Last week’s poll suggests that Huawei may have discovered the next popular form factor for foldables with the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate. The first tri-foldable drew a lot of interest, though the device itself may not be all that popular. Huawei knows this, of course, and the retail package is loaded like this is a premium limited edition – which it is, in some ways.
Let’s look at the results – more than half of voters are interested in a tri-foldable. Again, the XT Ultimate probably isn’t it. Still, 22% voted that they want one, which is higher than we expected, given the device’s €3,500 price tag.
The majority wants something like the XT Ultimate – price is the biggest issue, though Huawei itself is a problem too. The company’s chipsets are years behind the competition and there’s no Google Play Store, which makes this device a no-go for most.
Other companies, ones not subject to the same export restrictions as Huawei, are working on tri-foldables of their own, so there should be alternatives soon-ish. Would they be better, though? In terms of performance and software access, sure, but Huawei has proven itself to be a whiz at making thin foldables, something that Samsung hasn’t been able to match yet.
Naturally, some see the tri-fold design as a gimmick – but then even more people think that the whole “foldable phone” is a gimmick. But the rest see the XT Ultimate as innovation.