Huawei unveils world’s first tri-fold smartphone

The Mate XT is the most expensive foldable with a starting price of $2800.

On Tuesday, Huawei unveiled the first smartphone with a triple-folding screen, hours after the launch of the Apple iPhone 16.

"Today, we bring you a product that everyone can think of but could not make. Our team has been working hard for five years and has never given up," Huawei executive director Richard Yu said at the launch event in China.

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

When unfolded, the Mate XT's screen measures 10.2 inches, larger than that of some tablets, while the cover screen is 6.4 inches with a resolution of 2232 x 1008 pixels.

The Mate XT is equipped with a 50 MP main camera with optical image stabilization and two 12MP wide-angle and periscope telephoto cameras.

The battery capacity is 5600 mAh, supporting 66W wired and 50W wireless charging.

The new Huawei flagship, which will be powered by Huawei’s own Kirin 9 series chips, will come at a high price. The base version with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage will cost around $2800 while the version with 1TB will cost around $3400.

In comparison, the base version of Samsung’s book-style foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 6, which previously was the most expensive foldable, starts at $1900 for a base version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of Storage.

According to Huawei’s website, more than four million people have preordered the smartphone with no deposit required.

However, it shouldn’t be a major driving force for the Chinese company, which, according to an IDC report, was the biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world in the second quarter.

While many companies are launching foldable smartphones, they remain a niche product for now. IDC data show that in the second quarter, foldables made up around 1.3% of the total 292 million smartphones shipped globally.

🚨 Huawei reveals a smartphone with a triple-fold design#Huawei pic.twitter.com/ev0trBnQJw

undefined BigBreakingWire (@BigBreakingWire) September 10, 2024