Huawei's new tri-fold phone sells out in 2 seconds — but it looks a lot like Samsung's

"The only company that can surpass Huawei in the tri-fold market is Huawei itself." — Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's consumer division, speaking at the unveiling of the Mate XTs ahead of Samsung's tri-fold launch in 2025.

"Thinner, bigger and faster than the competition." — Richard Yu, at the 2019 unveiling of the Mate X foldable phone.

For years, Huawei has taken pointed jabs at Samsung in the foldable phone market. Now its second-generation tri-fold, the Mate XT 2, set for official release Monday, sold out its pre-order stock in just two seconds — but the device marks a striking reversal: Huawei has overhauled the folding mechanism to closely mirror Samsung's design, prompting analysts to say the Chinese company has in effect followed its rival's lead.

According to industry sources Wednesday, pre-orders for the Mate XT 2 opened on Huawei's online store Monday and sold out in two seconds. Huawei has not disclosed how many units were made available.

The Mate XT 2 is the successor to the Mate XT, which Huawei unveiled in 2024 as the world's first tri-fold smartphone.

The most notable change is the folding structure. The original Mate XT used a Z-fold design in which both panels folded outward in opposite directions. The new model switches to a G-fold design, where the screen folds inward.

That is the same structure Samsung used in its Galaxy Z Tri-Fold, which debuted last December and sold out in South Korea, Europe and the United States before being discontinued.

Analysts say Huawei has abandoned the Z-fold approach and in effect shifted its product strategy to follow Samsung's.

Huawei is pushing hard to establish dominance in the tri-fold segment with its second-generation device, but product quality and market viability remain unresolved challenges.

The first-generation Mate XT launched as the world's first tri-fold phone, beating Samsung to market, and triggered a sell-out frenzy — but quality complaints surfaced almost immediately after sales began.

Users who received the device posted a stream of complaints online, including reports of cracked screens within a single day of use, and cancellations mounted rapidly. Pre-orders had reached about 6.5 million units, yet actual sales in the month following the official launch were limited to around 20,000 units — less than 1 percent of pre-order volume.

Price is another barrier. The Mate XT was priced at roughly 3.76 million won to 4.5 million won. Huawei responded by releasing the lower-spec, lower-priced Mate XTs, but that model is also widely seen as having failed to make a meaningful commercial impact. The price of the Mate XT 2 has not yet been announced; industry observers expect it to be similar to or higher than its predecessor.