Huawei’s tri-fold phone: Will it be announced next week?

Huawei will stage a presentation Sept. 10 at which the Chinese tech giant is expected to announce it will soon launch the world’s first tri-fold phone.

The showcase is set for 2:30 p.m. Beijing time, which is 2:30 a.m. EDT.

Folding phones have become a trend among smartphone makers recently. Huawei offshoot Honor launched a super slim product back in July, and rival giants Apple and Samsung have also jumped aboard the foldable bandwagon.

Huawei announced the event date on Chinese social media platform Weibo. The company’s chief of consumer devices said the company will reveal its “most leading, innovative, and disruptive product”.

Huawei confirmed in August that its tri-fold product would go on sale in September, so it is reasonable to assume that will be included in this launch event. Promotional material shown so far shows a clear Z shape leaving little to the imagination.

A tri-fold model would allow for bigger, more tablet-like displays than other single-hinge foldables. Some reports suggest the new Huawei model could measure up to 10 inches when unfolded.

Social media speculation about the manufacturing cost of the device estimates the phone’s price could hit a whopping 35,000 Chinese Yuan (around $4,900). Huawei has said nothing about pricing yet.

The company did reveal the new product’s name in a video posted Sept. 3: the Mate XT. The Mate series is one of Huawei’s main product lines. The video also revealed that the Mate XT will come from the company’s Ultimate Design section. Ultimate Design is usually reserved for its high-end products, so that $4,000 price tag could very well be possible.

Unfortunately it’s not looking like tech fans outside of China will be getting their hands on the tri-fold any time soon. It is only set for launch in China; reportedly, no other markets are in the pipeline.

Featured image via Ideogram

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