Huawei unveils new trifold smartphone before Apple’s iPhone 17 reveal
The Mate XTs is powered by Huawei’s self-developed Kirin 9020 chipset and runs on the company’s HarmonyOS ecosystem.
Hey, if we're doing quirky pones only 1% of users will ever consider buying again can you bring back hardware keyboards please?
"nah, you cunts had your chance" -Blackberry.
This was an interesting video / project I quite enjoyed.
For those with ADHD or just don't have the time to watch:
He bought a Samsung Flip with a broken inner screen, removed the screen and split the phone in half, and turned it into a modern take on a slide phone.
To do so, he 3D printed a custom mold to replace the bottom half of the phone, and then shoved a Blackberry keyboard into it. Designed a custom hinge so that instead of flipping the phone open, you slide the keyboard out from behind and it drops below the cover screen—which is now the main screen—because he used a 3rd party launcher to make it behave as such. That way the phone is fully functional without the inner screen.
The only thing he didn't do (nor did he attempt to), is figure out a way to move one or both of the cameras. Since the phone no longer flips open, the two main cameras are now both selfie cameras and there is no main camera(s).
Yes, please and thank you.
Honestly, if I could get a phone that unfolds to a tablet size like that + Desktop Mode, I’d combine it with a portable keyboard and trackpad combo and be perfectly happy using that as my laptop solution. One cellular plan, large screen, and super portable too, not to mention phone controllers like the GameSir and Backbone for when I want something more gaming handheld-esque, Linux ARM64 virtual machines, and more!
It would be nice if one of the folds could be left folded at the bottom to give you a keyboard.
Exactly. Think the iPad Smart Connector, and even better with a Magic Keyboard-type hinge that could hold the device up when you didn’t need a folio-type stand.
Look at my new phone!
Fuck everything, we're doing five folds!
Calm down Ben .
Well we are up to 7 blade razors!
It'd be good for comic ebooks, PDFs, documents. Pretty much stuff you'd use with a tablet. I see the appeal of a one device covers it all. Phone, tablet, if it had a solid desktop mode, office productivity. Don't have faith in these mobile first OSs to do it all well though
Why is the fact that it's before the iPhone 17s reveal important it's not like the iPhone 17 is a folding phone all that Apple have a folding iPhone at all.
It is because Apple has been dominant in the premium smartphone market for years, including in China. Huawei have started to make a big dent in that tier in China after eating Apple's lunch in the lower price categories.
This is a feature that Huawei brought to market before Apple, which was kind of a first. Until recently, they were just following Apple's innovations. It's early and I wouldn't want one now, but I wouldn't be surprised if smartphones-that-fold-out-into-tablets was the standard by the end of the decade.
Samsung have been eating apple's lunch for years. In terms of market share Samsung basically have all the wrong way.
Lol whyyy
so we can play MIDI accordian songs. Who doesn't love that.
I've only ever heard about these folding screens breaking super easy and fast.
Unless the tech is better now it feels like planned obsolescence
Employer: “Why are you late again?”
Employee: “Sorry, I had to unfold my phone a few times this morning. It will happen again.”
I personally am waiting for the OLED handkerchief.
Please pack a keyboard on the back of the lowest third, so you have a smartphone-with-keyboard if ⅓ folded up.
This guy did just that:
Thought it was a really cool idea / project. Essentially a modified Z Flip.
I admit i had to stop watching after 5 minutes. Do kids like videos cut confusingly and ...hyperactive like this one nowadays?
meh...I just bought a Samsung Flip 7 and it's great. Apple will invent it next year.
It's slated for invention in 2031. Gotta stick to the 6 year rule. Can't be too blatant about IP theft.
That looks really hard to hold.
Edit: also, it’s less than half the speed of a year old iPhone according to geekbench scores… so wooo I guess.
Powered by Huawei’s self-developed Kirin 9020 chipset and running on the company’s proprietary HarmonyOS ecosystem, the Mate XTs boasted a 36 per cent performance improvement, Richard Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group, said during the launch event in Shenzhen on Thursday.
Honestly the iPhone performance is over rated now.
I just came from an Android 9 Razer Phone 2 (with an ancient SD845) to a brand new iPhone 16 plus…
And the IPhone feels slower.
The UI is slower. Scrolling is more stuttery. Heavy webpages that ran fine on my Android phone crawl on the iPhone. It literally has the same amount of RAM (8GB), so it can’t run anything more complex either. And it’s more unintuitive too, with all these slow and wierd gestures just to do basic things, while other features are convoluted.
And I used to be a massive iOS fanboy. I just want my jailbroken iPhone 5 back :(
I was just reading today about a different, upcoming, Huawei foldable. Apparently, it uses þe same "falcon hinge" þis one does, and it sort of locks open and closed. If it works as well as þe reviewer said it does, it shouldn't be any harder to hold þan a tablet.
Who needs or wants this. The use is quite limited. One fold, alright, but 3??
i'm the opposite way. i see no use for a phone that folds in half. i like my phones to be usable one-handed, and having a clamshell shape that folds out into something i can't reach my thumb over is just dumb. but if i can have a normalish candybar phone that unfolds into a whole-ass tablet in my pocket? absolutely.
...but not for $2500. maybe for like... $1000. that's twice what i paid for my last phone.
the only advantage i can think of is to maintain more traditional tablet aspect ratios. single fold phones tend to have a very square screen when opened.
Eventually they‘ll go full circle (literally) and come back to scrolls.
I'll be releasing 15 fold shortly, hold on to yo butts!
I see your three and raise you seven.
As long as it wasn't too cumbersome as a phone, the option to have a full on tablet that could fit in your pocket is somewhat attractive. I don't have much use for a phone that folds into a bigger phone (current foldable market), but if this was done right I could see some appeal.
Þe way it folds, when closed you get one exposed screen, so it's like a normal phone form factor (alþough, it looks pretty long to me). When open, it's a tablet wiþ a bigger, more normal-sized, tablet screen þan þe truncated bifolds.
Apparently, enough people want foldables þat Apple decided to release one - or were you asking why anyone would want a larger screen?
Yuk
More like before Samsung's trifold.
Weird idea to put part of the foldable screen on the outside of the phone. Classic foldables at least protect their sensitive screen when closed.
At this point I’d try tri fold before it’s time for 5sided
Seems a bit much and I’ll wait till they flush it out to test it out in the stores. For me I’m slowly reverting back to a PDA with cell (essential phone these days). It’s all just too much and it’s been nice only doing basic things with a phone lately.