Huawei is set to introduce its first tri-folding smartphone called the Mate XT Ultimate Design on September 10 — but the device seems to have already been a hit in its home market.
The company opened pre-reservations for the foldable this morning in China, and in just about 13 hours, it has amassed over 1.8 million reservations.
When Huawei first announced the Mate XT, I had doubts that it might be a concept device, similar to the Tecno Phantom Ultimate 2. But with the foldable now available for pre-reservation (and already hitting a milestone), it’s clear that it will be available for purchase for regular consumers.
The website also details that the reservations will be open until September 19 and the Mate XT will go on sale a day after.
You can currently secure one for yourself in either Dark Black or ‘Ruihong’ (a shade similar to crimson) color, with two storage variants to choose from — 16/512GB and 16GB/1TB.
The pre-order page also gives us a more clearer look at the foldable compared to the teaser video from earlier this week. And here’s where things get interesting.
Unlike most book-style foldable these days, the Mate XT doesn’t seem to have a dedicated cover screen. Instead, it cleverly uses one of its internal displays as the outward-facing one when folded. We’ve seen something similar with Huawei’s first-gen foldable, the Mate Xs, which also has an outward-folding display.
While that’s innovative, I’m now worried about the durability of the cover screen. Unlike traditional clamshell foldable with dedicated, hardened cover screens, the Mate XT’s exterior display is essentially a fully functional foldable panel which is inherently more susceptible to damage due to its flexible nature.
Huawei must have given a thought to this. We’ll find out for sure whether they have addressed the durability concerns at the official reveal in just two days.
