Huawei Mate 20 X specs were bound to be the main topic of its stage event yesterday, but it’s how the budget smartphone maker justified its new device that caught some off guard. Directly calling out the Nintendo Switch as prime competition, the Huawei Mate 20 X specs are being flaunted as enough to take on Nintendo’s thriving handheld.
Originally touted by Nintendo as more a replacement for the Wii U rather than the 3DS, the Nintendo Switch sits comfortably in the minds of many as a bit of both. It’s designed to deliver HD gaming on your home TV while being small enough to use as a handheld gaming console on the go. But what the Nintendo Switch certainly isn’t as a smartphone, and Huawei thinks the new Huawei Mate 20 X specs mean it can target the same demographic.
Huawei Mate 20 X specs are, for the most part, very capable. According to Nintendo Life, Huawei has packed a new Kirin 980 SoC into the phone with a 7.2 inch 1080p display, meaning the device has a bigger and clearer screen compared to the switch – as do most phones today. It isn’t obvious just how much power the new Kirin 980 chip has behind it, but with the Tegra X1 powering the Nintendo Switch not being all that new anymore, there’s solid reason to believe this phone can throw a punch.
But there’s more to it than that. The Huawei Mate 20 X will release with a single-side grip attachment that adds joystick and d-pad controls to the phone and selected games. The thing is, they used Arena of Valor, China’s biggest mobile game right now, as an example when touch controls are considered to be far more suited to the game than the Nintendo Switch joy-con control method, rending the sole comparison somewhat irrelevant.
The Huawei Mate 20 X specs obviously trump the Nintendo Switch in a bunch of ways, and with a 5000mAH battery, this thing will keep on gaming long after Nintendo’s console powers down. But while Huawei might call its new device “the best portable gaming machine”, its $1000+ price tag and lack of proper first and third party Nintendo software support will keep it far away from Nintendo’s corner.
