China tech giant Huawei unveils 5G phone at Mobile World event + video

The biggest show in mobile tech: Mobile World Congress is underway in Barcelona, and one company looms large over the event — China’s Huawei.

It grabbed the spotlight Sunday by unveiling a foldable 5G device with an eye-catching price tag. The cheapest version of the Mate X, which is set to compete with Samsung’s recently announced Galaxy Fold, goes for $2,600.

Here’s a video preview:

The devices are clearly innovative but it may be a while before consumers can take full advantage of their features.

“No matter how innovative and technology advanced the new device is, it will take a lot more time for a critical mass of consumers to experience the benefits of foldable phones and 5G technology,” Thomas Husson, an analyst at Forrester, told CNN Business.

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Huawei’s standoff with the United States is also likely to feature in many of the conversations this week about the future of wireless technology. Huawei is a crucial part of China’s efforts to advance super-fast 5G networks but it has been labeled a national security threat by the United States, which is lobbying other countries not to use its equipment.

Samsung unveils next-gen smartphones from foldable $2,000 device to 5G

“This is not something that should be decided by politics,” Huawei chairman Guo Ping said Sunday in Barcelona. The company has repeatedly denied that its products pose a security threat.

Guo said he was hoping “independent sovereign states” will make “independent decisions based on their own understanding of the situation and will not just listen to someone else’s order.”