Huawei is back with a second generation of its tri-fold phone, and the company means business.
The new Mate XTs Ultimate Edition (to give it its full name) boasts a few notable upgrades compared to the original Mate XT, yet it’s also significantly cheaper in China.
Let’s explore what the new device has to offer, plus whether you might be able to get your hands on one.
Two big upgrades
So, what’s new on the second-gen Mate XT? In short, not a lot. After the original drew acclaim from around the world, it’s probably no surprise that Huawei has taken a light-touch approach.
Essentially, there are two significant upgrades on the Mate XTs. Firstly, the ultrawide lens has increased from 12Mp to 40Mp, while maintaining the f/2.2 focal length and 120-degree field of view.
In theory, that should mean that image quality is more in keeping with the 50Mp main lens, which retains its f/1.4 to f/4.0 variable aperture. The 12Mp, 5.5x periscope telephoto lens and 8Mp selfie camera are also unchanged.
Huawei
Huawei has also equipped the Mate XTs with its latest and greatest Kirin 9020 chipset, up from the Kirin 9010 on its predecessor. When paired with 16GB of RAM, the company claims you can expect a performance boost by up to 36%.
The other upgrades are much more minor, including two new colours (Purple and White) and support for Wi-Fi 7.
The same spellbinding design
Huawei hasn’t made any changes to the design of the Mate XTs, but why would it? The tri-fold form factor (which actually only consists of two folds) was already an incredible feat of engineering that feels like something from the future.
As a reminder, it consists of a 6.4-inch cover display, which opens once to reveal a 7.9-inch screen reminiscent of many book-style foldables. When fully open, the 10.2-inch panel is a similar size to many tablets. The screen is an LTPO OLED, with a refresh rate of 90Hz.
Huawei
Despite all this display, the Mate XTs weighs just 298g. It’s also incredibly slim, clocking in at just 3.6mm when fully unfolded. However, you still get a sizeable 5600mAh battery with 66W charging, stereo speakers and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor.
The device ships running Huawei’s own HarmonyOS 5.1 software, which looks similar to Android but is missing any of Google’s influence.
A nice price drop, but will it ever come to Europe?
Despite the upgrades, Huawei has reduced the starting price compared to the original Mate XT in China. There, you’ll pay at least CNY 17,999 (approx. $2,520), down from CNY 19,999 (approx. $2,800).
Remember, those USD figures are simply direct conversions – Huawei doesn’t sell its devices in the United States. But could the Mate XTs come to Europe? The original Mate XT launched globally in February, but that only includes a handful of countries in Asia, plus Mexico.
Will it be any different this time around? That remains to be seen, with Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy TriFold set to provide competition.
