In Barcelona this week, ihad the opportunity to spend some time with the new tri-fold Huawei Mate XT. And I’m sold.
While I disagree with calling this a “tri-fold” device since it has only two hinges and not three, this is still a very impressive device from Huawei. It also provides you with additional ways to use your favorite foldable. The main screen, when it is fully folded, is a 6.4-inch display; unfolding it once expands it to a 7.9-inch display, which is primarily square and what we know from other foldable. When you fully unfold it, you are looking at a 10.2-inch display with a 10:11 aspect ratio. Just a tiny bit taller than a regular tablet would be.
This opens up a whole bunch of possibilities for the Mate XT, as you can use it as a phone, as a slightly larger phone, or use it as a full-fledged tablet, and it can all fit in your pocket. Now, that’s what I want from a foldable.
Huawei has addressed one of my biggest complaints with foldables
Since the first foldable I tried, back in 2020 as the Galaxy Fold, I was always annoyed by the square-ish display of the internal displays. It’s not great for watching videos, and it’s really only good for using two apps side-by-side. Providing a wider screen, even a 4:3 aspect ratio like the iPad, would be good. But Huawei has gone above and beyond here, giving us a 16:11 aspect ratio on the internal display.
Since it is still 16:11, you will still get black bars on the sides of video, but they are far smaller. And that makes the video experience so much better. You can also use apps side-by-side here, giving you an incredible multi-tasking experience. This makes the Huawei Mate XT the new multi-tasking king among smartphones – even though this does technically have a 10.2-inch display.
One of the things I’m worried about however, is the outer most hinge. This is because the Mate XT folds in a Z pattern, so part of that screen is going to be on the side of the device. And I can’t help but think it will get scratched quite a bit going in and out of people’s pockets throughout the day. Keep in mind that foldable displays like this, are made of plastic which does scratch easier. That also explains why the screen is very reflective, as you can see in the photos throughout this article.
Huawei just destroyed the foldable market
In a market where Samsung has mostly stuck with the same specs and design for the Galaxy Z Fold for quite a few years now – even using the same size battery since the Galaxy Z Fold 2, Huawei is out here actually innovating. Despite having a third display and a second hinge, the Mate XT still only 12.8mm thick. That is just slightly thicker than the Galaxy Z Fold 6 which has one less hinge, one less display and a 27% smaller battery. No wonder the US government decided Huawei shouldn’t be allowed here.
Above, you can see the Mate XT next to the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the Galaxy Z Fold 6. There’s two things that are glaringly obvious here for me. The thickness of the hinge on the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, two is how skinny the Galaxy Z Fold 6 display is, even after Samsung continued to make it a little bit wider every year.
Now let’s compare the thickness of these three devices. You can see that they all look to be about the same thickness. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold actually looks the thinnest, however, I believe that comes down to it having flat sides, and not having that third screen separate from the hinge.
It’s incredible how thin this phone is, even when unfolded – just 3.6mm when fully unfolded or 4.8mm when halfway unfolded. That’s even thinner than the HONOR Magic V3, which had its global launch at IFA earlier this month. Despite the thinness, it’s not as uncomfortable to hold with one hand as I had expected. Much like with the Magic V3, I think the Mate XT could really benefit from having flat sides. And I think that would make it more comfortable to hold for a longer period of time.
Huawei didn’t skimp on the cameras either
I was able to put the camera through some paces in the limited time I had, but keep in mind that this area that I was using it in had some pretty good lighting. So basically any camera would look good. But Huawei did put in some pretty beefy cameras too. We’re looking at a 50-megapixel f/1.4 aperture main sensor, a 12-megapixel ultrawide and a 12-megapixel 5.5x optical zoom lens. The main sensor does provide some really creamy bokeh, and since the sensor is so big, as well as the aperture, that means this is natural Bokeh and not AI-generated Bokeh, and there is a huge difference there.
Though, it is pretty funny to use the camera when the phone is unfolded, there’s a ton of wasted space when it’s fully unfolded, but using 2/3 of the display, it does look really good with that edge look.
The on-paper specs might not sound like a big difference over what the Galaxy Z Fold 6 or Pixel 9 Pro Fold offer, but Huawei is using larger sensors here. And not ashamed of its camera bump either.
There is a single front-facing camera on-board here, which 8-megapixel sensor, and it’s on the main front display. There’s no secondary front-facing camera like other foldables have since that front display is part of the main display.
More triple foldable devices are on the way
The foldable market is pretty competitive in China, so we would not be surprised to see more triple foldable devices coming out in the coming months. HONOR all but confirmed that they had one in the pipeline at IFA earlier this month, and we’d fully expect to see Vivo and OPPO introduce one in the very near future.
So what about Samsung? Well, they are due for a big foldable refresh. They’ve been iterating on the same original design since 2019, and it’s time for a new form factor from Samsung. But I wouldn’t expect to see one from Samsung anytime soon. They aren’t as innovative as some of the Chinese companies; they’ve taken more of an Apple approach to its products in recent years.
The next question is whether others will use the Z design for a triple-fold, or use a “G” design, which would keep the screen inside when folded, but that also means there would need to be an additional screen for the front. We’ll have to wait and see how these triple foldable devices innovate in the coming years.
