SHENZHEN, China – Tech giant Huawei on Tuesday unveiled its highly anticipated Mate XT smartphone, billed as the world’s first triple-folding mobile device, just a day after rival Apple lifted the curtain on its new iPhone built for generative artificial intelligence.
The flashy new Mate XT, sporting a sleek red and gold design, was officially launched in a splashy keynote presentation by Huawei executive Richard Yu at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen.
Yu touted the phone as a groundbreaking achievement, stating, “Huawei has always been a leader in the foldable phone industry. This is the world’s first triple-folding phone. We have put in a huge amount of effort into solving the problems regarding mass production and product reliability.”
The unveiling comes after over 3 million people registered interest in buying the Mate XT ahead of its official September 20 release date, underscoring the hype and demand surrounding foldable smartphone technology.
“This is a niche product, but clearly there is strong consumer appetite for innovative, bleeding-edge devices,” said technology analyst Samantha Chen. “Huawei is pushing the envelope on foldable design, while Apple is countering with a renewed focus on AI capabilities. The battle for smartphone supremacy continues to intensify.”
The Mate XT’s triple-fold design allows the device to transform from a standard smartphone into a larger tablet-like display. Huawei is billing it as a premium, productivity-focused device for a select audience of early adopters.
The Mate XT’s release comes just one day after Apple unveiled its latest iPhone 16 model, which the tech giant claims has been engineered from the ground up to excel at generative AI tasks like natural language processing and image generation.
With both companies jockeying for an edge in the highly competitive smartphone market, the trifold Mate XT and AI-powered iPhone 16 are sure to be closely watched as the next battleground in the ongoing innovation race between the two tech titans.
