Mobile World Congress 2019 is obsessively fixated on two major trends: 5G and foldable phones. So it stands to reason that Huawei's first entrant into both categories should debut at the Barcelona-based trade show. This is the Huawei Mate X. It's super-thin, (supposedly) super-fast, and quite unlike any of the handful of foldables we've seen so far. The price, too, is incredible: €2299, or about $2600. The basic design of this foldable is what you might call an "outie" — the screen's on the outside, as opposed to the Samsung Galaxy Fold, which has its screen on the inside and a secondary display on the shell. (We'd call that one an "innie," by the way.)

All of which means the Mate X can be split into three display sections depending on how it's folded. When it's fully flat it gives you an 8-inch square-ish tablet display (the exact aspect ratio is a slightly odd 8:7.1) at 2480x2200. In everyday phone mode it's got a 6.6-inch 18.5:9 panel at 2480x1148. That's about the same size as a regular large phone, only without the bezels or screen notch you might be expecting. When it's folded shut, the other side of the device houses a 6.38-inch 25:9 display, which sits alongside the camera modules.

The Mate X is a big phone or a small tablet, depending on how you look at it.

That orientation and sheer number of screen configurations takes a while to get your head around, but actually makes a lot of sense in terms of how the Mate X is put together. The folded-out tablet display is simply 100% screen, with dimensions and stats that compare favorably to a smaller tablet. (And without the fringe-style notch of the Galaxy Fold.) You get all the benefits of an Android tablet, such as they are, like multi-window support and easier navigation in apps with multiple panels, like Gmail. The phone-sized panel is exactly what you'd expect: an all-screen front face, with no notch, because there's no need for a front facing camera. It looks like a modern, full-screen smartphone, only thicker and slightly more angular. But before we digress, it's worth underscoring why you don't need a front-facing camera? The answer lies in one of the major strengths of foldable devices like this. Instead of cutting into valuable display real estate, just flip the device around and to reveal a portion of screen there next to the quad Leica camera array. In tablet mode, you get a camera that's as good as a flagship smartphone — at least in theory. While the quad camera pack is Leica-tuned, Huawei wasn't revealing too many further details at its Barcelona preview event. It's safe to say, though, that given Huawei and Leica's track record, this thing should take better photos than your average tablet.

Foldable photography lets you — or your subject — see a preview of the shot.

The foldable nature of the Mate X's display also opens up some unique features in portrait shots. In phone mode, where you're framing up your shot on the larger display, you can let the subject of your shot see what they look like with a rear-facing preview on the smaller chunk of screen. Plus, you can see yourself when you're taking a selfie without the need for a dedicated front-facing camera — meaning your selfies (again, in theory, because we know nothing else about these cameras) look as good as portraits taken with the rear camera of a flagship phone.