In the hours following Apple's iPhone 16 announcement, Huawei stepped onto the world stage with something no company had managed before: a phone that folds not once but twice, expanding from a pocket-sized screen into a tablet in the palm of one's hand. The Mate XT Ultimate Design, priced at $2,800 and available only in China, is less a mass-market product than a declaration — that Huawei, despite years of U.S. sanctions, has not merely survived but pushed the boundary of what a handheld device can be. In the long arc of technological rivalry, this moment belongs to a company reclaiming its pl
Huawei Launches World's First Triple-Foldable Phone at $2,800, Challenging Apple
A device that folds twice, expanding from phone to tablet in seconds
Mark
Why did Huawei time this announcement to land just hours after Apple's iPhone event? That feels deliberate.
Mimi
It absolutely was. Huawei wanted to position itself as the innovator in the moment when Apple was announcing its new phones. In China especially, where Huawei has real market momentum, the message was clear: we're doing something Apple hasn't figured out yet.
Luke
But we should be careful here—the timing is symbolic, not necessarily strategic in terms of sales. The Mate XT is $2,800 and only available in China. It's not going to outsell iPhones. It's a statement device.
Mark
Four million preorders without a deposit required—that's a huge number. Does that mean people actually want this phone?
Mimi
It's impressive, but preorders without deposits are easier to rack up. People can reserve without committing money. That said, Huawei does lead the global foldables market with 27.5 percent share, so there's real demand for their folding phones generally.
Luke
Right, and the foldables market itself is growing—up 37.6 percent year-over-year. But we don't know how many of those preorders will convert to actual purchases, or what the return rate might be on a $2,800 device.
Mark
What's the actual innovation here beyond "it folds twice"?
Mimi
The hinge system is the engineering story. Huawei says it uses two tracks working in tandem to support folds in both directions. That's not trivial—getting a screen to fold reliably in multiple ways is mechanically complex. They also included a physical aperture on the camera, which is rare.
Luke
Those are real features, but we're getting Huawei's own description of the hinge. We haven't seen independent teardowns or durability testing yet. The physical aperture is interesting, but it's not clear how much that matters in practice compared to electronic variable apertures.
Mark
Apple doesn't have a foldable yet. Is Huawei actually winning something here?
Mimi
In China, yes. Apple's iPhone sales there have declined, and Apple Intelligence—their big AI feature—isn't available in mainland China due to regulations. Huawei is positioned as the local tech leader doing things Apple can't do yet.
Luke
But Apple's absence from the foldables market isn't because they can't innovate—it's a strategic choice. They're waiting. And when they do enter, they'll have enormous resources and brand loyalty. Huawei's lead in foldables is real, but it's not necessarily durable.
O Pulso
- Huawei timed its announcement to land hours after Apple's iPhone 16 reveal, a deliberate act of competitive theater aimed squarely at China's smartphone consumers.
- The engineering feat is real: a dual-track hinge system allows the device to fold inward and outward, moving fluidly between a 6.4-inch phone, a 7.9-inch tablet, and a 10.2-inch display — configurations no commercial phone has offered before.
- Despite a $2,800 starting price and no required deposit, over 4 million Chinese consumers placed preorders, signaling fierce appetite for Huawei's return to dominance.
- Apple, meanwhile, is losing ground in China — absent from the top five smartphone makers in Q2 2024 and unable to offer Apple Intelligence due to local AI regulations, leaving its flagship iPhone 16 pitch incomplete in its most contested market.
- Huawei now commands 27.5% of the global foldables market, ahead of Samsung's 16.4%, and the Mate XT cements that lead not through volume but through the symbolic weight of doing what rivals only prototyped.
In the hours following Apple's iPhone 16 announcement, Huawei stepped onto the world stage with something no company had managed before: a phone that folds not once but twice, expanding from a pocket-sized screen into a tablet in the palm of one's hand. The Mate XT Ultimate Design, priced at $2,800 and available only in China, is less a mass-market product than a declaration — that Huawei, despite years of U.S. sanctions, has not merely survived but pushed the boundary of what a handheld device can be. In the long arc of technological rivalry, this moment belongs to a company reclaiming its place at the frontier.
Huawei unveiled the Mate XT Ultimate Design on Tuesday, timing the announcement to land just hours after Apple introduced the iPhone 16 — a calculated move to seize the narrative in China's fiercely contested smartphone market. The device earns its headline: it is the first triple-foldable phone ever brought to commercial production.
Closed, it resembles a standard smartphone with a 6.4-inch screen. One unfold reveals a near-square 7.9-inch display; a second unfold stretches it to 10.2 inches, crossing into tablet territory. The mechanism behind this transformation is a dual-track hinge that supports folds bending both inward and outward simultaneously — an engineering challenge that has kept rivals from reaching this point. The flexible display is built to endure repeated bending in either direction without degrading.
The base model starts at roughly $2,800, with premium storage configurations approaching $3,370. The price has not dampened enthusiasm: more than 4 million preorders were placed through Huawei's Chinese storefront, with no deposit required. The camera array includes a physical aperture — a rare feature among modern flagships — alongside a 50-megapixel ultrawide and dual 12-megapixel lenses.
The launch carries strategic weight beyond the hardware itself. Huawei's smartphone business had contracted severely under U.S. sanctions, yet the company now holds 27.5% of the global foldables market, ahead of Samsung's 16.4%. The broader foldable segment is growing fast, with shipments forecast to rise from 18.1 million units in 2023 to 25 million by year's end, and potentially 45.7 million by 2028.
For Apple, the timing is uncomfortable. The company fell out of China's top five smartphone makers in the second quarter of 2024, and Apple Intelligence — the AI centerpiece of the iPhone 16 — remains unavailable in mainland China due to regulatory requirements around local AI partnerships. IDC analyst Will Wong noted that while the Mate XT's price and limited production will constrain its sales impact, the device sends a clear message: Huawei is a technology leader again. Samsung and TCL both showed trifold concepts years ago; neither brought one to market. Huawei has.
Huawei announced the Mate XT Ultimate Design on Tuesday, hours after Apple unveiled the iPhone 16 lineup—a deliberate timing that underscored the Chinese company's ambition to capture attention in its home market. The device represents a genuine engineering milestone: it is the first triple-foldable phone to reach commercial production anywhere in the world.
When closed, the Mate XT looks like an ordinary smartphone with a 6.4-inch cover screen. Unfold it once and the display expands to 7.9 inches in what Huawei calls dual-screen mode, shaped roughly like a square. Unfold it again and the screen stretches to 10.2 inches—tablet territory. The engineering challenge lies in the hinge system, which Huawei says uses two tracks working in parallel to support folds that bend both inward and outward, allowing the device to move seamlessly between all three configurations. The display itself is made from flexible materials engineered to withstand repeated bending in either direction.
The base model carries a price tag of 19,999 yuan, approximately $2,800, with the highest storage variant reaching 23,999 yuan, or about $3,370. Despite the cost, the device has already accumulated over 4 million preorders through Huawei's online store in China, where it is currently the only available market. No deposit was required to reserve one. The camera system includes a 50-megapixel ultrawide lens, two 12-megapixel cameras (one ultrawide, one periscope telephoto), and an 8-megapixel front camera. A notable feature is a physical aperture that adjusts to control light intake—a rarity in modern phones, where most flagships use fixed or electronically variable apertures instead.
The timing of the launch matters as much as the device itself. Huawei's smartphone business had contracted sharply in recent years following U.S. sanctions, yet the company has recently reclaimed the top position in the global foldables market. According to IDC's second-quarter report, Huawei now holds 27.5 percent of the worldwide foldable market, surpassing Samsung, which captured 16.4 percent. The broader foldable category is expanding rapidly: the market shipped 18.1 million units in 2023 and is forecast to reach 25 million by the end of 2024, a 37.6 percent increase. By 2028, IDC projects foldable shipments will climb to 45.7 million units globally.
Yet the Mate XT's prohibitive price and production constraints mean it is unlikely to drive massive sales volume. What it does accomplish is signal technological leadership and pose a challenge to Apple that extends beyond market share alone. Apple's first foldable phone is not expected until 2025 at the earliest, with current speculation pointing toward a flip design. More immediately, Apple faces headwinds in China: the company dropped out of the top five smartphone makers there in the second quarter of 2024, losing ground to Huawei and Xiaomi. Apple Intelligence, the AI platform central to the iPhone 16 series, remains unavailable in mainland China because Apple would need to partner with a local AI company to comply with Chinese regulations.
Will Wong, an analyst at IDC, told CNET that while the Mate XT's production limits and price may not reshape shipment numbers, the device communicates to consumers that Huawei remains a technology leader. The absence of Apple Intelligence in China, he suggested, may compound Apple's competitive difficulties in the region beyond what market share figures alone reveal. The triple-foldable concept itself is not new—Samsung showed trifold display concepts at CES in 2022, and TCL demonstrated one in 2020—but neither company brought the technology to market. Huawei has now done what others only imagined, turning a prototype into a product available for purchase, even if only in one country and at a price most consumers cannot afford.
Citações Notáveis
The production constraints and price point may not have huge impact on shipments, but it tells consumers Huawei is still the tech leader and the challenge to Apple may be far beyond just market share.— Will Wong, IDC analyst
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