You guys might not believe it, but the iPhone 16 and the Mate XT were released on the same day. I don’t want to blame Apple, they make their own business decisions. But I am sure everyone wants to see more of a phone like the Mate XT because it is so special! So impressive! It reminds me of the first foldable phone from Samsung released five years ago, everybody loved it, and everybody wanted to get it. Now, the Mate XT did the same thing. If you have it now, you are definitely the ONE IN A MILLION.
Design
As you can see, the Mate XT is the lightest and thinnest tablet I’ve ever seen, and the thickest and heaviest phone I’ve ever used. When you unfold and use the Mate XT, the display is so impressive. The super narrow bezels, high-quality OLED screen, not too not-too-big and not-too-small size make it my favorite tablet.
This camera module is also well placed and grabs on it making it easy to use the phone with one hand. It also doesn’t block the speaker, so I often scroll on TikTok one-handed like this.
But the Mate XT is too heavy and thick as a phone, remember to tighten the belt of your pants when you’re carrying it in your pocket, otherwise you’ll lose $3,000 and your prestige among your friends.
The Mate XT is very interesting, because its pros are hidden when it’s folded, and its cons disappear when it’s unfolded. So the best way to use the Mate XT is of course like this, only Fold it and put it in your pocket when you need to move.
Why Mate XT
So why does everyone want the Mate XT? The reason is that it’s very rare. Being rare means you can show off in front of everyone.
When I had it, my happiest moments were always when people stared at me. You know what’s the hardest thing when you want to show off? When you slowly unfold a phone in front of someone, and then quickly close it without even realizing it. You know what, it is so hard to keep a straight face when everyone’s eyes are on you.
It’s definitely a head-turner and makes me feel like I’m the chosen one. Yes, it gives you a sense of satisfaction that no other phone can. I think Mate XT users should experience this often in the coming year.
Display & Hinges
Ok, let’s come back and talk about the phone itself. The Mate XT’s screen is ordinary but surprisingly good. When it’s folded, it doesn’t have a high resolution, nor a high refresh rate or brightness. It supports LTPO, but only down to 60Hz. That does not sound quite good right?
Once you unfold it, it becomes a tablet with super high resolution, brightness, and contrast. What I actually like more is the screen ratio, it’s so much better than the regular foldable phones that are close to 1:1. The black area is smaller when watching videos, and I don’t have to put up with the weird UI of unoptimized apps. So like I said before, try to use it unfolded to get the best experience.
About the hinge, the Mate XT can be hovered, but it doesn’t seem to be optimized accordingly. The camera App doesn’t split into two parts when the phone is opened halfway. And if you put it on a table, you’ll notice that it’s not 100% flat. After all, there are two hinges, which makes sense to me.
One thing to keep in mind is to never fold it the wrong way, or the tri-fold phone will become a tri-piece phone.
Richard Yu showed off a foldable keyboard at the launch event, and everyone seemed very interested. Guess what? We got a similar one. Since this tablet form is great for browsing the web and editing text, the Mate XT is really perfect for writers, especially those who like to write in cafés.
Do you guys know the Zenbook 17 Fold? That’s a foldable laptop from ASUS. Can the Mate XT be folded up like it and use the bottom half used as a keyboard? The lower half of it does work as a keyboard, but due to the center of gravity and camera bulge, it doesn’t get laid out on a table. So the keyboard is something you’ll have to get for yourself.
Camera
The Mate XT’s camera is arguably way ahead of the tablet’s crappy camera. The main camera, ultra-wide camera, and telephoto camera are all top-notch. Getting a good photo day or night is as easy as pie.
Some people will have questions: no other cameras between the 1x main camera and the 5.5x telephoto, does it mean that the clarity of the photos taken in this range will be low? HUAWEI of course knows about this problem, so they solved it in the best way they know: AI Enhancement.
Can you believe that these are all the photos you get by cropping the main camera? How come the picture quality is still so good? The answer is the power of AI. While most of the time the optical ones are just going to be better than the AI ones, the optics don’t always win though. I mean, HUAWEI’s AI algorithms are the best I’ve ever seen, and clarity is not something you need to worry about.
What you really need to worry about is elsewhere, such as the macro mode. We were able to take macro photos with the telephoto camera on the Pura 70 Ultra, but not the Mate XT. While the Ultra Wide Camera can also take nice macro shots, I’d still like to see the macro shooting capability added to the telephoto cameras.
Performances
The Mate XT’s processor hasn’t been updated, it’s still a Kirin 9010. The scores are similar to the Mate 60 Pro and Pura 70 Ultra.
To make up for the performance, HUAWEI has used frame interpolation on some popular games, so you can see at the beginning of running Genshin Impact, that it’s capable of getting 60fps.
But because it’s so thin, and the screen resolution and rendering resolution become higher when unfolded, the frame rate drops as a matter of fact. If you fold it, you’re able to get higher frame rates for games, but then why would you buy this phone?
Overall, because of this big screen, the Mate XT is great for playing less intense games. As for big 3D games, you might check out other tablets.
Charging & Battery
The charging curve is here for your reference, a full charge in one hour isn’t slow, but it’s not fast either. 66W of wired charging isn’t a surprise, but 50W of wireless charging is. I’m glad they didn’t take wireless charging away in such a thin body; after all, I do use wireless charging a lot.
I didn’t test the Mate XT by the same standards as before, because it wouldn’t be fair to it by either phone or tablet standards. Based on my way of use, it was connected to Wi-Fi most of the time. No gaming, just scrolling on TikTok and watching online videos. I use it unfolded whenever I can, and I’m still quite satisfied that it lasts almost a full day.
Of course, if you play games or don’t use Wi-Fi, charging twice a day is a must. All in all, it’s going to have a longer battery life than we thought, but not a surprisingly long one.
System
You guys must think that HUAWEI has designed a brand-new system for the Mate XT, don’t you? But sadly, it doesn’t.
Things like split screen and window hover are the same as HUAWEI’s tablet. Similarly, when closed, it’s the same as a regular phone. I was going to introduce you to some new stuff as well. Like, wow, this new feature is freaking awesome! But, HUAWEI didn’t give me that chance.
Thinking in another way though, being able to transplant all the well-optimized software from different devices to the Mate XT, making it feature-rich, stable, and smooth, has already been remarkable.
Mate XT is the pinnacle of HUAWEI, no one can make this Tri-fold phone except HUAWEI. They once made Mate Xs, the foldable phone with a flexible screen on the outside. They also make normal foldable phones and tablets. It’s the combination of the hardware and software of all these devices, then we have a phone like the Mate XT.
I’m glad to see that even though HUAWEI has grown so big, they don’t release phones that look exactly the same every year. It’s these special phones that make me, and make us, so excited. I’m pretty sure this is my DREAM phone in 2024.
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