This month it seems as though everyone has a double-folding smartphone on the way to market but it looks like Huawei will be the first to introduce one on stage. If you don’t count TCL in 2019. And Samsung in 2021. But since Samsung is (still) working on the concept, as is Tecno, the Chinese giant may steal a fair bit of thunder.
From Apple specifically. Reports indicate that Huawei has an event planned in Beijing, China for 14h30 CST (China Standard Time) on 10 September. In case you need us to do the math, that’s less than twelve hours after Apple’s Glowtime event where the iPhone 16 will turn up.
Huawei going to be impressed?
Usually other companies shy away from taking on the Apple giant but the Chinese smartphone maker either has very little to lose or is confident that its home ground advantage will result it in stealing coverage from Tim Cook’s company. Since it is supposed to reveal its first tri-folding smartphone, there’s a solid chance that Huawei will hog some of the limelight from its American competitor.
An image of the supposed phone has turned up online just ahead of next week’s reveal. The product was sighted on China’s Weibo social media platform where various details were also offered up. Whether they’re true or not remains to be seen — nothing has come via any of the more conventional channels these leaks spring from.
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Still, here’s what is known (for a given value of ‘known’): The handset could be called the Mate XT or perhaps the Mate XT Ultimate Design. It might be the handset you see above, which is claimed to be an engineering prototype. What you can see there are two of the three folding sections. The thicker piece of the hinge holds two of the folds together. Seen from the other side, the handset would have the same layout but in reverse.
16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, more conventional stats, are given for this particular phone, which may or may not be real. What is real is Huawei’s 14h30 Chinese event on 10 September, which kicks off at 08h30 SAST here at home. We’ll be tuning in, just to see what all the fuss is about.