Huawei launches $3,660 trifold phone outside of China as it charts international comeback

Huawei launched its trifold smartphone outside of China on Tuesday, as it plots a comeback in international markets after getting hammered by U.S. sanctions.

The Mate XT will have a starting price tag of 3,499 euros ($3,660). Huawei has yet to announce in which countries the model will be available, but the company has told users to look out for local announcements. A CNBC check found that the device was listed for sale in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The handset was first released in China last year and drew global intrigue for being the first ever trifold phone. Normal foldable devices can be folded once in half either vertically or horizontally. The Mate XT has two points at which it can fold and can display content on a single, double or triple screen.

Huawei was once the biggest smartphone player in the world and challenged Apple and Samsung in the premium segment of the market.

U.S. sanctions beginning in 2019 cut off Huawei’s access to advance chips and Google’s Android operating system, causing its market share to plunge. It was all but wiped out from international markets as other brands filled the gap. Huawei’s smartphone market share outside of China stands at just 0.3%, according to data from research firm International Data Corporation.

However, in China, Huawei’s market share grew to 17% in 2024 from 12% the year before, according to the IDC, thanks to a comeback that began late in 2023 when it released a smartphone containing a fairly advanced chip. The component surprised many because U.S. sanctions over the past few years have sought to cut China’s access to advanced semiconductor technology.

Huawei is hoping to bring that momentum to its overseas market, focusing on high-end devices.

Francisco Jeronimo, vice president for data and analytics at IDC, told CNBC that the the Mate XT will not be sold in large volumes and is likely aimed at those wanting to show off that they can afford such a pricey device.

“I think what they [Huawei] believe that the trifold can be a unique value proposition and because it is very expensive, they aim to target wealthy individuals who are more keen on showing off they have the money versus having the best experience you can get,” Jeronimo said.

Still, even if Huawei were to sell half a million units of the Mate XT, it could generate $1.5 billion in revenue, Jeronimo added.

The Mate XT will be a test of Huawei’s appeal outside of China. For one, it will not be using Google’s Android operating system, which is the most popular in the world.

While users of Android phones can access millions of apps via the Google Play Store, Huawei’s app store does not offer some of the most popular Google apps that people outside of China rely on, which could hamper the Mate XT’s appeal.

“Lack of Google still is a ‘gaping hole’ for mainstream international market especially those who will pay top dollar for a tri-fold hardware but which want to run Netflix or Google’s Play Store or the latest cutting edge GenAI Google Gemini features,” Neil Shah, partner at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC.

Gemini is Google’s artificial intelligence chatbot.