The World's First Trifoldable Phone May Be Coming From Huawei Next Week

Huawei could be the first major phone maker to launch a trifolding phone: a new type of foldable phone that bends in more than one place to provide even more screen space in your pocket. The company is holding an event just hours after Apple unveils its rumored iPhone 16 lineup, in an apparent bid to overshadow its American rival, where a trifolding phone is expected to take the spotlight.

It would be a huge deal because device makers have yet to release new styles of foldable phones beyond the book-style and flip phone shapes we've seen over the last five years. Trifolding phones have appeared in concepts from companies like Samsung and others but have yet to move beyond the concept stage. Since these types of phones don't exist yet, it's impossible to know their benefits. But based on ideas like those from Samsung, having a hinge that bends in two places would essentially give you three screens in one device.  

While Huawei hasn't announced which devices will be unveiled at the event, speculation is building that a trifoldable phone will be the star of the show. A trifolding device was seen in the hands of Richard Yu, the chairman of Huawei's consumer business group, in recent weeks according to a social media post from an account called WHYLAB. 

On Tuesday, the Huawei teased the launch of a new device on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo called the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design, which many (including this writer) presume is the trifoldable phone. The Mate series, one of two flagship phone lines from Huawei, typically caters to early adopters. Its first foldable phone, the 2019 Mate X, was also launched under that brand, leading to speculation that this mysterious Mate XT Ultimate Design device could indeed be a trifoldable phone.

Huawei's event will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 2:30 p.m. local time. That's 11:30 a.m.PT ( 2:30 p.m. ET) on Monday. Apple's event, dubbed "Glowtime", is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 9, at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET).

One analyst thinks the launch of a trifolding phone is as good as a guaranteed. 

"Huawei's strategic decision to launch its advanced tri-fold smartphone immediately following Apple's launch demonstrates a well-thought-out and astute move," Abhilash Kumar, analyst at TechInsights, said on Tuesday in a post on X, "A longer interval between the two launches could have resulted in a substantial number of consumers committing to the iPhone 16 series, making it less likely for them to consider Huawei's trifold device."

In the third quarter, Apple typically experiences a surge in sales due to new product launches, resulting in a significant increase in its market share in China, according to Kumar. 

We've seen triple-folding concept phones before. Other than Samsung, TCL showed a concept in 2020 while fellow Chinese company Tecno took the wraps off its own trifolding concept in August. But none of these concepts have resulted in real products available for sale.  

The Mate XT will likely receive an initial release only in Huawei's native China, but it would still be exciting to see a genuinely novel phone arrive to take on familiar foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. We'll know more when Huawei holds its event next week. 

Watch this: We Tried TCL's New Foldable and Rollable Phone Concepts

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