In September 2024, Huawei defied impossible odds by not just mounting a comeback on its home turf in China but also going into overdrive mode by launching the world’s first tri-fold smartphone, the Mate XT. During a time when other Chinese competitors and Samsung had years of experience under their belt developing, refining, and perfecting the ‘book style’ foldable smartphone form factor, Huawei was making chess moves of its own. Also, the idea of being limited to China did not sit well with the company, so it decided to take matters into its own hands and launch the Mate XT overseas. Unfortunately, it will arrive at a price tag that the majority of customers will not even look twice at.
Global price of Huawei’s Mate XT is set at €3,499, making it nearly twice as much as Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6
There is no confirmation on which countries Huawei will enter to launch the Mate XT officially. However, on a previous occasion, there was evidence that the company had listed the device for sale in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. As reported by CNBC, the global price of the tri-fold smartphone means that many customers are not going to be daily driving this model. We have learned that the Mate XT will start from €3,499, or $3,660, making it one of the priciest launches ever and almost twice as expensive as the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
Thanks to jumpstarting its chip manufacturing, starting with the Kirin 9000S in 2023, Huawei was able to initiate its resurgence in China, with its market share in the country reaching 17 percent in 2024, up from 12 percent. The only hurdle standing in the company’s path when it comes to a global launch was the lack of Google apps that would typically be pre-loaded in its devices as a result of the U.S. trade sanctions. This setback forced Huawei to begin development of its in-house operating system called HarmonyOS NEXT, with the platform expected to run on the Mate XT.
While Huawei’s ambitions have been highlighted clearly, there are a multitude of obstacles that stand in the way of the company’s success. Firstly, there is no guarantee that the masses will widely adopt HarmonyOS NEXT, as years of iOS and Android usage likely means that consumers do not have the capacity to try something new. Also, various regions will be skeptical about their citizens using HarmonyOS NEXT due to security and privacy concerns. Lastly, Huawei’s Mate XT is powered by the Kirin 9010, which utilizes SMIC’s older 7nm process, meaning that it is slower than the competition in both performance and efficiency tests.
Spending upwards of $3,500 on a smartphone when it cannot even surpass previous-generation chipset releases will make potential buyers question the Mate XT’s ‘price to performance’ proposition, so Huawei’s primary selling point is marketing the unique form factor to the masses.
