camera, but the Google Pixel 3 and Google Pixel XL beats it hands-down. Our tests prove that Google's backend software engineers a better photo in the end. 

That's not to say the Pixel 3 phones are a better phone for everyone. The design is a bit dated compared to what the S10 offers and battery life isn't as good. But if you find yourself snapping photos everyday and want the best point-and-shoot replacement, these handsets are at the top of our best camera phones list.

• Read our: Google Pixel 3 review

Update: After Google suspended Huawei's future access to Android Play Store and security updates, there are serious question marks over the future of Huawei and Honor phones.

While Google and Huawei have promised to support phones currently on the market, it's not clear how long they'll receive Android updates or access to the Google Play Store, which would severely curtail their usefulness compared to the competition.

The Huawei Mate X is the foldable phone that our sci-fi imaginations dreamed up years ago, and it came to life at MWC 2019 where we got to play with it.

Our extended hands-on time proved that the Mate X has a solid-feeling hinge so that it can transform from a 6.6-inch and 6.38-inch phone into a full 8-inch Android tablet. 

It's Huawei's FullView bezel-reduced screen that makes this foldable phone look better than the Samsung Galaxy Fold.

Latest leak: We've heard that the Huawei Mate X release date has been pushed back again, and we likely won't see it before November 2019 at the earliest. On top of that, Huawei has started teasing ways they could improve it for the Mate X 2 – but that's a long way off.

The Huawei Mate X also has some serious horsepower backing it up, with 5G, the new Kirin 980 chipset, and a hefty 4,500 battery capacity backing it up.

How did it feel? What's it going to be like to use? Richard Yu, Executive Director, CEO of the Consumer Business Group gave us the first hands-on time at MWC 2019 and we got more time with the foldable later on at the show. Here's what we think.

Price and release date

Huawei’s Mate X dropped with gusto at MWC 2019, and with a price tag that makes the highest-specced iPhone look affordable; Huawei, once synonymous with budget devices, is most definitely getting comfortable in the big leagues.

The Huawei Mate X price is €2,299, which converts to about $2,600, £2,000, AU$4,770 with 512GB of internal storage and 8GB of RAM, and Huawei has hinted there will be other variants down the line.

This foldable phone will launch in the UK on EE, Three and Vodafone this year. The official release date window is June, July, or August, Huawei told TechRadar.

At the moment it seems like a November release date is most likely, and even though Samsung has had issues with the Galaxy Fold which has led to a delay in release, sources inside Huawei claimed the Mate X won't be delayed. Clearly, they were wrong.

That doesn't mean The Mate X will launch everywhere. As revolutionary as this foldable phone looks, there are no US release date plans, said Huawei reps, meaning you may have to import this 2-in-1 5G device to get it in North America.

Design and screen

One thing that wasn’t made clear in our initial briefing on the Mate X was how the clasp system used to keep the screen firmly flush when the phone is in its folded 'phone state' worked. 

It turns out that a button on the back of the phone can be pressed, releasing the back portion of the display so it can be unfurled into an 8-inch tablet.

The front of the phone really is all-screen – 6.6-inches of it, in stark contrast to the Samsung Galaxy Fold’s humble 4.6-inch external display outlined with beefy bezels. 

This is where the Mate X really stands out. Samsung's single outer screen in folded mode takes us back to the days of heavy bezel outlines and small displays, just when we got to favorable screen-to-body ratios on phones. Huawei skips ahead with its FullView 8-inch display.

Turn the Mate X around and its back portion – the rest of the display, creates a secondary 6.4-inch screen that’s thinner – this could be cool for watching 21:9 movies, activating the smallest display, and potentially saving battery.

The reason this could save battery comes down to the Mate X's screen technology. As this is an OLED display individual pixels can be fired up, with unused pixels remaining pitch black; this is in contrast to LCD displays that require the whole panel – all the pixels – to be illuminated simultaneously. 

Huawei capitalizes on this power-saving feature innate to OLED tech in the core design of its Mate X.

Back to that design, and to the left of the rear screen is a vertical bar. This houses the brains of the operation, from the triple-camera system – which Huawei was very tight-lipped about – through to the power button/fingerprint scanner combo, and at the base, the USB-C port for charging. The sidebar is also where the internals are squished into – more on that later.

Moving parts scare us – especially when they’re in gadgets that cost over $2,000. We were hesitant to fold one of the few sample Mate X devices on hand at MWC. In our minds, we were snapping a tablet in half.

Huawei reassured us that its bendable screen has endured 100,000 folds in lab-condition stress tests - and after the Galaxy Fold debacle you hope it's done extra testing - and it also showed us how it has developed a case to keep it protected; but most importantly, it feels like a solid bit of kit, despite how thin it is.

A bigger fear for us is that the clasp that keeps the phone flush will wear out. Huawei mentioned to us that the clasp is needed for the completely flush fold at this stage, but perhaps in the next evolution of its proprietary Falcon Wing hinge system it'll be able to lock in place clasp-free.

Another key concern we have surrounding durability, especially with a wraparound phone like this, is scratch-resistance, or lack thereof. Flexible displays are plastic, which scratches more readily than glass – remember the original Moto Z Force that was touted to have an unbreakable screen to survive small drops, but scratched rather easily?

In this respect there’s a good chance the Samsung Galaxy Fold will be hardier than the Mate X, with less exposed flexible display and a glass outer screen.

The good news is that Huawei reps said the Mate X will actually go through more durability tests and some minor changes before it launches in a few months. The tease here is that it could actually look better than it did at MWC.

Camera

We know very little about the camera on the Mate X, other than that it’s a triple-module system. We weren’t allowed to open the camera app and try it out ourselves, but we did see a few tricks in action, and they seemed to be equal parts gimmicky and useful.

First off, there’s no front camera, just a primary triple camera around the back. All’s not lost for you Instagram stars and starlets though, as the rear screen doubles up as a viewfinder, which should actually make taking selfies an even better experience, given the fact that rear cameras are almost always superior in quality to selfie shooters. 

The second screen can also be used to create a dual viewfinder – one on either side of the phone. This enables you to see a preview when someone’s taking your picture with the Mate X, adding a playful party trick to this pricey powerhouse. 

We got to test out the selfie camera functionality, and it worked well. A live view of what's in frame appeared on both sides of the folded phone, so both the picture taker and picky person who asked a stranger to take their photo can see everything. 

Imagine a world where no one ever again says "Umm... can you take that again?" Both people in this situation can see what's in frame and adjust at will.

We don't have camera megapixel sizes or aperture details for you just yet. There are many reasons Huawei be so tight-lipped about the exact camera specs. On the one hand, the camera may contain tech of the future – something the brand wants to announce with its upcoming Huawei P30 smartphone, expected at the end of March.

Alternatively, the Mate X may not have a best-in-class camera given the potential space limitations, while another possibility is that Huawei hasn’t ironed out the details when it comes to imaging on this thing, and doesn’t want to commit before it’s ready to bring it to market. 

This is all guesswork of course, and with any luck Huawei will shine a light on things sooner than later.

Battery and specs

One thing Huawei did want to talk about was power, because there’s a massive battery inside the Mate X – actually there are two batteries, combining for a total 4,500mAh.

It's packing a bit more juice than the Samsung Galaxy Fold, but the Mate X also has a bigger screen when in both phone and tablet orientations, so is likely more power-hungry.

Huawei's 55W SuperCharge tech, which debuts on the Mate X, not only surpasses the 40W charging in the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, but it can also power up the Mate X to 85% from 0% in just 30 minutes.

Powered by a Kirin 980 processor coupled with a Balong 5000 5G modem, the phone doesn’t just charge quickly, it ‘5Gs’ quickly too, taking as little as three seconds to download a 1GB movie.

While we won’t be seeing those speeds when the phone drops in the middle of this year, as networks will unlikely support such zippy download rates, numbers like that do give us some comfort that the incredibly expensive Mate X is nicely future-proofed from a data transfer speed point of view.

You're going to be holding onto this phone for a while, so future-proofed specs are important here. To that point, there’s 512GB storage and support for expandable storage via Nano Memory, Huawei’s proprietary storage card that goes up to 256GB.

How it works

The Mate X runs a customized version of Android, and, ever aware of folds and unfolds, the interface optimizes itself for tablet or phone orientation in milliseconds. Our experience with the UI was very smooth, especially considering that the phone is some way off actually retailing.

EMUI, Huawei’s custom skin that sits atop Android, is likely at the heart of the experience, and there were some entirely new features that shone through, specifically around split-screen multitasking, with the OS oriented for the bigger, almost square tablet display really well. 

Huawei’s CEO Richard Yu mentioned that the tablet would be ideally suited to mouse and keyboard accessorizing for document editing, potentially even hinting at an EMUI Desktop-style experience down the line – or, dare we say it, full Windows? 

Early verdict

Spending time with the Huawei Mate X made the once-wild idea of a foldable phone more founded, with a smartphone-tablet hybrid that looks like it's ripped from the future. 

Here we have a well constructed, foldable phone, incredibly thin and with minimal bezel. What’s more, it features a design we can imagine pulling out of our pocket and turning into a tablet for some reading on the go, without looking ridiculous.

Of course, there are some red flags, specifically around durability and moving parts, and nothing will dispel these other than a month or two of real-world use, and the price is prohibitive for most people. It's not for everyone's two hands in 2019.

It's a tad more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy Fold, which also has a shockingly high price, but Samsung's device looks like a Version 0 foldable phone. The Huawei Mate X builds off the one fantasy idea with a proper Version 1 look.

All images: TechRadar