It wasn’t that long ago that foldables were just concept devices, but now they’re relatively commonplace. And some manufacturers are already looking ahead to the next stage of their evolution – more foldables! Huawei Mate XT Ultimate tri-fold was released yesterday and is practically a 10” tablet that fits in your pocket.
Is it too big? Well, the first hands-on reports from China are in and the answer is that it is big, but not uncontrollably big. The XT is made up of three segments that can be unfolded in stages.
The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate is 12.8mm thick
The first stage is fully folded, which gives you a 6.4” display in a device that measures 12.8mm thick. One poster reports that the bottom segment is slightly wider than the top two, meaning that when you hold the Mate XT Ultimate in this configuration, you’re mostly holding the bottom segment.
| Huawei Mate XT Ultimate | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Settings | Screen size | Height | Width | Thickness |
| Fully folded | 6.4” | 156.7 mm | 73.5 mm | 12.8 mm |
| Dual screen | 7.9” | 143.0 mm | 7.45 / 4.75mm | |
| Triple screen | 10.2” | 219.0 mm | 3.6 / 3.6 / 4.75mm | |
Another poster reports that the device is awkward to use with one hand, even when folded. The problem isn’t just the weight — the XT weighs 298g, which is a lot for a phone but quite light for a 10.2” tablet — it’s the weight distribution that’s the issue.
Above we’ve listed the dimensions across all three configurations. Note that the bottom segment is also a bit thicker than the other two (4.75mm vs. 3.6mm) and also contains the rather chunky camera island. To be fair, that island houses a capable triple camera setup with a 5MP main (f/1.4-f/4.0 aperture, OIS), 12MP ultrawide (f/2.2), and a 5.5x 12MP periscope (f/3.4, OIS). There’s also an 8MP selfie camera that sits on the “top” segment, so it can be used both when fully folded and fully unfolded, but it goes on the back in the dual-screen setup.
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate
If you’re brave enough, you can bend one of the segments and place it face down to hold the rest of the phone as a sort of stand. It’s probably best to use the official protective case, though.
It has a built-in stand – using it won’t risk scratching your precious screen. Interestingly, it can be rotated 270°, so it can be used in multiple orientations. If you think about it, there are 6 possible ways to use the stand: three ways to fold the XT Ultimate times two for horizontal or vertical orientation.
The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate protective case has a kickstand
If you haven’t seen the price tag on the XT Ultimate, let’s just say it’s a premium device. And it’s packaged as such, the hands-on video below starts with an unboxing section. In addition to the phone itself, there’s a home charger and a car charger, and not one but two USB cables, Huawei FreeBuds 5 earphones and a protective case. The video also shows how capable HarmonyOS is of adapting its UI to suit the ever-changing screen size and orientation.
Here’s another practical video, this one in English:
The XT Ultimate manages to fit in a 5,600mAh battery, which is pretty impressive considering how thin these segments are. It’s also quick to charge, going up to 66W via USB-C and up to 50W wirelessly. The phone is powered by the Kirin 9010, we have more details on that 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 from September 19. We don’t think there’s much hope of seeing this globally, so the rest of the world is stuck with the dual foldables.