Apple iPhone 16 could be upstaged by Huawei's crazy triple-folding phone
Huawei is set to hold an event right after Apple announces the iPhone 16, and it could steal your attention
📅 Huawei has announced an event scheduled for September 10
👽 It’s expected to announce the Mate XT, a futuristic tri-folding phone
📱 The timing lines up with Apple’s iPhone 16 event
🇺🇲 Unfortunately, this cool tech won’t be coming to the US
The iPhone 16 launch event is right around the corner, but that’s not stopping the competition from trying to steal the limelight. Huawei has announced an event it’s hosting on September 10 in China, where the tech company will likely unveil one of the most futuristic phones we’ve seen to date: the Mate XT.
While the iPhone 16 rumors point to Apple’s next flagship smartphone being a sizable upgrade, it won’t be able to match the off-the-wall nature of the hardware of the Mate XT. It’s a folding phone, but one that folds twice instead of just once, creating a tri-fold effect that could open the window to a lot of software and implementation possibilities.
The Huawei Mate XT has been rumored for some time now. It entered public discussion back in February after some sketchy rumors (reported on by GSMArena) were shared to Chinese social media site Weibo. Since then, leaks have been on and off, with the most significant being real-life images of Huawei Chairman Richard Yu holding the device, the angle at which it’s perfectly demonstrating there are three layers to this phone.
Huawei Mate XT vs the competition in the US
It’s certainly going to be more interesting than the folding phones we have in the United States. In our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 review, we made it clear that Samsung is heading in the right direction with the design of its folding phones. Meanwhile, our Pixel 9 Pro Fold review convinced us that its form factor is the right approach for a majority of consumers. But neither of them can fold a second time and expand to a 10-inch tablet, which is what the Mate XT can reportedly do.
The Mate XT will be super thin, come with a huge camera bump on the back, and be part of Huawei’s Ultimate Design brand, which is reserved for its most innovative smartphones. It’ll also cost a lot of money, with some leaks suggesting a price tag of ₹1,89,990 (about $2,263 USD).
Unfortunately, like every Huawei phone nowadays, it won’t be coming to the US due to national security concerns that saw the brand get banned by the US government. Maybe someday it'll all get cleared up, but it likely won’t be any time soon.
Regardless, the launch event timing makes it clear that Huawei wants to upstage the iPhone 16. It’s no mere coincidence that the company scheduled its event the day after Apple’s, and at least overseas, a lot of media coverage will be centered around the Mate XT’s innovative design. Apple isn’t expected to ship a folding iPhone until at least 2026, which will give competitors like Huawei a leg-up for a time to come.