Huawei starts shipping Mate XT Ultimate, but walk-in customers face disappointment

Huawei started shipping the Mate XT Ultimate units, just 10 days after unveiling the world"s first tri-fold smartphone. Those who pre-ordered and paid for the device will be the first to receive it, as reports from China confirm that the phone is not yet available for open sale.

According to Reuters, people lined up outside Huawei stores in major Chinese cities, only to be turned away because the phone was not available for in-store purchase.

Registrations for the Mate XT reached an impressive 6.5 million, surpassing the 3.9 million total foldable phone shipments globally during Q2 2024. However, those are non-commitment registrations, and no money has changed hands, so only a fraction of them will actually complete the payment.

Though Huawei has not disclosed any figures, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted the total production will reach 1 million units, which is twice the initially planned 500,000. However, since this is the first product of its kind, there"s always the risk of production issues that could prevent Huawei from reaching even those numbers.

The Mate XT Ultimate starts at CNY 19,999 (around $2,800 or €2,500) for the base model with 256 GB of storage. The device features Huawei"s in-house Kirin 9000S chipset and HarmonyOS 4.2, with no US components or software.

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