Huawei gives the iPhone 16 Pro Max a visual fix with the Mate X6’s fourth sensor

During a Parisian event, I was able to get my hands on the Huawei Mate X6. Equipped with a 6.45-inch external screen and a 7.93-inch internal screen, it offers a slightly larger display area than the Magic V3.

However, its dimensions are a little smaller in width and identical in height. In terms of thickness, it’s a tenth of a millimeter. We therefore salute the feat since the Magic V3 really impressed us when it was released. Huawei is well placed on the compactness of its foldable smartphone.

The grip is comfortable and its weight is not excessive for this format (239 grams). A shell with integrated foot is available as an option. It makes it easier to use the device on a table.

In photos, the sensor that changes everything

But what interests us most is on the back of the Mate X6. It is the immense photo module that one could say “Chinese style” as only the manufacturers of the Middle Kingdom equip their devices with immense optical units.

On the Mate X6, it has four lenses, or rather three conventional ones and a bonus:

• a 50 Mpx wide-angle with variable focal length (f/1.4-f/4.0)
• a 40 Mpx ultra wide-angle (f/2.2)
• a 48 Mpx x4 telephoto lens (f/3.0)

Huawei makes fewer concessions than the competition on the photo aspect of its foldable smartphone and it even adds in-house hardware technology: the Ultra Chroma Camera.

This additional sensor is there to capture the true colors of things by working in concert with the other three sensors. Whatever the situation, the Mate X6 must therefore reproduce colors faithfully.

Thanks to a few workshops set up at the presentation venue, I was able to judge for myself the effectiveness of this sensor… and I was amazed.

The Mate X6 makes the iPhone look colorblind

Armed with a Mate X6 and my iPhone 16 Pro Max, I therefore satisfied all the tests offered by comparing the results of the two devices.

The first workshop displayed a whole bunch of red elements on a red background. A particularly difficult exercise for smartphones, especially since the apartment we were in was bathed in sunlight, pushing out the reflections. In short, the conditions were not optimal.

And in the game of comparison, Huawei is the first slap in the face. The result is more contrasted, more saturated from the Chinese manufacturer and the different gradations of red are better rendered and (take my word for it) correspond more to what we were given to see.

The other workshop was there to demonstrate the power of the ultra chroma sensor. On one side the Mate X6, on the other any phone. Below, a colored roller and an LED whose color can be varied. The goal is to see if the phone tested manages to reproduce the colors displayed well.

In this game, the Mate X6 is also a champion. Clearly the iPhone 15 Pro placed here is almost color blind. We repeated the operation with an Honor Magic 7 Pro and there, the results are tighter with still a small advantage for the Mate X6, slightly less saturated.

Finally, a third test point was plunged into darkness. A scene with a few objects was lit by blue light. And it will speak to all those who take photos in the evening with flickering lights and spotlights galore. It is extremely complicated to obtain a good rendering with such a framework.

Here, Huawei’s ultra chroma sensor corrects the colorimetry so as not to make an image blue, but to bring out the true colors of the objects.

The exercise is also interesting, but we observe some imperfections, particularly on the tomato which has a few areas burned by the light. However, the result is still a thousand miles from the rendering of the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The Mate X6 is desirable, it’s cheaper, but still without Google services

As usual, Huawei always innovates very strongly in smartphone photography. Besides, it’s not for nothing that you voted it best in photos compared to the Galaxy S24 Ultra during our blind poll. The Mate X6 brings a new stone with its ultra chroma which turns out to be much more than a gadget. A great development which unfortunately is found on a device that is difficult to recommend.

Like all Huawei smartphones for several years, it runs under EMUI 15 and does not have Google services. Without these security breaches, it is impossible to access the PlayStore, for example. Huawei shows many alternatives, but I will never install my banking applications from APK, for example.

And to this, we must add the price asked by Huawei: 1999 euros. It’s still 200 euros less than the Mate X3, its predecessor. A pricing effort that places the Mate X6 at the same level as the Magic V3, Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 6.