There wasn’t a long time ago when foldable devices were just concept devices, but now they’re relatively common. And some manufacturers are already looking at the next step in their evolution – more foldables! The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Tri-Foldable was introduced yesterday and it’s practically a 10-inch tablet that fits in your pocket.
Is it huge? Well, early reports from China have come in and the answer is that it is big, but not so big that it is difficult to handle. The XT is made up of three sections that can be folded in stages.
The thickness of Huawei Mate XT Ultimate is 12.8mm
The first stage is fully folded, giving you a 6.4-inch display in a 12.8mm thick device. A poster points out that the bottom section is slightly wider than the top two, meaning when you hold the Mate XT Ultimate in this configuration, you’re mostly holding the bottom section.
| Huawei Mate XT Ultimate | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| layout | screen size | Height | Width | Thickness |
| Fully folded | 6.4” | 156.7mm | 73.5mm | 12.8mm |
| Dual Screen | 7.9” | 143.0mm | 7.45 / 4.75mm | |
| Triple Screen | 10.2” | 219.0mm | 3.6/3.6/4.75mm | |
Another poster pointed out that the device is difficult to use with one hand, even when it is folded. The problem isn’t just the weight – the XT weighs 298 grams, which is a lot for a phone, but quite light for a 10.2-inch tablet – the problem is with the weight distribution.
Above we listed the dimensions in all three configurations. Note that the bottom segment is slightly thicker than the other two (4.75mm vs 3.6mm) and also has a fairly large camera island. To be fair, that island houses a capable triple camera with a 5MP main (f/1.4-f/4.0 aperture, OIS), 12MP ultra wide (f/2.2) and a 5.5x 12MP periscope (f/3.4, OIS). There’s also an 8MP selfie camera that lives in the “top” segment, so it can be used when fully folded and unfolded, but in dual screen configurations it moves to the back.
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate
If you’re feeling brave, you can fold one of the segments and place it underneath so that the rest of the phone rests on it like a kickstand. However, you’re better off using the official protective case.
It has a built-in kickstand – using it doesn’t risk scratching the precious screen. Interestingly, it can be rotated 270°, so it can be used in multiple directions. If you think about it, there are 6 possible ways to use the kickstand: Three ways to fold the XT Ultimate twice for horizontal or vertical orientation.
The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate protective case has a kickstand
If you haven’t seen the price of the XT Ultimate yet, all we can say is that it is a premium device. And it is packaged as such, the hands-on video below starts with the unboxing section. Apart from the phone, there is a home and car charger, not one but two USB cables, the Huawei FreeBuds 5, and a protective case. The video also shows how capable HarmonyOS is at adapting its UI to the ever-changing screen sizes and orientations.
Here’s another practical video, this one in English:
The XT Ultimate can be fitted with a 5,600mAh battery, which is quite impressive considering how thin these segments are. It’s also fast at charging, charging up to 66W over USB-C and up to 50W wirelessly. The phone is powered by the Kirin 9010, we have more details on that aspect in a separate post.
The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate starts at CNY 20,000 ($2,800/€2,550) and will only be available in China starting September 19. However, we don’t think there’s much hope of seeing it globally, so the rest of the world is stuck with dual foldables.
