Move over Apple, Huawei debuts tri-fold smartphone Mate XT [VIDEO]

Apple’s “It’s Glow Time” has been dampened with the launch of the world’s first triple foldable smartphone from Huawei.

While Apple presented what was touted as a “much-anticipated” event, the new iPhone 16 series summed up gives consumers basically a fancy new “Camera Button” and faster chipset.

However, this paled in comparison to Huawei’s triple foldable smartphone, the Mate XT from a brand that has been sanctioned for almost 6 years by the US.

Watch Huawei’s new tri-fold smartphone Mate XT

The world’s first triple foldable phone has arrived. Breaking boundaries and redefining possibilities. Delivering an immersive and dynamic experience completely unlike anything you have ever imagined. #HUAWEIMateXT #ULTIMATEDESIGN pic.twitter.com/gKnt5QTo5W

— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) September 11, 2024

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Competition

The Chinese company just raised the stakes in a battle to dominate the global smartphone market with the triple foldable smartphone.

Other brands, like Google, Honor, Samsung and Oppo will have a lot of catching up to do if they don’t have anything up their sleeves already.

Huawei officially introduced the Mate XT, hours after Apple’s event in a keynote presentation by Huawei executive Richard Yu at the firm’s headquarters in the southern city of Shenzhen.

“This is the world’s first triple-folding phone. We have put in a huge amount of effort into solving the problems regarding mass production and product reliability,” Yu said at the keynote.

Features

When fully unfolded, the device measures 10.2 inches in diagonal. Folding the left section behind reduces it to a 7.9-inch foldable, and folding the right side transforms it into a compact 6.4-inch bar-style phone.

Despite the complex design, the Mate XT is impressively thin at 3.6mm (unfolded) and weighs just 298 grams, even with its large camera setup based on the Mate X5 foldable.

The device technically features a single screen − a flexible LTPO OLED with a 120 Hz refresh rate and support for 10 billion colours.

Huawei said the screen has a 92% screen-to-body ratio, with the fully unfolded 10.2-inch display boasting a 16.11 aspect ratio.

The new phone boasts an AI assistant with text summary, translation and editing functions, as well as AI-boosted image editing functions such as trimming unwanted parts of photos.

Availability and pricing

Observers said the Mate XT Ultimate would boost the company’s “technological leadership”.

“It will fortify its position as a leader in the foldable phone sector among consumers,” Toby Zhu, senior analyst at Canalys, told AFP.

The Mate XT officially goes on sale on 20 September, with prices beginning at an eye-watering $2 800 (about R50 000).

The device has already received more than 4 million pre-orders, for which no deposit is required, according to the company’s website.

There is no indication whether the Mate XT will be coming to South Africa.

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