Huawei 'Mate X' foldable phone appears to be a thing at MWC 2019 - CNET

Workers putting up a billboard that purportedly shows Huawei's Mate X foldable phone. — @gimme2pm/Twitter

When it comes to the next era of phones, it seems like it'll be fold times.

Samsung unveiled a foldable device this week (called, ahem, the Galaxy Fold). Now rival Huawei looks set to unveil its own bendable buddy.

A photo posted to Twitter on Friday appears to show workers at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona installing a billboard for a gadget called the Mate X.

It seems that like the Galaxy Fold, the Mate X will open up from a phone-size gizmo to become more of a tablet-size device. But unlike the Galaxy Fold, the Mate X's larger screen appears to wrap around the outside of the gadget, instead of being enclosed like a spread in a magazine.

Samsung's Galaxy Fold.

CNET

The ostensible advertisement also touts the Mate X as a 5G device.

The billboard was written about earlier by 9to5Google.

In October, Digital Trends reported that during the launch event for the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro, Huawei CEO Richard Yu said the company was working on "foldable 5G phones." And Huawei's MWC invite featured an image that suggested a foldable device was set to make an appearance at the confab.

Other companies working on foldable phones include LG, Royole (with its Flexpai), TCL and Xiaomi.

Huawei is scheduled to hold a press conference at Mobile World Congress on Sunday at 2 p.m. Barcelona time (5 a.m. PT).

The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the purported billboard for the Mate X.