First look: The Huawei Mate XT is just the sort of crazy the world needs

Jaws dropped when Huawei unveiled the Mate XT, a phone that befits its Extraordinary Master tagline. So when I saw my chance to lay my hands on this extraordinary device, I jumped at it. But before I get to that, a source told me that the Mate XT is looking at releasing in global markets from January 2025, so this phone – currently only available in China – could be yours next year.

Folding phones have brought a refreshing change to the smartphone market over the past 5 years, following a decade where every phone was an iteration of a rectangular slab.

Thanks to the development of new materials, devices can take on new forms, stretching the definition of what a phone is. Is this a phone, or should this be the MatePad XT? When unfolded this is a tablet, not a phone, and that positions the Huawei Mate XT as a disrupter to the segment – and it’s exactly what companies like Huawei should be doing.

Samsung is the market leader in folding phones, with approximately 50 per cent market share in 2024 according to data from TrendForce. Samsung has done more than any other brand to push folding phones, with its Galaxy Z Flip 6 and the Z Fold 6 the latest iterations. I almost feel sad that Samsung didn’t do this.

But while Samsung is often credited with creating and defining this segment of the market, Huawei was there on day one with the Huawei Mate X, a folding model that had the screen on the outside, rather than the inside like Samsung’s Fold.

That folded external display faces some inherent challenges: unlike Samsung’s phone, it doesn’t fold away, instead its always exposed. That was my first takeaway from the Mate XT: when folded, the “cover screen” is part of that expansive folding display.

That means it doesn’t get a conventional glass cover like an external display on a typical folding phone. Why does that matter? Because whichever way you slice it, a surface like Gorilla Glass Victus 2 is going to be harder than the finish on the Mate XT’s display to better fend off scratches and damage.

Unfurling the Mate XT’s 15cm length

But when you open the phone once, and then twice, to reveal the whole 10.2-inches of OLED display those concerns will be set to one side. It’s just over 15cm long, with a resolution of 3184 x 2232 across the panel, which is sure to put a smile on your face. It’s sharp with a 16:11 aspect, while the LTPO tech means it will offer an adaptive refresh rate. First impressions suggest it’s bright and vibrant; unfolding this display means you have huge space to play or browse, a little like unfolding a newspaper on the train.

The sample I got my hands on was loaded with Chinese software, so apart from general playing and a bit of browsing, I didn’t really have the chance to test it to its full potential, so I have no idea what the performance is really like. I found the creases to be fairly noticeable when swiping over them, but I didn’t find them to be a distraction when I actually got stuck into content.

As I said in my review of the Galaxy Z Fold 6, once you find a use for a big display, it’s hard to step away from it and I could see that happening with the Mate XT too. It’s novel, it’s exceptional, it’s the crazy I want, addictive as you move from 6.4-inches, to a 7.9-inches, and finally to that 10.2-inch magnificence.

Huawei Mate XT design and build

There’s a hefty compromise to be made however. When folded, this phone is 12.8mm thick. That might not sound like a lot, but in modern terms it is. I placed it next to my Pixel 9 Pro XL which is a bit of a pocket stretcher and you can see just how much more girth there is to the Huawei phone.

Sure, with three panels, there’s more phone to accommodate so the 306g weight shouldn’t be a surprise. That’s a heavyweight in modern smartphone terms. There are some interesting details, the leather finish – something of a trend right now – and I love the little plaque set on one of the back panels saying that it was “Designed & Crafted by Huawei”. It feels like a celebration of Huawei’s typically bullish character and while I’d normally dismiss such as trinket as a kitsch eyesore, it makes me smile.

Speaking of kitsch, I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the glossy gold finish and with many phones offering flattened sides with a matte finish, I feel that the Mate XT could be a little sharper – the approach Huawei takes with its Watch GT models – for a more contemporary look.

Still, it’s a bold statement and curved edges make it comfortable to grip around those edges and while I’m talking about edges, when unfolded are these the slimmest bezels you’ll find on a tablet? They might just be.

Huawei Mate XT specs and camera

Step beyond that display and Huawei doesn’t report what the Mate XT is powered by – but it’s thought to be Kirin 9010 with 16GB RAM. There are storage options up to 1TB and the battery comes in at 5,600mAh. That’s right, despite having three times as much display to power as a typical phone, the battery is pretty much the same capacity. I don’t even want to think about how a long session on Call of Duty Mobile would rinse it, but I’d be happy to try…

There’s a trio of cameras on the rear of the phone, with a 50-megapixel main camera with variable f/1.4-4.0 aperture, supported by a 12-megapixel ultrawide and 12-megapixel telephoto, with 5.5x optical zoom. I didn’t get the chance to test the cameras to any great extent, so I can’t say what sort of compromise might have been made here.

This is also where we enter the realms of the unknown. While we can all appreciate the magnificence of that display and the crisp folding that Huawei has achieved, it’s hard to know what the experience of using this phone would be like. We can’t really tell how much power it has, how Harmony OS will function (remembering that Huawei doesn’t have access to Google apps), or what the camera performance will be.

For a phone that’s likely to cost around £2000, there’s a lot of unknowns here. But I love that the Mate XT exists and I love that Huawei did it.