Huawei started shipping the Mate XT Ultimate units, just 10 days after the world’s first triple-core smartphone was unveiled. 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 public sale.
According to Reuters, people in major Chinese cities queued outside Huawei stores but were turned away because the phone was not for sale in the store.
Huawei flagship store in Shenzhen, China
Registrations for the Mate XT reached an impressive 6.5 million, surpassing the 3.9 million global foldable phone shipments in Q2 2024. However, these are no-strings-attached registrations and no money has been transferred yet, so only a fraction of them will actually complete payment.
While Huawei hasn’t released any figures, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that total production will reach 1 million units, which is twice the originally planned 500,000. However, since this is the first product of its kind, there is always the risk of production issues that could prevent Huawei from even reaching those numbers.
The Mate XT Ultimate starts at CNY 19,999 (around $2,800 or €2,500) for the base model with 256GB of storage. The device features Huawei’s own Kirin 9000S chipset and HarmonyOS 4.2, without US components or software.