Huawei is expected to unveil its Mate XT tri-fold next week on Tuesday, September 10. We've already seen photos of the device in the wild. Fully opened, the phone offers a massive 10-inch screen and is less than 5mm thick. Of course, Huawei's own HarmonyOS comes pre-installed and the rear cameras are embedded in an octagonal camera module on the back of the foldable.
Richard Yu, long-time consumer chief at Huawei, said: “This is a product that others may have imagined but failed to bring to life. We have turned science fiction into reality. Stay tuned for Huawei's masterpiece!” The Mate XT will reportedly have 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM with 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. A teaser video for the Huawei Mate XT has been released and it appears with the back flipped up as a film editor runs a roll of film through his equipment. The Mate XT appears to have a back made of a leather-like material.
For a brief second, we see the movie editor looking at the tri-fold device's internal display while all three screens are open. Note that this phone won't be available in the US, and even if you import it to the UK, it won't run Google Play Services.
Speculations suggest that the phone will cost the equivalent of $4,000, about double the price of Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 6. Besides the price, you know what else could be doubled? The number of creases that spoil the experience of viewing the 10-inch interior screen. But since Huawei can continue to innovate despite the US sanctions, perhaps the company has found a way to eliminate the creases or reduce their severity.
One important thing about the Mate XT that we don’t know is which Kirin chip will power the device. Huawei is capable of developing 5G chips built by China's largest foundry, SMIC, although the foundry appears to be limited to 7nm production. That's two generations behind TSMC and Samsung Foundry's 3nm chipsets.
We should know more about the Mate XT on Tuesday, so check back for the latest on the launch of the first tri-fold phone.