Huawei Unveils Mate XTs Trifold Smartphone Before iPhone 17 Launch

tech360.tv
Sep 5
2 min read

Huawei Technologies has launched its second trifold smartphone, the Mate XTs, just five days before Apple is set to unveil its new iPhone 17 series. This new model is more affordable than its predecessor, the Mate XT.

Woman holds and examines a folded white device with a camera, set in a bright room. She looks focused and the device has visible hinge detail. — Credit: Huawei Central

The Mate XTs is powered by Huawei’s self-developed Kirin 9020 chipset and runs on the company’s proprietary HarmonyOS ecosystem. Richard Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group, stated the device boasts a 36% performance improvement during the launch event in Shenzhen on Thursday.

Woman with a bandana uses a large, purple device by a calm sea on a sunny day. The device features a prominent camera lens. — Credit: Huawei Central

The handset features three screens between 3.6mm to 4.75mm thick, which extends into a 10.2-inch display when fully opened. It weighs 298 grams, which is identical to the previous Mate XT model.

Available in four colours, the 256-gigabyte version starts at 17,999 yuan (USD 2,520). Higher storage options are priced at 19,999 yuan and 21,999 yuan, about 2,000 yuan less than comparable versions of the Mate XT.

Huawei product presentation with images of Mate X5 phone. A person is holding the phone by the ocean. Text: "Huawei Mate X5 Ultimate Design." — Credit: Huawei Central

The Mate XTs comes with the new Huawei M-Pen 3 stylus, designed for navigating the device’s interface, as well as for note-taking and sketching. For the first time, Huawei has enabled the installation of apps originally designed for personal computers on a smartphone.

These apps include the desktop version of WPS, a Chinese alternative to Microsoft Office, and Wind, a local competitor to the Bloomberg Terminal, Yu said. He added that HarmonyOS 5, the latest generation of Huawei’s self-developed ecosystem, has amassed 14 million users.

Presales for the Mate XTs commenced on Thursday evening, with deliveries slated to begin on Sept. 12. The Mate XTs highlights Huawei’s confidence in the foldable handset market.

Huawei remains the sole vendor of trifold models, which feature three screens that fold to allow the phone to expand into a larger display when opened. Earlier this year, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics showcased its concept trifold devices, the Flex G and Flex S, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

China’s Xiaomi and Huawei spin-off Honor also applied for design patents for similar gadgets in 2022 and 2011, respectively. Huawei shipped nearly 500,000 units of the Mate XT in the first half of this year.

This expanded the company’s share of China’s foldable handset market to 75%, up 32 percentage points from a year earlier, according to research firm IDC. The Mate XTs arrives just days before Apple’s annual autumn event, where the US company is set to introduce the iPhone 17 family.

Apple is widely expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone next year, ahead of a curved-glass iPhone in 2027 to commemorate the product’s 20th anniversary. While Apple reported a sales boost in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in the June quarter, helped by Beijing’s consumer subsidies, IDC has forecast a 1.9% decline in iPhone shipments in China this year.

This projected decline is attributed to ongoing competition from Huawei and an economic slowdown in the country.

Huawei launched its Mate XTs trifold smartphone ahead of the Apple iPhone 17 reveal.
The Mate XTs features a Kirin 9020 chipset, HarmonyOS, and a 25.91 cm expandable display.
Pricing starts at 17,999 yuan (USD 2,520) for the 256-gigabyte model.

Source: SCMP