While many are still debating whether the Apple press conference and iPhone 16 releases were underwhelming or safe and stable, Huawei’s launch on the same day is definitely adventurous.
The Chinese tech giant calls its latest smartphone, the Huawei Mate XT, the “first trifold phone in the world, the largest mobile phone in the world and the thinnest mobile phone in the world”. It sports a 10.2-inch screen and is only 3.6 mm thick when fully extended. The catch, however, is that the 256GB version will set you back 19,999 RMB (2,809.09 USD), while the 512GB and 1TB versions cost 21,999 RMB (3,090.01 USD) and 23,999 RMB (3,370.93 USD) respectively. Before its release, the Mate XT has already been touted for upwards of 100,000 RMB on Goofish, and Xianyu, Alibaba’s used marketplace.
Huawei’s proprietary “Tiangong” hinges, the sheer size of the gadget and its prohibitive price (for many) have birthed a meme, resembling a folded memorial to the throne back in the imperial years. The similarity is in not only the way of folding between the official document and the phone but also the target audience, the emperor and, according to Richard Yu Chengdong, CEO of the Consumer Business Group (BG), business leaders who need to look at documents when waiting for planes on their business trips.
On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “Huawei trifold” (#华为三折叠#) shot to number 1 on the Hot Search list and stayed on the list for nearly 10 hours, with 300 million views. The official hashtag “Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design” (#华为MateXT非凡大师#) also garnered 290,000 views but only made it to the Hot Search list at number 29. At number 8 is a topic about the phone being touted for 90,000 RMB (12,641 USD) on Goofish.
A lot of the discussion among netizens is about the price, whether the advanced technology justifies it and who would spend 90 to 100,000 RMB for a mobile phone. However, most media outlets are comparing the iPhone 16 release and the Huawei trifold phone. Pundits think the trifold phone is Huawei’s move into the high-end market to avoid facing off iPhone 16 directly, albeit being announced on the same day. The Mate 70 and the “pure blood” HarmonyOS which are due for release in Q4, however, is what Apple should watch out for.
