SHENZHEN, September 8 — Chinese consumers now have two new premium foldables to weigh ahead of Apple’s expected Wednesday unveiling, after Huawei and Xiaomi launched flagship devices on Monday in a direct challenge to the US giant’s hold on the high end. Huawei’s Mate XT2 series is a tri-fold handset that opens into a tablet-sized screen, powered by the company’s Kirin 9050 Pro chip. Huawei says a redesigned hinge, improved water resistance and a privacy screen that blocks side-angle viewing round out the package.
Pricing starts at 19,999 yuan (approximately US$2,800) and climbs to 24,999 yuan (approximately US$3,500) for the top model, with sales beginning September 12. Executive Director Richard Yu was blunt about the economics.
“Pricing right now is a real challenge, because memory costs have risen sharply. We adopted a lot of new technology, and the cost pressure has been enormous,” he said. The device’s chip architecture, dubbed LogicFolding, builds on Huawei’s “Tau Scaling Law” principle unveiled in May — an approach aimed at working around US restrictions on advanced technology access.
Huawei remains barred from selling products in the US over national security concerns. At a separate event, Xiaomi countered with the Xiaomi 18 Fold, its most premium phone to date.
The company’s “medium-fold solution” keeps the device passport-sized when closed while supporting three apps side by side when open. CEO Lei Jun stressed an edge over Apple’s hardware: the phone weighs 219 grams and measures 5.02 mm thick unfolded, lighter than the iPhone Pro Max. The Xiaomi 18 Fold runs Xiaomi’s in-house XRing O3 AI processor, which Lei claimed outperforms Apple’s A19 Pro in responsiveness, and uses DRAM memory chips from Chinese manufacturer CXMT.
It is priced from 10,999 yuan (approximately US$1,540) to 14,999 yuan (approximately US$2,100). Lei acknowledged the same cost headwinds Huawei cited. “Nowadays, memory is very, very expensive.
We don’t say it is cheap, but it is value for money,” he said.
The China premium stakes
Both launches land days before Apple’s Wednesday event, where analysts expect the company may introduce a foldable of its own. Huawei currently stands as the only major brand selling a tri-fold phone. Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest foldable vendor, launched a tri-fold device in December but reportedly discontinued sales after three months; in July it expanded its lineup with a passport-sized foldable.
IDC data shows Huawei led China’s smartphone market with a 22.6% share in the second quarter, ahead of Apple’s 18.1%, with Xiaomi holding 12.4%. Research firm Smart Analytics Global reported Huawei accounted for 68% of foldable phone shipments in China in the same period.
For Indian buyers watching from the sidelines, the launches signal where the global foldable race is heading — even if neither device is officially sold here. The bigger question is whether Apple answers Wednesday with hardware of its own, and how quickly the tri-fold form factor moves from China’s premium tier to wider Asian markets.
