The success of the Mate XT meant that a successor was always going to be in the works, and just before Apple officially announces its iPhone 17 lineup, Huawei has unveiled its second-generation tri-fold flagship smartphone, the Mate XTs. Since critics already praised the first-generation device for being a revolutionary addition to the smartphone industry, many features have been carried over to the Mate XTs. However, on this occasion, Huawei has included a new chipset, along with that mammoth-sized starting price, to go along with this upgrade.
The first-generation Mate XT brought in $1.3 billion in revenue for Huawei, immediately prompting the development and launch of the Mate XTs
Sporting a screen size to rival a modern-day tablet, the Mate XTs comes with a 10.2-inch LTPO OLED screen, a 3,184 x 2,232 resolution in a 16:11 aspect ratio, plus a peak brightness of 1,800 nits, along with a refresh rate that ranges from 1Hz to 90Hz to conserve battery life. Users who want to reduce the screen real estate can opt to shrink the display size to 7.9 inches or 6.4 inches for single-handed use. Coming to the chipset upgrade, Huawei has outfitted the Kirin 9020 in the Mate XTs, making it slightly more powerful than the Kirin 9010 found in the first-generation tri-fold flagship.
We doubt that Huawei changed anything about the silicon, meaning that you are still getting the older 7nm lithography and the original CPU cluster. The Mate XTs is running the company’s proprietary HarmonyOS 5, which is less resource-intensive on the hardware, suggesting a fluid software experience. You get the same 5,600mAh battery as the first model, with the cell supporting 66W of wired charging, 50W of wireless charging, and 7.5W of reverse wireless charging. With the second-generation version, we were hoping to see a slightly bigger battery, so it is unclear why Huawei retained this capacity, especially when it used a better chipset for the Mate XTs.
Coming to the camera specifications, the second-generation tri-fold smartphone comes with a single 8MP front shooter, while the rear configuration includes a 50MP primary sensor, a 12MP ultrawide-angle unit, and another 12MP telephoto addition with up to 5.5x lossless zoom capabilities. As for the pricing, expect to cough up some serious dough for the Mate XTs, as the base model that comes with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of internal memory will set you back by CNY 17,999, or $2,520. The 512GB variant is listed for CNY 19,999, or $2,800, while the 1TB version will set you back by CNY 21,999 or $3,080.
About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech's mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.
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