Samsung Challenges Huawei on Home Turf

Samsung will compete head-on with Huawei as the two giants roll out their new foldable smartphones in China.

Samsung said on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, on Sunday that sales of the Galaxy Fold in China will start on this Friday. The Korean firm will only roll out the LTE or 4G version there for now.

Shortly afterward, on Nov. 15, Huawei will launch its 5G foldable phone, the Mate X.

The Galaxy Fold folds inward, but the Mate X folds outward.

By boldly announcing on Weibo that it is stealing a march on Huawei, Samsung seems to have decided to confront its rival head-on even on its home turf. The Galaxy Fold is thought to be superior to the Mate X in terms of overall specs, and yet it is cheaper at 14,999 yuan versus the Mate X's 16,999 yuan.

But the Chinese government often finds ingenious ways of thwarting foreign challengers to Chinese products, and Chinese consumers are in some ways highly patriotic.