Huawei Mate Xs review

Performance and benchmarks

The futuristic design on the Mate Xs is so striking trhat it's easy to forget the beauty of its internal design often gets overlooked. It is incredibly intricate and a feat of engineering in itself.

Huawei wasn't content with simply cramming whatever fits inside the thin body and mostly the "handle" bit of the phone. Instead, the top-end Kirin 990 5G was chosen for the task. The 7nm EUV+ design it uses is a definite plus when dealing with such confined spaces.

Compared to the previous-gen Kirin 980, Huawei proudly claims it top-dog Kirin 990 5G can manage 23% CPU performance improvements, 39% GPU ones, thanks to the Mali-G76 MP16 and a whopping 460% improvement in NPU tasks. The latter comes courtesy of a Dual Big Core NPU, build on the Da Vince architecture, plus 1 Tiny Core NPU unit. On the other hand, the EUV+ process, plus plenty of hardware design efforts, make the Kirin 990 5G 23% more CPU efficient, 32% in GPU, and 290% in NPU tasks.

Having already reviewed devices like the Huawei P40 pair, none of this is really new on a base level, though. The Kirin 990 5G has proven its salt already. The really impressive bit here is that Huawei has somehow managed to successfully cram it all inside the Mate Xs.

Corners weren't even cut on the connectivity side of things. While the Kirin 990 5G has the space and power efficiency parts of the equation already covered, with its integrated 5G modem solution, the antenna setup is a whole other can of worms. Huawei rightfully boasts full-frequency 5G support on the Mate Xs. That means both non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) support, as well as TDD/FDD full frequency bands. The list includes n79, n78, n77, n41, n38m n28, n3 and n1. Plus, you also get full-featured 4G support on a second nanoSIM card, working alongside a primary 5G one.

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  3503
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  3374
• Huawei P40 Pro
  3197
• Realme X50 Pro
  3175
• Huawei P40
  3148
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  3038
• Huawei Mate Xs
  2980
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  2728
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  2697
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  2619
• Huawei nova 5T
  2504
• Huawei P40 Lite
  1862

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  1332
• Realme X50 Pro
  911
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  910
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  904
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  902
• Huawei P40 Pro
  780
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  779
• Huawei P40
  778
• Huawei Mate Xs
  751
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  750
• Huawei nova 5T
  696
• Huawei P40 Lite
  591

But, enough beating about the bush. Something has to give in this setup, right? You can't just cram all of that hardware inside such a small body and then use it to its full potential? Well, that's a bit of a complicated answer on the Mate Xs, but the short version is that Huawei did the best it could to let you keep the cake and eat it too.

Concentrating on the GeekBench scores for a bit, we can see the Kirin 990 5G not exactly stretching its wings fully inside the Mate Xs. That is a fact we came to accept after meticulously re-running all of the tests multiple times and confirming with Huawei representatives that there is no hidden Performance mode, which we might have missed. The decline in performance is really not that bad and only properly detectable in synthetic scenarios, with the Mate Xs still keeping well within a flagship bracket in CPU terms.

You can expect it to deliver perfectly adequate flagship-grade performance in day to day tasks, which is great news. Still, we wanted to at least try and find out what is going on.

Since thermal-throttling is the plague of the modern passively-cooled mobile chipset, we started there. While heat is probably the ultimate factor here, to our surprise, the Mate Xs does not thermal-throttle in the typical way. In fact, it is technically not thermal throttling at all, instead self-throttling its performance back in a very controlled manner, so as to avoid hitting a thermal limit and then having to throttle anyway.

One benefit from such an approach is the relatively cool surface temperature the Mate Xs manages to maintain during loads. It remains perfectly comfortable to hold and there isn't really a single excessive temperature spot on it.

A lot of this is probably thanks to the complicated cooling solution Huawei engineered for the Mate Xs. Huawei calls it a "Cooling System with Advanced Flexible Graphite". It is a three-layer solution, with malleable and flexible graphite material as the bottom-most layer, making contact with heat sources and actually extending and carrying heat through the hinge on the phone, from one end to another. This involves actual expansion of the material, as the hinge moves, which Huawei likens to the way "flying fish expand their fins as they glide on top of the water's surface". The end goal is a more even heat distribution. That layer then transfers its heat to a slightly more conventional heat pipe system, culminating in a vapor chamber.

Complicated as it may be, it seems to be very effective in practice. Even the camera array gets its own cooling solution in the shape of eight million aerospace-grade microcapsules that absorb and dissipate heat through phase transition.

Plus, it is worth noting that Huawei specifically pointed out that the EMUI 10.0.1 version on our review unit is not exactly a retail-ready build. Apparently, the consumer one will include a Performance mode, which Huawei promises achieves P40 scores in synthetic benchmarks and more-importantly, keeps up pace in real-world use.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Realme X50 Pro
  592447
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  573276
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  536883
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  528631
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  514485
• Huawei P40 Pro
  496356
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  487908
• Huawei P40
  486583
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  484529
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  461406
• Huawei Mate Xs
  459274
• Huawei nova 5T
  395503
• Huawei P40 Lite
  325777

Before we move on to some dedicated GPU tests, we can take a look at AnTuTu 8 and its more compound scoring process. We can definitely see the Mate Xs holding its ground here, as well. Though, it should be noted that AnTuTu includes some on-screen GPU testing, much of which was visibly not scaling exactly correctly on the Mate Xs. This could explain the slightly lower scores, to some extent.

As we progress steadily further and further into the new world of foldable displays and the new form factors they enable, Android is continuously adapting its interfaces to match. Many current apps and games are only now starting to adapt and comply with some of there trendy scaling and sizing conditions. Things will only improve in the future.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  101
• Huawei P40
  61
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  60
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  60
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  60
• Realme X50 Pro
  60
• Huawei Mate Xs
  59
• Huawei P40 Pro
  59
• Huawei nova 5T
  59
• Samsung Galaxy Fold
  59
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  58
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  57
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  51
• Huawei P40 Lite
  49

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  74
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  60
• Realme X50 Pro
  60
• Huawei P40
  58
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  56
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  56
• Huawei Mate Xs
  54
• Huawei P40 Pro
  52
• Samsung Galaxy Fold
  52
• Huawei nova 5T
  48
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  43
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  42
• Huawei P40 Lite
  30
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  26

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  57
• Realme X50 Pro
  45
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  43
• Huawei P40
  37
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  35
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  34
• Samsung Galaxy Fold
  32
• Huawei P40 Pro
  31
• Huawei Mate Xs
  30
• Huawei nova 5T
  29
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  25
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  24
• Huawei P40 Lite
  18
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  16

Speaking of wonky scaling, our usual GFXBench set of on-screen tests appears slightly off in the Mate Xs' full 8-inch unfolded mode. These render in landscape mode, as usual, but appear vertically stretched. Maybe that's down to a specific in the graphics engine GFXBench is using, but we can't really say, for sure, whether these test were internally rendered on the full width and height (2480 x 2200 pixels) of the display, or rather some sort of resolution in a different than 8:7.1 aspect ratio and then stretched. That's a perfect example of the types of issues users might face with the current state of the Android app ecosystem, as it continues to adapt.

Most modern games do tend to have a lot fewer issues in this respect, though. Most simply comply with the odd aspect ratio and extend the field of view accordingly, instead of stretching-out models. For misbehaving apps, you can try and force 16:9 or 4:3 rendering on a per-app basis in settings.

There is also the Dynamic resolution option, included in display settings to potentially play around with. While we never quite managed to make the dynamic part of it work, it can be used to set a resolution cap, lower than the native 2480 x 2200 pixels and potentially improve on-screen performance and frame rates. Be warned, though, that depending on their programming, some games change resolution by themselves and some do end-up broken, with miss-aligned touch controls. Not an issue if you are using a gamepad anyway, but it is still a wonky system overall.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  179
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  125
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  124
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  123
• Realme X50 Pro
  123
• Huawei P40 Pro
  118
• Huawei P40
  118
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  118
• Huawei Mate Xs
  115
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  115
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  105
• Samsung Galaxy Fold
  101
• Huawei nova 5T
  91
• Huawei P40 Lite
  53

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  120
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  86
• Realme X50 Pro
  86
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  85
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  85
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  76
• Huawei P40 Pro
  75
• Huawei P40
  75
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  73
• Samsung Galaxy Fold
  71
• Huawei Mate Xs
  66
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  66
• Huawei nova 5T
  56
• Huawei P40 Lite
  34

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  67
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  51
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  51
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  51
• Realme X50 Pro
  51
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  46
• Huawei P40 Pro
  44
• Huawei P40
  44
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  42
• Samsung Galaxy Fold
  42
• Huawei Mate Xs
  36
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  36
• Huawei nova 5T
  33
• Huawei P40 Lite
  21

Just for the sake of thoroughness, here are the corresponding off-screen GFXBench runs for all of the above on-screen ones. These are useful for a couple of reasons. First off, we can definitely verify that off-screen rendering is working correctly, since fps counts match-up perfectly, regardless of whether we have the Mate Xs folded or unfolded. Beyond that, we get to observe a certain amount of variance between the expected off-screen performance of the Mali-G76 MP16, as seen in the Kirin 990 5G inside the Huawei P40 Pro and the one in the Mate Xs. As a reminder, in this case, we have taken screen resolution entirely out of the equation, so any discrepancies have to be attributed to something else.

Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme X50 Pro
  30
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  26
• Huawei P40
  19
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  18
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  17
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  17
• Huawei Mate Xs
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  14
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  10
• Huawei P40 Lite
  8.6

Aztek OpenGL ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  32
• Realme X50 Pro
  31
• Huawei P40
  28
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  26
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  25
• Huawei Mate Xs
  23
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  19
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  17
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  12
• Huawei P40 Lite
  12

After investigating quite a bit, we didn't manage to pinpoint one single culprit here. We know from practical testing in the past, that heating-up a chipset to the point of thermal-throttling with a GPU load alone is very, very hard. Even so, running multiple GFX runs back to back did result in dipping fps counts. That was never actually joined by any noticeable surface heat on the phone itself, which leads us to believe that, perhaps, Huawei themselves are preemptively holding back GPU performance in some cases. Perhaps the advertised intelligent Kirin Gaming+ 2.0 system has something to do with this. We can't say for sure.

After reaching out to Huawei on the matter, we did get a bit of extra clarification dealing with Android builds and optimization. Apparently, there is still plenty of optimization work possible on a software level, to accommodate the large and pretty high-resolution, resolution-shifting panel on the Mate Xs. Beyond that, certain optimization differences exist on a base level between the EMUI 10.0.1 version it is running and the 10.1 build on the P40 devices, we reviewed in the past.

And that's without mentioning the work third-party developers still have to put in to comply better with new form factors and offer a more uniform experience. For instance, unlike the potentially stretched full-screen rendering that GFXBench exhibits on the unfolded Mate Xs, the following 3DMark runs rendered in a fixed 16:9 aspect, with no stretching. Hopefully, these idiosyncrasies and GPU performance variances can be further brought down to a minimum in the future.

3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p

Higher is better

• Realme X50 Pro
  7221
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  7127
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  6713
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  6593
• Huawei P40
  6079
• Huawei P40 Pro
  6062
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  6032
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  5988
• Huawei Mate Xs
  5759
• Samsung Galaxy Fold
  5510
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  4614
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro
  4432
• Huawei nova 5T
  4418
• Huawei P40 Lite
  2818

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p

Higher is better

• Realme X50 Pro
  6472
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  6425
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  6308
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  6249
• Huawei P40 Pro
  5637
• Huawei P40
  5635
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  5489
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  5298
• Samsung Galaxy Fold
  4856
• Huawei Mate Xs
  4362
• Huawei nova 5T
  4352
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro
  4233
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  3528
• Huawei P40 Lite
  2603

Still, even in its current state, it is important to note that the Mate Xs manages to deliver great gaming performance in both its folded and unfolded states. It is definitely not on the raw performance level of some other well-optimized conventional devices and especially not ones meant for actual competitive gaming. It even falls a bit short of some of its Huawei sibling.

Where it loses in raw number-crunching potential, it more than makes up for with its unique form factor and the experience it affords. Playing even the most demanding gaming titles on it feels smooth and responsive, and things are only looking up in this regard in the future. If you are really eager to board the early-adopter train with the Mate Xs, though, just be prepared to deal with some "fiddly" tweaks and issue on a per-game and per-app basis here and there.