Huawei Launches Its Second Tri-Fold — Where’s Yours, Samsung?

While Samsung fans eagerly wait for the debut of the first Galaxy tri-fold smartphone, Huawei takes the spotlight once again. The Chinese rival has today unveiled its second-generation tri-fold, the Huawei Mate XTs. The device comes as a minor upgrade over its predecessor, with new color options and stylus support.

Huawei unveils its second-generation tri-fold smartphone

Last year, Huawei launched its Mate XT, the world’s first tri-fold smartphone, in China. The device brought a major leap to smartphone innovation with its unique folding mechanism. It adopted an S-shaped design, allowing users to fold a single flexible screen in two places (one inward and the other outward). The latest Mate XTs also follow the same design language with a 10.2-inch folding LTPO OLED display. It measures 6.4 inches in single-screen, while it expands to 7.9 inches in dual-screen.

The panel supports a 90Hz refresh rate, 1440Hz high-frequency PWM dimming, and a maximum touch sampling rate of 240Hz. The phone measures 3.8mm (unfolded) and 12.8mm (folded) while weighing 298 g. Under the hood, it uses the Kirin 9020 chipset, an upgrade from the Kirin 9010 found in the original Mate XT. The new chip promises 36% faster performance compared to the Kirin 9010. It has 16GB of RAM across all configurations with up to 1TB of storage.

For photography, the Mate XTs feature a 50MP main camera, a 40MP ultrawide shooter, and a 12MP periscope telephoto unit. The device packs a 5,600 mAh battery with support for 66W wired, 50W wireless, and 7.5W reverse wireless charging. It is available in black, red, purple, and white colors with a starting price of CNY 17,999 (approx. $2,520) in China. There is no word yet on its availability in global markets.

Meanwhile, Samsung is gearing up to launch its first tri-fold smartphone by the end of this year. Now that Huawei has unveiled its second tri-fold, it’s high time for Samsung to debut its offering as soon as possible to compete in the evolving foldable market. However, the Korean company does not expect high demand and plans to ship about 50,000 units of tri-fold initially.