Latest news with #MateXT

Huawei's New Earbuds Offer Active Noise Cancellation Despite Open Ear Design

Forbes

2 days ago

Forbes

Huawei's New Earbuds Offer Active Noise Cancellation Despite Open Ear Design

Huawei FreeBuds 6 Huawei's latest earbuds, the FreeBuds 6, continues the unique design of the FreeBuds 5, but comes in a sleeker form. These earbuds, weighing just 4.5g per bud, are so sleek and curvy that I've forgotten they were in my ears a couple of times during the past two weeks of use. The FreeBuds 6 come in an egg-shaped case that can charge the earbuds seven times over (making for a total listening time of around 36 hours, as the earbuds can play for about five-plus hours each charge). The earbuds bring improved audio with four-magnet dynamic unit and dual drivers that deliver crisp highs up to 48 kHz and deep bass down to 14 Hz. However, you must be using a recent Huawei flagship phone to achieve full 48 kHZ and lossless L2HC 4.0 audio. From my testing, audio quality sounded excellent when paired with the Huawei Mate XT. The 11mm driver produces satisfying oomph during hip hop tracks. When paired to a non-Huawei phone, audio quality still sounds good, but has a subtle loss of depth. FreeBuds 6 Open-ear earbuds -- meaning buds with a tip that does not entirely seal off the ear canal -- are not supposed to be able to offer strong active noise cancellation. But the FreeBuds 6, manages to do that thanks to a clever AI-driven software algorithm that uses its microphones to identify ambient noise around the wearer and then actively mutes the sound. I must say the ANC isn't quite as strong as the Apple AirPods 4, but it's more than enough to silence loud talkers at cafes or public transport. The fit is comfortable. One downside of the FreeBuds 6's curvy design is it's a bit hard for my fingers to find the touch sensitive panel to control music playback. On other earbuds, including Huawei's Pro series earbuds, there is a clear groove to tap or long-press. Here, I find myself often tapping to no avail, just to realize I've tapped on the wrong portion of the earbuds. The FreeBuds 6 are curvy for comfort, but hard to hold and control sometimes. The FreeBuds 6 can also pair to two devices at the same time, a feature that comes in handy as I often switch between devices. Priced at around $150, the FreeBuds 6 are premium earbuds with an acceptable price tag. However, I do think those who can splurge a bit more are better off buying Huawei's FreeBuds Pro buds for superior sound, ANC, and controls.

[REVIEW] Huawei Mate XT: No trifold gimmick, but it's pricey

The Citizen

12-06-2025

The Citizen

[REVIEW] Huawei Mate XT: No trifold gimmick, but it's pricey

What strikes you immediately about the Mate XT when unfolded is how ridiculously thin it is. If you are a businessperson, entrepreneur, CEO of a company, a sales representative, or perhaps even a university student, or a journalist like me, then the Huawei Mate XT is the best mobile device you can get at the moment. I only recently learned that the popular idiom 'seeing is believing' is a gross misreading of Thomas Fuller's original quote. The 17th-century English clergyman actually said, 'Seeing is believing, but feeling is the truth'. And that's exactly how I felt when I saw the Huawei Mate XT for the first time in Barcelona, Spain. Form factor What strikes you immediately about the Mate XT when unfolded is how ridiculously thin it is. Shockingly so, in fact. It feels sturdy, too. You wouldn't want to test the bendability of it in the opposite direction, obviously, but it does feel like it could take some stick The Mate XT Ultimate is more like a foldable tablet! It features a whopping 10.2-inch LTPO OLED screen with 360ppi resolution, 90Hz refresh rate, and 10-bit colour depth. This large 16:11 display can be folded one or two times, depending on your preferences and use case. Huawei has invented two different high-precision hinges for the purposes of the XT design, which are durable yet incredibly thin, and allow the device to remain as thick as a recent Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold when completely closed. But when it's completely open, this new Mate is only 3.6mm thin! Is this the best Friday or what? This amazing device just landed on my desk, the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design 😀 Unfold the magic ✨ #Huawei #HuaweiMateXTUltimate @HuaweiZA @HuaweiMobile — 𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚣𝚎𝚕 𝙿𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚕 ⚡️ (@FaizelPatel143) June 6, 2025 ALSO READ: WATCH: Samsung S25 Ultra an AI marvel Danger By comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 has 7.6 and 6.3-inch screens, and the OnePlus Open 8 and 6.3-inch screens. Creases are a major issue for foldable screens like those on the Samsung and Honour devices, but Huawei has managed to tame both on the Mate XT. It's no worse than the Galaxy Z Fold 6. What puts the phone in danger is that one of the hinges in the phone causes a bent portion of the display on the outside edge, making it susceptible to damage when dropped, even when closed. The in-box case covers this up with a flap that runs the whole length of the phone. Gaming With its tri-fold form factor and huge display, it is impressive, which makes it a breeze for multitasking needs. It's worth noting that you can only split screen between two apps, but with pop-up windows and extra screen real estate, I didn't find it much of a hindrance. The Huawei Mate XT is well-suited for gaming, offering a smooth and responsive experience even with graphically intensive games. It provides a solid performance, and the large, high-refresh-rate display enhances the gaming experience. The Mate XT Ultimate runs on Huawei's own Kirin 9010 – it's a step back from the Kirin 9020, which powers the Mate X6. It's coupled with 16GB RAM, and you can get the device with up to 1TB of storage. Photography Huawei phones have been known for their solid photographic chops, and we expect that to be the case with the Mate XT. The rear setup, which can also be used for selfies, has a 50MP primary camera with OIS and a variable aperture, a 12MP 5.5x zoom camera with a periscope telephoto lens, and a 12MP AF ultrawide camera. Laser assistance and a colour spectrum sensor complement the back cameras. There is also a small 8MP imager inside a cutout in the screen. ALSO READ: Vivo X200 Pro offers DSLR experience, but it's pricey Battery The main thing people ask me about the Mate XT, once they get over its foldability, is whether the battery sucks. In my experience, it absolutely doesn't. The 5,600mAh capacity proves more than capable of lasting a full day. I'm not spending all day with the phone fully open. A 5,600mAh battery is a decent size for a phone, but relatively small for a tablet. Pricey After several weeks using the Mate XT as my main phone, my primary impression is that it delivers on its promise, effectively offering three different devices in one. The Mate XT feels like the ideal combination of tablet and smartphone. The fact that it's so thin and consequently folds down into such a practical package is where the innovation and demand lie. Verdict All in all, the Huawei Mate XT is designed for those who demand the cutting edge of consumer technology. But there is one huge drawback, and this is not cosmetic. The Huawei XT ultimate design is pricey and retails for around R70,000. Many people will also argue that it's a Huawei device, and therefore, it lacks Google. Well, Huawei has done a workaround on this. All you need to do is download the GBox app, and you will have access to all the necessary apps. It takes about five minutes to download all the apps, depending on the connection, and it works like magic. China talks Currently, the United States and China have agreed on a 'framework' on trade after two days of talks in London aimed at de-escalating tensions between the sides. So who knows, maybe they may have also been talking about the Huawei issue. If they are discussing Huawei, and if the sanctions are lifted against the company, Huawei could become a world market leader in the mobile phone, watch and computer market, taking the competition to the likes of Apple, Samsung and many others. ALSO READ: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max review – It's a handful

That crazy tri-fold smartphone we got last year is getting a sequel

Phone Arena

06-06-2025

Phone Arena

That crazy tri-fold smartphone we got last year is getting a sequel

Huawei Mate XT | Image credit: Huawei The Mate XT is the world's first tri-fold smartphone and was released back in September 2024. Yes, it looks ridiculous and can be considered a technological wonder, but it did put its maker, Huawei, on the front page of tech media for a few weeks. Well, it appears that people really like it, and Huawei has agreed that it's worth investigating this unnatural form factor more in the future. With that in mind, a new report coming from a reliable source claims Huawei is already working on a second-generation Mate XT. Reputable leaker Digital Chat Station said on Weibo that Huawei plans to launch a new tri-fold smartphone in the second half of the year. If the Chinese company decides to respect tradition, the second-generation Mate XT could be introduced as early as September successor to Mate XT won't bring any changes when it comes to display technology, at least according to the leaker. Huawei's next tri-fold smartphone will have the same display, but a better chipset and camera. The accessories will be improved too, but it's unclear if the leaker is referring to quality or variety. Huawei has already launched a bunch of very interesting accessories for the original Mate XT. For example, owners of the unique tri-fold smartphone can purchase a very special rotating case manufactured from very durable aramid fiber material, which can rotate in a multi-angle direction at 270 degrees. Huawei Mate XT's rotating case | Image credit: Huawei The same rotating case can also be used as a stand if you want to watch something on its big display for a longer period of time. Besides that, the Mate XT supports a foldable touch keyboard, which basically turns the phone into a mini PC, especially when combined with the rotating will be very interesting to see what other accessories Huawei can come up with to make the successor to the Mate XT at least equally appealing as the original. The news that Huawei's upcoming tri-fold smartphone is going to get an upgraded chipset, and a better camera system isn't that surprising considering that all major smartphone makers are doing the same thing. The real news is that Huawei is actively working on a sequel. Hopefully, this will be available in more markets, not just China and a few other countries.

GSM Arena

06-06-2025

Business
GSM Arena

Huawei Mate XT 2 details leak

Last year, Huawei stunned the world with its Mate XT tri-fold device, and now Samsung allegedly wants to follow in its footsteps. But Huawei is already developing the second generation, and today a new rumor out of China purports to give us some of the more important details about it. So, the Mate XT 2 will allegedly have the exact same screen as the original, with the main upgrades compared to the Mate XT being a processor with improved performance and better cameras. Unfortunately, no more details have been shared, but the Mate XT 2 is rumored to be coming at some point in the second half of this year, so undoubtedly we'll be hearing a lot more about it in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned. Source (in Chinese)

Huawei's first trifold is a great phone that you shouldn't buy

The Verge

17-05-2025

The Verge

Huawei's first trifold is a great phone that you shouldn't buy

Let's get one thing out of the way immediately: you shouldn't buy Huawei's trifold phone, the Mate XT. And that's alright, because you probably couldn't if you wanted to — while it's no longer exclusive to China, it's only on sale in a handful of countries, and not in the US or Europe. Besides, I can reel off a list of major problems with the Mate XT: at almost $4,000 it's far too expensive, it doesn't have native support for Google apps (though you can get around that more easily than you might think), it's limited to 4G, and there are some pretty obvious reasons to worry about its durability. Any one of those individually would be a good reason to steer clear of buying the Mate XT. Taken together, they're insurmountable. But this isn't a phone you're meant to buy, at least not outside China. It's a phone you're meant to gawk at on the internet, to marvel at Huawei's technological prowess, to ooh and ahh about its many and varied folds. This is Huawei showing off, proving to the world that it's still got it. And in fairness, it has. As I sit and write this — more than six months after Huawei first released the Mate XT in China — it's still the only one of its kind. Rumor has it that Samsung has a trifold ready to show off this year, but it hasn't yet. And by the time it does, odds are Huawei will have spent a full year as the only player in the game. That might ring alarm bells in your head. This must be undercooked tech, you think, rushed out the door to beat everyone else to market. But the most surprising thing about the Mate XT is that it only occasionally feels first-gen. There's a hint of it in the multitasking, which refuses to allow you to fully open three apps at a time, pinning each to one of the three screen segments. Or when the fully open screen often doesn't quite go entirely flat, which is more annoying than any crease will ever be. And you notice it when you open the phone, or close it, and the app you're using seems to briefly reboot itself, losing your spot in a long article or (once, infuriatingly) discarding a Letterboxd review that was almost entirely finished. I've learned not to change the configuration while doing something, just to be safe. But for the most part, these just don't really matter. After several weeks using the Mate XT as my main phone, my primary impression is that it delivers on its promise, effectively offering three different devices in one. Fully closed, this is simply a regular phone with a 6.4-inch display. At 12.8mm thick, it has a little heft to it, but not unduly so — it's less than a millimeter thicker than Samsung's Z Fold 6. It's solid, and weighty, and even the cameras are decent. It's as good a phone in this form as Samsung's foldable, so long as you can live with sideloading the Play Store. When I'm reading a long article or trying to keep up in the editorial Slack channels, I open the phone up to a 7.9-inch, squarish display that's a pretty close match for what other foldables offer. For me, this is the least useful setup of the three, a reminder that current book-style foldables offer something I don't really want most of the time, extra screen space in all the wrong places. But that's what the Mate XT's full screen is for. Flipping one more section nets me a full 10.2-inch display, making this a thin, lightweight tablet I can fold up and fit in my pocket. It's wider than it is tall, a close match for the aspect ratios in most streaming apps, ideal for watching videos and playing games, tripling the screen real estate for wide-screen entertainment. I haven't traveled much in the time I've been working on this review, but this is a phone crying out for rail commutes and long-haul flights, a big-screen Balatro machine that fits in your pocket, not your backpack. Nine times out of ten, I use the Mate XT like a regular ol' phone, and that extra screen space is probably wasted on me. But I don't travel all that much, or make a habit of gaming on my phone; I wouldn't make the most of this outside a handful of plane rides a year. Maybe you wouldn't either, but I imagine anyone who already gets regular use out of both a phone and a tablet is feeling a little pull of temptation to merge them into one. The main thing people have asked me about the Mate XT, once they get over the foldiness of it all, is whether the battery sucks. In my experience, it absolutely doesn't. The 5,600mAh capacity proves more than capable of lasting a full day (and then some), but I'll refer you back to the previous paragraph — I'm not spending all day with the phone fully open. 5,600mAh is a decent battery for a phone, but a small one for a tablet, so if that's your main use case, then you should expect to feel a bit more of a pinch. The second thing people ask is how likely it is to break. And compared to a regular phone, the answer is pretty likely! There's a whole extra failure point in the second hinge, and no IP rating, so you can't trust it to survive either water or dust. I'm more worried that one part of the soft, flexible screen is always exposed to the outside world. It's going to get nicks, scratches, and dents, and there's nothing you can do about it. My review unit already has a couple, and I've been babying the thing. I'd say you shouldn't buy this unless you can afford to replace it, but again: you probably shouldn't buy it at all. Maybe you should buy the next one. Or the one after that. Or one a few generations down the line. Or just the first one that isn't made by Huawei, because fantastic as the company's hardware can be, I'm still not convinced it's worth giving up proper Google support. But while the Mate XT may be the first trifold, I'm confident it won't be the last. And this hardware, with Google and 5G, for two-thirds the price, and a generation or two of durability improvements? You should buy that phone. Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge