Crazy expensive tri-folding Huawei Mate XT phone won't leave China until early 2025

Released as the first mass-produced foldable that features a display with two folding modes, the Huawei Mate XT could ship to over 1 million buyers in its home market before finally reaching customers in other countries. Although international availability and pricing details are not available yet, Android Authority's has just confirmed that a global release of this next-gen handset is slated for Q1 2025.

While the Mate was released exclusively in China, going global absolutely makes sense, even from a marketing/brand awareness perspective. While a price of more than $3,000 means the product is unlikely to become super-popular, the fact that one could become a proud owner of the world's first triple-screen foldable phone in exchange for that amount seems to sweeten the deal a bit. The $3,000+ assumption is based on the Chinese pricing, which starts at 19,999 Yuan (for the 16/256 GB variant), which currently converts to over $2,800. Until now, handsets that were available in China were always more expensive in Europe and the US, and there is no reason to expect the Mate XT to buck this trend.

When fully unfolded, the Mate XT provides no less than 10.2 inches of screen estate. This tablet-size touchscreen goes down to 7.9 inches if the phone is folded once, with second fold leaving the user with a very reasonable 6.4-inch display. While the folded thickness of 12.8 mm (0.5 in) means the Mate isn't quite as thin as other foldables on the market, it remains to be seen if competing devices that will undoubtedly soon appear will fare any better.

Despite launching with HarmonyOS in China, it will probably come with the Google-less EMUI everywhere else. This could seem like a serious drawback to some, but the "first such phone" factor should be enough to make the Mate popular enough in the scarcely populated $3,000+ sector of the market. For now, Huawei fans on a more down-to-earth budget can get the Mate 50 Pro (8/256 GB, International Version) in black for $699.99 via Amazon.