• Chinese 5G phone vendor has produced an innovative folding smartphone to challenge Apple
• The unit has already garnered more than 3 million pre-orders but the outstanding question is…
• Yes, it can fold, but can it process?

Huawei has just delivered a cheeky rabbit punch to Apple and, by extension to the US government, by launching a high-end $2,800 tri-fold smartphone, timed to coincide with Apple’s unveiling of the iPhone 16. 

True to its leaked intention, it unveiled an innovative three-stage folding design, named the Mate XT, allegedly endowed with home-grown chip tech that more or less matches the power and capability of the processors the US government had forbidden Huawei to obtain (as well as forbidding it to acquire the advanced chip-making machinery necessary to produce its own).

According to information shared by Huawei at its Shenzhen launch ceremony, the company was already ranked as the world’s leading foldables seller with a 27.5% market share in the second quarter 2024, beating South Korea's Samsung with its 16.4% share.

The vendor claimed the launch team had been working on the three-fold design for five years and that the surprise device has already garnered 3.6 million pre-orders. When it goes on sale at the same time as its rival, the iPhone 16, on 20 September, it will cost 19,999 yuan ($2,808).

Whether the workaround internals are really up to the job of knocking the iPhone off its market-leading pedestal is a moot point – lots of geeky testing and assessments will be needed to establish that! – but even so, as a lightning propaganda strike, it has to be counted as a triumph.

Huawei has produced a technology workaround and demonstrated that it still had the old innovative magic, as it already proved with the Mate 30, its previous attempt at working its way back into the smartphone race. 

The jury is still out over whether the Mate XT represents a killer blow for Apple (especially in the Chinese market), or merely an annoying jab.

– Ian Scales, Contributing Editor, TelecomTV