Huawei unveils Mate XTs trifold flagship with Kirin chip comeback

China's smartphone giant Huawei launched its latest flagship device, the Mate XTs, at a product launch in Shenzhen on Thursday. The trifold smartphone is priced at 17,999 yuan (about $2,520) for the 16GB+256GB version, 19,999 yuan for the 16GB+512GB version, and 21,999 yuan for the 16GB+1TB version.

Huawei's Consumer Business Group CEO Richard Yu said the phone is powered by the Kirin 9020 chip and HarmonyOS, delivering a 36 percent overall performance boost through software-hardware-cloud synergy. Notably, the launch marks the return of the Kirin chip to Huawei's product line after a four-year hiatus.

The Mate XTs supports running PC-grade office software directly on the device for the first time in the industry, offering advanced editing and multi-window capabilities "just like a computer." It also features stylus support for real-time annotations, split-screen note-taking, and screen-casting with a laser pointer. Additionally, the phone is the first to integrate PC-grade financial software, enabling users to monitor markets in real time, conduct in-depth data analysis, and make informed investment decisions.

Huawei also highlighted another of the Mate XTs' breakthroughs: It is the first smartphone to offer information from the China Earthquake Administration. With access to 15,000 seismic monitoring stations nationwide, it enhances earthquake warning capabilities by 2.5 times, enabling second-level alerts across key regions.

Yu also announced during the launch that the number of devices running HarmonyOS 5.0 had surpassed 14 million.