"The first time in a foldable": Huawei Mate XT 2 doesn't just dupe Samsung's TriFold design, it nabs one of its best features

Huawei announced its latest foldable phone in China this morning and it comes with a couple of surprises.

The Huawei Mate XT 2 is a new tri-fold phone, but the brand has opted to change the design from its former model. Rather than a large screen that folds in on itself to create the front display, it now resembles the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold.

That means it has a separate front screen and the main tablet-like display is now better protected. And that's not the only feature "borrowed" from Samsung.

The Mate XT 2 also comes with a privacy display, as featured on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. But this is the first time a hardware level privacy solution has been used on a foldable, says Huawei.

For those who haven't seen Samsung's version of the tech, it can stop snoopers from seeing either the whole of your phone's screen, or even just individual apps, such as a video pop-up. The person sitting directly in front of the display can see it, but not those at an acute viewing angle.

Also new on the Huawei triple-fold phone is a built in stand, to prop it up when watching content on the inner screen.

As for other specs, Huawei has announced that it runs on a Kirin 9050 Pro processor, has an included ECG (electrocardiogram) sensor to read your heart rate, and comes preinstalled with the all-new Harmony OS 7 software.

It's not yet known when (or even whether) the Huawei Mate XT 2 will be available outside China, or how much it costs, but we'll update when we have more information.

A week of foldables

Of course, the Mate XT 2 isn't the only foldable to be launched this week. Apple is fully expected to unveil the iPhone Ultra on Wednesday – its first foldable device.

This will be a single fold phone, but with a similar wider design to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. That gives a larger iPad mini-like display in the middle.

T3 will be covering the Apple launch event live.