HUAWEI is showing off a futuristic smartphone that folds up in THREE parts – rather than the usual two.
It means that the Chinese phone giant has been able to cram a giant 10.2-inch screen into its Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design.
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Huawei is calling it “the world’s first commercial tri-fold smartphone”.
The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design launched late last year in China – on the same day as Apple’s iPhone 16.
But Huawei is now showing it off at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress event as part of the phone’s international launch.
Foldable phones are becoming increasingly common – but they’re still not as popular as regular flat smartphones.
The foldable phone race kicked off all the way back in 2018 with Chinese start-up Royole’s folding Flexpai.
Then there was a big jump in awareness with 2019’s Samsung Galaxy Fold launch.
Now we’ve seen foldable phones from Huawei, Motorola, Google, and Vivo.
These phones typically fold across like a book, or down like the old noughties flip phones.
But Huawei is trying to go one step further with the Mate XT Ultimate Design, which folds across two joints instead of one.
It folds up like a brochure, and it means you can snap the device down to a more comfortable 6.4-inch screen size.
That should let you slip it into your pocket – and then unfold it to a full tablet size that’s just slightly smaller than an Apple iPad.
It comes powered by Huawei’s own Kirin 9010 process, packs 16GB of RAM, and has 256GB of storage as default.
And there’s a 5,600mAh battery inside, which is bigger than the cell inside any iPhone – but it’s powering a lot more screen real estate, which will put a big drain on its charge.
There’s a three-lens camera on the back (with a 50-megapixel main lens), as well as an 8-megapixel selfie snapper.
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Sadly there’s no official UK or US pricing or release date yet.
But the gadget costs 19,999 Chinese Yuan, which works out at around £2,160 in the UK or $2,745 in the US.
In Britain, that would make it around 3.6 times more expensive than Apple’s latest smartphone – the iPhone 16e.
APPLE RUMBLE?
One of the biggest brands that Huawei isn’t facing foldable competition from yet is Apple.
DO WE NEED A FOLDABLE IPHONE?
Here’s what The Sun’s tech editor Sean Keach has to say…
How badly do you want a foldable phone? Unless you’re a tech geek, you probably never even think about it.
I am a tech geek – and I hardly give it thought.
Of course, foldable phones are a good idea if perfectly executed.
After all, there’s nothing wrong with wanting a phone that can have both a regular screen and giant one too – but still fit in your pocket.
The problem is that there are so many trade-offs.
You’ll have to deal with a big old crease down the middle of the screen.
And foldable phones so often end up very thick, or long, or both.
That’s not to mention the price of foldable phones, which often cost hundreds more than their regular counterparts.
Wallets are strained under the growing cost of life, not to mention tech and subscriptions – so new gadgets needs to feel very useful to justify forking out extra.
So until a company can resolve at least some of these problems with foldable phones, they’ll struggle to reach the mainstream in the way that regular phones have.
Apple is often brilliant at making things catch on, even if it’s not always first across the line.
And if Apple can solve at least the creasing issue – and maybe the thickness problem too – then it could make foldable phones more desirable.
Maybe I’ll finally be converted.
For now, I’m sticking with tapping my flat slab of metal and glass.
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The Californian tech giant has stayed true to flat iPhones – despite its biggest rivals all churning out foldable smartphones.
However, it’s rumoured that Apple’s first foldable iPhone release date may be just over a year away.
A recent report claimed that Apple would pick suppliers by April this year, and start manufacturing parts for the gadget in the second half of 2025.
It would then be expected to launch to the public in the second half of 2026.
IPHONE SCREEN SIZES – A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME
Here’s how iPhone screen sizes have changed over the years – as measured in inches diagonally from corner to corner…
- iPhone (2007) – 3.5 inches
- iPhone 3G (2008) – 3.5 inches
- iPhone 3GS (2009) – 3.5 inches
- iPhone 4 (2010) – 3.5 inches
- iPhone 4S (2011) – 3.5 inches
- iPhone 5 (2012) – 4 inches
- iPhone 5S (2013) – 4 inches
- iPhone 5C (2013) – 4 inches
- iPhone 6 (2014) – 4.7 inches
- iPhone 6+ (2014) – 5.5 inches
- iPhone 6S (2015) – 4.7 inches
- iPhone 6S+ (2015) – 5.5 inches
- iPhone SE (2016) – 4 inches
- iPhone 7 (2016) – 4.7 inches
- iPhone 7+ (2016) – 5.5 inches
- iPhone 8 (2017) – 4.7 inches
- iPhone 8+ (2017) – 5.5 inches
- iPhone X (2017) – 5.8 inches
- iPhone XS (2018) – 5.8 inches
- iPhone XR (2018) – 6.1 inches
- iPhone XS Max (2018) – 6.5 inches
- iPhone 11 (2019) – 6.1 inches
- iPhone 11 Pro (2019) – 5.8 inches
- iPhone 11 Pro Max (2019) – 6.5 inches
- iPhone SE 2nd gen (2020) – 4.7 inches
- iPhone 12 Mini (2020) – 5.4 inches
- iPhone 12 (2020) – 6.1 inches
- iPhone 12 Pro (2020) – 6.1 inches
- iPhone 12 Pro Max (2020) – 6.7 inches
- iPhone 13 Mini (2021) – 5.4 inches
- iPhone 13 (2021) – 6.1 inches
- iPhone 13 Pro (2021) – 6.1 inches
- iPhone 13 Pro Max (2021) – 6.7 inches
- iPhone SE 3rd gen (2022) – 4.7 inches
- iPhone 14 (2022) – 6.1 inches
- iPhone 14 Plus (2022) – 6.7 inches
- iPhone 14 Pro (2022) – 6.1 inches
- iPhone 14 Pro Max (2022) – 6.7 inches
- iPhone 15 (2023) – 6.1 inches
- iPhone 15 Plus (2023) – 6.7 inches
- iPhone 15 Pro (2023) – 6.1 inches
- iPhone 15 Pro Max (2023) – 6.7 inches
- iPhone 16 (2024) – 6.1 inches
- iPhone 16 Plus (2024) – 6.7 inches
- iPhone 16 Pro (2024) – 6.3 inches
- iPhone 16 Pro Max (2024) – 6.9 inches
- iPhone 16e (2025) – 6.1 inches
Picture Credit: Apple / The Sun
Of course Apple hasn’t confirmed any such plans, and likely won’t confirm the device until launch day.
And even if Apple is planning a foldable smartphone, its plans may change and the idea could be scrapped entirely.
However, Apple is expected to release a regular smartphone – the iPhone 17 – later this year.
And The Sun has already predicted the iPhone 17 release date months in advance.
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