Huawei Mate XT Ultimate is a phone buzzing right now, but it is more hype and less substance

It seems everyone in the world of tech is talking about Huawei Mate XT Ultimate, a phone that folds and unfolds three-way. It sure is unique but look closer and you will realise that Mate XT is more hype than substance.

In Short

• The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate is a phone with a screen that folds and unfolds three-way
• The Mate XT Ultimate is not yet available for direct purchase, not even in China
• The phone is unique but is definitely not the best

There is a distance of around 11000 kilometres between San Francisco and Shenzhen, two cities which are almost at the opposite ends of the map. On September 9 the eyes of the world's tech enthusiasts were fixed on both. In one, in the US, Apple was launching its latest iPhone 16 phones. In the other, in China, Huawei was going to show its first phone that can fold and unfold in three ways to give users a pocket-size device that can also double up as a large 10-inch tablet.

The two devices launched and were soon the talk of the town. But while people talked about the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro in various terms — some called it the same as the previous iPhone, some liked the new features — for the Huawei phone, which is called Mate XT Ultimate Design, there was only glowing praise.

On social media — X, YouTube and Instagram — the consensus seemed to be that Huawei was a company "innovating" while Apple was no longer the tech leader. Clips and images of the Mate XT started arriving, many from social media influencers based in China even though in that country websites like Instagram and X aka Twitter remain banned. Many tech influencers praised its virtues, most notably how it folded and unfolded in an ingenious way, and took potshots at Apple. It seemed that Huawei had stolen Apple's iPhone moment. But did it?

Timed for Apple iPhone 16 launch

While there is nothing official about it, this is safe to say that Huawei launched the Mate XT to coincide with the iPhone 16 launch. The reason why Huawei timed the Mate XT to land at the same time as the iPhone 16 was because it wanted people to compare something that they could see — a unique foldable screen — with something where the changes were not so apparent because the iPhone 16 series looked and functioned similar to the iPhone 15 series.

This was deliberate. It was aimed at sparking a conversation around how the Mate XT was "innovation" whereas the latest iPhone was not.

It did spark that conversation. Though it is not clear if the Mate XT buzz has been generated organically or if it is also boosted by partisan social media accounts. One thing though is clear. The conversations and buzz around the Mate XT is mostly about praising it. No one, it seems, is pausing — deliberately or just because they have been caught in the frenzy — to take a closer look at the phone. There is a talk of "pre-orders" running into millions while unnoticed goes the fact that these are "intents". These "pre-orders" require no deposits or commitment to purchase the phone and they do not obligate Huawei to deliver the phone.

What the Mate XT is and what it is not

There are two aspects to the Mate XT that need a closer look. One: is it really the epitome of tech? And two: if it is, can you get it?

In terms of tech the Mate XT is no "innovation". It is unique. But innovation needs to solve real-world problems and better user experience. The Mate XT, given the technology it has, doesn't do it. Now, I haven't seen the phone. But I know what goes into smartphones and I have seen and tried several phones with foldable screens. A foldable screen, whether it folds two-way or three-way, comes with its own complications. It is not yet a mature technology. The display crease remains an issue, which although no longer that apparent when the phone is new, gets more and more noticeable with use. The hinge that folds and unfolds creates complications in terms of internal structure of these phones, which is probably the reason why despite all the latest-tech most foldable phones struggle to match a top-end phone in performance, camera capabilities and battery life.

But let's assume that Huawei has solved some of these issues with the Mate XT. Even then the Mate XT is not the pinnacle of smartphone experience. This is because, whether fairly or unfairly, Huawei no longer has access to the latest core technologies.

I am talking of the chipset aka processors that powers our smartphones. Due to geopolitical fight over top-end silicon chips and the technology through which these chips are created, Huawei has access to — and that too barely — 7nm chip manufacturing. This is almost 5 years old technology and it is the reason why Huawei Mate XT, the most expensive and hyped phone Huawei has made, comes with a chipset called HiSilicon Kirin 9010, which by all indications is a repurposed Kirin 9000, which was announced in 2020.

This is a very old processor technology compared to what goes into the latest Google Pixel or the iPhone. And it shows in performance benchmarks. In Geekbench, the Kirin 9010 scores around 1400 points in single thread. Compared to this the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, powering phones costing as less as Rs 50,000, scores around 2300 points. The A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 Pro, in comparison, scores over 3200 points.

The chipset issue is extremely dire and real for companies making phones in China. iFixit, a website that does a tear-down of phones to look into their components, analysed the Kirin 9010 a few months ago when Huawei released the Pura 70 phone. "The Kirin 9010 performs staggeringly worse than Snapdragon 8 Gen3," iFixit noted in its analyses. "The shortages and backlogs on orders for Huawei's Pura 70 and even the months-old Mate 60 imply that the N+2 process does not produce sufficient yields to meet demand. This restricts SMIC's ability to produce the 7nm Kirin 9000S and 9010 SoC's in large enough quantities to meet demand."

A processor sits in the middle of everything that a phone does. If Huawei can't get access to a fast processor, it limits everything that the company can do in its phones. For example: iPhone 16 has WiFi 7. The Mate XT is still on WiFi 6. And while some of the issues can be managed by throwing more of the old tech at a problem, not all can be.

Then there is the overall supply chain. Given the tight export controls on tech by the US and other countries, Huawei is likely to struggle with manufacturing of its phones. It has to possibly struggle for many components: from NAND to other specialised chips. In a way the real miracle of the Mate XT is not its three-way folding screen. Instead, it is the fact that despite all the export controls such a phone exists in China.

Already there are reports that the Mate XT seems to be a sort of limited edition phone. Reuters reported two days ago as the phone went on "open sale" on September 20 that people who walked into the Huawei store could not buy it. "At Huawei's flagship shop in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, some who described themselves as super fans were annoyed after being told only those whose pre-orders had been confirmed could buy the tri-foldable Mate XT," one Reuters report noted.

Why? The geopolitics of tech

If the Mate XT is not cutting-edge in reality, and Huawei can't probably make enough of them, what's the need to create it? The answer: the Mate XT is a Huawei trying to prove a point and putting up a brave face, and in this endeavour it is likely supported by the Chinese government.

In the last 6-7 odd years, Huawei has faced a squeeze from the governments across the world. Fairly or unfairly, it has been accused of working with the Chinese government. As regulatory pressure has increased, the Huawei business has suffered. It has withdrawn from many markets. Even in India, Huawei phones are no longer sold. At the same time, the company has seen its supply chain disrupted by the US-led export controls.

Pushed into a corner, Huawei has spent the last few years reconfiguring its supply chain. Last year it finally managed to create phones that could go up against the high-end — but not top-end — devices that companies like Apple and Samsung were making. The company is at the centre of a tech fightback the Chinese government has started. The government is spending billions of dollars to achieve self-sufficiency in chip manufacturing and in the last few years, in a push driven by Huawei and SMIC, it has made impressive progress. But cutting-edge tech, the kind of stuff and parts that go into the latest iPhone and Samsung phones, remains unavailable.

That is a different story, a real story. The message to the world need not be real. And hence the latest Huawei phone. This year with the Mate XT, Huawei wants to portray itself as a company that is not only matching the best — the launch event coinciding with the iPhone 16 — but is also surpassing them.

The Mate XT is an exercise in keeping spirits high despite adversity. It is a dare from Huawei, telling the US and West that technology export curbs can't stop it from creating buzz. And finally it is a morale-booster for Chinese phone users, who want to be patriotic and support Huawei over everyone else. On this third count, the Mate XT sure seems to have succeeded.

Yet again, Reuters captured it in its report on September 11. "Apple hasn't fallen, but Huawei has truly risen again," Reuters quoted one Weibo user. According to the same report, another wrote on Weibo: "Times are changing. US sanctions have been in vain."

This is the reality of the Mate XT, which is scheduled to reach the rest of the world in Q1 of 2025 but I wouldn't be surprised if it never does. This is not a showcase of the best in technology. Instead, this is more of a showcase of resilience of Huawei and an attempt to tide over the time until the company, and the Chinese government, find a surer way to deal with the technology export controls. The Mate XT is the not best smartphone in the world. Not the most innovative. It is just the best that Huawei can scrap together with a mix of old and new technologies it can access. And that, when seen in the right context and when placed in front of the latest phones from the likes of Google, Apple and Samsung, isn't much.