29-03-2025
Huawei launches first foldable smartphone running on home-grown HarmonyOS Next platform
Huawei Technologies on Thursday launched a new foldable smartphone running on its home-grown HarmonyOS operating system, as the tech giant builds on the revival of its lucrative handset business despite US sanctions.
The Pura X, under its premium Pura brand, is a vertically-folded device that features a bigger 6.3-inch screen, with a 16:10 aspect ratio similar to a tablet. The device had a smaller 3.5-inch screen on the back, which supported features including phone calls and mobile payments, Richard Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei's consumer business group, said at the launch in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.
The phone runs on Huawei's HarmonyOS Next operating system, the latest iteration of its mobile platform that is not compatible with Android. It is the second phone built on the updated system after the Huawei Mate 70 series, unveiled in November.
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Huawei's comeback in the smartphone market is a sign of Chinese resilience under US technology restrictions. Huawei surprised many industry observers with an in-house 5G chip used in the Mate 60 in 2023, and the company impressed the world with the launch of the world's first trifold phone in 2024.
The new Huawei Pura X foldable smartphone. Photo: Handout alt=The new Huawei Pura X foldable smartphone. Photo: Handout>
While Huawei may not have access to the most advanced chips, Yu said HarmonyOS offered "a 40 per cent performance improvement" over Android. Yu said earlier this month that over 20,000 native apps and services had been made available on HarmonyOS Next, with 20 apps exceeding 2 million downloads. Huawei expects all of its smartphones and tablets to run the new operating system this year.
The new Pura X, which is available in five colour options, has a starting price of 7,499 yuan (US$1,037). At that price level, it does not qualify for China's government subsidy scheme that provides a 15 per cent subsidy for purchasing smartphones, tablets and smartwatches that cost under 6,000 yuan, a sign that the company is committed to expanding its presence in the premium market.
Last year, HarmonyOS saw increased adoption in the world's largest smartphone market. In the three months ended December 31, its market share reached 19 per cent, the fourth consecutive quarter that it was ahead of Apple's iOS. Android remained the dominant mobile operating system on the mainland with a fourth-quarter share of 64 per cent, while Apple's iOS held a share of 17 per cent last quarter, according to Counterpoint Research.
Huawei led China's smartphone market in January, on the back of the government subsidy scheme that started on January 20. Total sales from January 20 to 26, the first week of the programme, jumped 65 per cent year on year to over 9.5 million units, according to Counterpoint data.
Apple, whose latest iPhone 16 models do not qualify for the subsidies due to their premium positioning, last month introduced the budget-priced iPhone 16e, which can receive a 500-yuan discount in China if it is not the model with 512-gigabytes of storage.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
