Huawei's first tri-folding smartphone spotted in the wild

After Samsung made foldable smartphones mainstream with the Galaxy Z Fold series, the form factor has remained largely unchanged. While Samsung and TCL showed off their tri-folding displays many years ago, they're yet to show up as a product one can buy. Huawei, on the other hand, seems to have beaten everyone else to the punch with its first-ever tri-folding smartphone.

Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's Consumer BG department was spotted with the phone aboard what looks like a flight. You can tell it isn't a regular foldable because it has two clearly visible creases, indicating it can fold twice over. Exactly how it achieves the feat is a mystery. It shouldn't be long before we find out, because a functional device in the wild suggests it is close to launch.

Weibo leaker Digital Chat Station speculates Huawei's tri-fold device could launch before the Mate 70 series, which is slated for a late-2024 arrival. There have been surprisingly few leaks about the phone, but one can reasonably assume it will arrive as the Huawei Mate X6 run a HiSilicon Kirin 9000s/9010 variant and borrow design/camera elements from its existing foldable lineup.