Most of the phones with foldable displays that have shipped so far are designed to fold in half like a book. But the the new Huawei Mate XT is the first commercially available phone with a tri-fold display.

That means instead of having a crease in the middle that lets you fold the phone in half, it has two creases that let you fold and unfolded it in a variety of ways, allowing you to use the device like a phone, a small tablet, or a larger tablet. But that functionality comes at a heavy price: the Huawei Mate XT is up for pre-order in China for 19,999 CNY ($2,800) and up.

The phone has a lot of powerful specs to help justify that high price tag, but the key thing that sets this phone apart from others is the display, which is a 120 Hz LTPO OLED screen that can be used in three modes:

  • 10.2 inches, 3184 x 2232 pixels
  • 7.9 inches, 2232 x 2048 pixels (with one flap folded)
  • 6.4 inches, 2232 x 1008 pixels (with both sides folded for use in phone mode)

    • Despite the large display, this is a reasonably compact device that weighs just 298 grams (10.5 ounces), and measures 156.7 x 73 x 12.8mm (6.17″ x 2.87″ x 0.5″) when fully folded for use in phone mode. It's just 3.6mm (0.14 inches) thick when the display is fully extended.

    Huawei hasn't announced what processor the phone has, but the starting price is for a model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage and the company also offers models with up to 1TB of storage.

    The foldable smartphone's camera system includes a 50MP primary camera with optical image stabilization, a 12MP telephoto camera with 5.5X optical zoom, and a 12MP ultra-wide camera, as well as an 8MP front-facing camera.

    The Huawei Mate XT has a 5,600 mAh battery and support for 66W fast charging with a USB-C power adapter or 50W wireless charging.

    Given the phone's high price tag and the fact that it ships with HarmonyOS and lacks access to Google apps and services, it's unlikely that this phone will be sold outside of China anytime soon. But now that it's a real thing that some people can buy, it's possible that we might see similar hardware from other companies in the future.

    via GSM Arena, ITHome, and  Gadgets360

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