Huawei Launches Mate XT Ultimate Edition
Following months of leaks and teasers, Huawei has finally launched its Mate XT Ultimate Edition. The tri-fold smartphone is here to eat the lunch of its foldable smartphone competitors and steal some of Apple's spotlight.
It's powered by a 5600mAh world's thinnest silicon carbon large-capacity battery and boasts the XMAGE imaging system with a 50MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide-angle, and a 12MP periscope telephoto.
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The Foldable Screen
The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Edition is one of the most innovative foldable smartphones you can buy. The flagship device is the first triple-foldable smartphone to hit the market and, when unfolded, it has a display size of up to 10.2 inches. That's impressive, even by the high standards set by the folding phone industry.
When the phone is closed, it has a 6.4-inch OLED display and looks like a normal smartphone with a circular camera bump. Then it can be folded into what Huawei calls dual and triple-screen modes. The dual screen resembles a square and the triple-screen mode is a rectangular tablet. The hinge that supports these different modes is made from multi-directional bending flexible materials and it's 25% stronger than those on other folding phones.
In its fully folded state, the smartphone is 3.6 mm thick and weighs 298 grams. That's lighter than most flagships and about the same as the Samsung Galaxy Fold, which is also 3.6 mm thick when open. The device is expected to go on sale in China in the coming days. The company is taking pre-orders for the device starting at CNY 19,999 (roughly Rs 2,35,800) for a model with 256GB of storage. A 512GB model costs CNY 21,999 and the top-spec 1TB version costs CNY 23,999.
Interestingly, the phone will be available in two colors: black and a deep red color called "Ruihong" which translates to "prosperity." Both have gold accents around the hinges, edges, and camera island surrounds.
Another unique feature is the four cameras on the back of the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Edition. The primary shooter is a 50MP unit with variable aperture technology. There's also a 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera and a 16MP periscope-style zoom camera.
The smartphone has a 5,600mAh battery and supports 66W wired and wireless charging. It's also got a new type of fingerprint sensor that's placed underneath the power button on the right side. Huawei says it's more responsive and accurate than traditional sensors. The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate is available for pre-order now and will be launched in China on September 20, the same day as Apple's iPhone 16 series launch.
The Triple Cameras
Huawei’s Mate XT Ultimate Edition is the first tri-fold phone, offering smartphone mode with a standard 6.4-inch display, tablet mode with a 7.9-inch one when partially unfurled and an immersive 10.2-inch experience when fully unfolded. It’s also the world’s thinnest foldable phone, at 3.6 mm when open and 12.8 mm when closed. This is made possible by a pair of hinges that are 25% stronger than those on other folding smartphones, says Huawei.
It’s no surprise then that the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Edition is not cheap. It’s available in China from September 20, starting at Y=19,999 ($2,808) for a 256GB model. That’s equivalent to the price of two top-end gaming PCs.
The XT Ultimate Edition boasts a triple camera array on the back, including a 50MP primary sensor with variable aperture and an optical image stabilisation (OIS), a 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 12MP 5.5x periscope telephoto camera. It also has an 8MP front-facing camera. Huawei has dubbed the camera set-up “XMAGE”.
As well as a flexible OLED screen, the Mate XT Ultimate Design has a 5,600mAh world’s thinnest silicon carbon large-capacity battery and supports 66W wired fast charging and 50W wireless fast charging. It has a screen-on time of up to 15 days, claims Huawei, although it didn’t say how much that would be when the phone is in tablet mode with all three screens active.
On the software side, the XT Ultimate runs on Huawei’s HarmonyOS, which promises a range of features designed to optimise the foldable tablet-sized screen for multi-tasking. These include AI photo editing, split-screen summary, voice input and translation, satellite calling, cross-device clipboard and smart multi-window.
The XT Ultimate is available in Black and a deep red shade called Ruihong which translates to prosperity, with gold accents around the hinges, edges and camera island surrounds. It will go on sale in China on September 20 — the same day as Apple’s newly announced iPhone 16. The company hasn’t revealed any plans to bring it to other markets. But it’s likely to have a lot of competitors, including Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, which has already been released in select markets.
The AI Features
Huawei has crammed a lot of impressive technology into its triple-foldable that launched just hours after Apple unveiled its iPhone 16. The company’s foldable boasts a 10.2-inch flexible OLED screen, a 50-megapixel camera, 12MP ultrawide and 12MP periscope rear cameras and an 8MP selfie shooter. It also packs in a Kirin 9 chipset, 16GB of RAM, 256/512/1TB storage options, and a 5,600mAh battery.
While all that might sound very impressive, the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Edition’s biggest selling point is its AI features. The tri-fold is packed with a host of advanced tools that can help users create and edit content with ease. Its AI Senior Editor, for instance, resides in the Celia keyboard and can automatically rewrite text for you with a better tone of voice or translate it to your preferred language. It can also transcribe audio and read texts out loud to you.
Another cool feature is its ability to refocus the lens and camera sensor on a moving object. This allows it to capture crisper images in low-light conditions. A physical aperture is also present, which helps in capturing varying degrees of depth-of-field.
The Mate XT Ultimate Design can be used as an iPad replacement due to its large screen and split-screen functionality, which is perfect for reading or doing work on the go. The smartphone also comes with a built-in folding keyboard that can be used when the device is in tablet mode to offer a more desktop-like experience.
The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Edition is available for pre-order in China starting today and will start shipping on September 20th. The price starts at 19,999 yuan ($2,800) for the base model with 256GB of memory. It is also bundled with Freebuds 5 earbuds, a USB Type-C cable, and charger.
It is unlikely that Huawei will release the Mate XT Ultimate Edition outside of its home country, especially with the US trade ban against the company. However, a non-Ultimate version of the phone may be released in the future. If it does, it will be the first foldable smartphone to launch in the market with a full-sized display.
The Price
Huawei’s tri-fold smartphone is expensive, though perhaps not as much as you’d expect. At a glitzy showcase just hours after Apple’s iPhone 16 launch event, Huawei launched the Mate XT Ultimate Edition, dubbed “the world’s first foldable AI smartphone with three large screens.” The phone is dual-hinged and uses what Huawei calls a ‘Tiangong’ hinge system.
The phones are sold in Dark Black and Rui Red color options, with the base model costing CNY 19,999 (roughly Rs 2,35,900). There’s also a 256GB variant that costs CNY 21,999 (roughly Rs 2,59,500) and a 1TB version that costs CNY 23,999 (roughly Rs 2,83,000). Both are available for preorder on Vmall and will be available in China starting September 20.
There are a lot of promises packed into the phones, including multi-screen wallpapers, smart multi-window, cross-device clipboard, super privacy mode, satellite calling, and AI photo editing. There’s also the foldable touch keyboard that lets users turn the phone into a laptop-like device, which might be useful for productivity enthusiasts.
What’s really notable, however, is the camera setup. The phones have a 50-megapixel main camera that has a variable aperture ranging from f/1.4 to f/4.0, along with a 12MP ultrawide and a 12-megapixel periscope telephoto. A front-facing 8MP camera completes the setup.
As a premium device, the phone is going to be out of reach for many consumers. The prices aren’t unreasonable for a flagship phone, but they are high enough to be off-putting for most people. It’s also unclear if the company will sell the phone outside of China.
It seems like the triple-screen Mate XT Ultimate Edition will generate plenty of buzz in China, which is probably exactly what Huawei wanted. It’ll be interesting to see how many of the phones actually make it to customers, though. Huawei’s folding smartphone will be tough to sell in a market saturated with smartphones from Apple, Samsung, and LG. Huawei is betting big on the Mate XT Ultimate Edition, but its success may depend on whether or not it can convince consumers to spend a lot of money on what is basically a tablet with a camera.