I only recently learned that the popular idiom “seeing is believing” is a serious misreading of Thomas Fuller’s original quote. A 17th century English clergyman *actually* said, “Seeing is believing, but feeling is truth” (thank you, Reddit scholars). That slightly modified version sums up my feelings towards the Huawei Mate XT pretty well.
Of course, I had read (and seen photos of) the world’s first commercially available dual-screen tri-fold smartphone before visiting Huawei’s UK PR agency for the recent product launch. But it wasn’t until I got my hands on the Mate XT at this same event that I realized I’d been wrong to dismiss Huawei’s headline-grabbing phablet as an expensive gimmick (though, of course, Fuller’s words *emotional I know I’m referring to *feelings), but in a humorous way).
When the Mate XT hit shelves in China earlier this year, I was pretty cynical and thought Huawei’s trifold phone is so expensive that you could buy four PS5 Pros (or 5,620 Twinkies) for the same price. I wrote that. That’s still true, but once you actually get your hands on the actual product, you can see why the Mate XT has probably received over 3 million pre-orders in the domestic market.
@techradar ♬Original song – TechRadar
For those unfamiliar, the Huawei Mate XT is a completely new type of foldable smartphone. Instead of folding once like a book, you can fold it twice like a 3-page brochure (I thought it was a mistake to call this at first, by the way). It was called a “tri-fold device” (I only later realized that name, given that it can only be folded in one direction). The USP here is clear. From a portability standpoint, you get three displays for the price of one.
The Mate XT measures 6.4 inches when folded and a whopping 10.2 inches when fully unfolded. By the way, that’s about 2.6 inches larger than the single-hinged Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, and not too far from the size of Apple’s iPad 10.9 (2022) when fully extended.
When I first read about the Mate XT, I understood the benefits of the Z-shaped form factor, but I thought it would feel flimsy and that the two creases would be too noticeable to ignore. In both cases, I was happy to be proven wrong.
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This is a sturdy-feeling phone with a hinge that allows it to stay in place at any angle. It doesn’t open or close and uses magnets so it stays closed when you need it. We weren’t able to stream any content on the Mate XT, but at first glance its creases are visible, but on par with those on the Honor Magic V3. This is the shallowest and least noticeable crease of any current folding crop. ” From a design perspective, this is amazing.
We weren’t able to test the Mate XT’s power, but it’s an impressive beast in terms of specs. It runs on Huawei’s proprietary Kirin 9010 chipset and 16GB RAM, with storage options ranging from 256GB to 1TB.
The phone’s 5,600mAh battery is similarly powerful (on paper) and supports 66W wired charging and 50W wireless charging when paired with Huawei’s SuperCharge charger.
The Mate XT’s front camera has a three-lens rear setup consisting of a 50MP main lens, a 12MP ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 12MP periscope lens, while an 8MP selfie camera rounds out Huawei’s three-screen photography capabilities.
So what you get here is a standard flagship folding spec in a decidedly non-standard (and much more convenient) design package. Foldable phones have long promised to offer tablet-style utility in a more convenient form factor. While we’re big fans of today’s best foldable phones, like the Galaxy Z Fold 6, Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and OnePlus Open, these products are still less mobile than genuine problem-solvers. It feels like an awkward middle ground between a phone and a tablet.
The Huawei Mate XT is currently only available in China, so it’s unlikely to make it through the full review process any time soon, but as a window into the potential future of foldable devices on this side of the world, it’s a very It’s an exciting product. device.
In fact, Samsung is rumored to be developing its own tri-fold phone, which could launch as early as 2025, so we’ll be getting hands-on experience with various tri-fold devices in the coming months. I hope that I will have more time.
