Announced just a couple of weeks ago, we just got word that the Huawei P50 Pocket – the Chinese company’s first-ever foldable flip phone – is launching here in Malaysia as early as next week. Meant to go against the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3, the P50 Pocket has a more unique circular cover screen, though it also has a higher asking price.

For the Chinese market, the P50 Pocket retails from 8,988 Chinese yuan for the 256GB variant with 8GB of RAM; that comes up to about RM5,900. The Premium Edition (512GB + 12GB) with a unique textured design, on the other hand, costs 10,988 yuan (around RM7,215).

For the sake of comparison, the Z Flip 3 starts at only RM3,999 for the Malaysian market, or as low as RM2,999 when it’s on sale.

Of course, the P50 Pocket does have a number of advantages over the Z Flip 3. When the device is folded, for example, there’s barely any gap, thanks to the “multi-dimensional” hinge design. According to Huawei, the display won’t have any noticeable crease either when it is unfolded.

Other specifications of the P50 Pocket include a 6.9-inch Full HD+ OLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 1.04-inch 340 x 340 circular OLED cover screen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 4G chipset, a triple camera system (40MP primary + 13MP ultra-wide angle + 32MP “ultra spectrum”), a 10.7MP selfie camera, and a 4,000mAh battery.

To recap, the Huawei P50 Pocket will be launched in Malaysia next week on 12 January. It’ll be interesting to see how much the foldable flip phone will cost locally.