{"id":887714,"date":"2026-09-08T07:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T07:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/887714\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T07:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T07:58:16","slug":"chinese-tech-giants-huawei-and-xiaomi-launch-new-foldable-smartphones-ahead-of-apple-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/887714\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese tech giants Huawei and Xiaomi launch new foldable smartphones ahead of Apple event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinese tech companies Huawei and Xiaomi launched new flagship foldable smartphones on Monday, stepping up competition in China<\/a>\u2019s premium handset market ahead of Apple<\/a>\u2019s product launch later this week.<\/p>\n

Huawei\u2019s new Mate XT2 series, which fold out twice into a tablet-sized screen, features its Kirin 9050 Pro chip, a redesigned hinge, improved water resistance and a privacy screen that prevents nearby people from viewing the display.<\/p>\n

The devices are priced from 19,999 yuan ($2,980), with the top-end version costing 24,999 yuan ($3,725). Sales begin Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cPricing right now is a real challenge, because memory costs have risen sharply. We adopted a lot of new technology, and the cost pressure has been enormous,\u201d Huawei Executive Director Richard Yu told a news conference.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/FOR SUBSCRIBERS\"Huawei'sHuawei’s chip design is a bid to defy U.S. sanctions<\/p>\n

01:39<\/p>\n

Huawei said the new chip design delivers greater computing power while using less electricity. The architecture, called LogicFolding, is part of the \u201cTau Scaling Law\u201d principle unveiled in May<\/a> as Huawei seeks to overcome U.S. restrictions on access to advanced technology.<\/p>\n

At a separate launch event, Xiaomi unveiled its most premium phone to date, the Xiaomi 18 Fold. The device uses what Xiaomi calls a \u201cmedium-fold solution,\u201d remaining passport-sized when closed while supporting three apps side by side when opened.<\/p>\n

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said the device had several advantages over Apple products. Weighing less than 8 ounces and measuring less than a quarter-inch thick when unfolded, the phone is lighter than Apple\u2019s iPhone Pro Max, he said.<\/p>\n

The handset runs Xiaomi\u2019s in-house XRing O3 AI processor, which Lei said outperforms Apple\u2019s A19 Pro in responsiveness. It also uses DRAM memory chips supplied by Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Xiaomi 18 Fold is priced from 10,999 yuan ($1,540) to 14,999 yuan ($2,100).<\/p>\n

\u201cNowadays, memory is very, very expensive. We don\u2019t say it is cheap, but it is value for money,\u201d Lei said.<\/p>\n

The launches come ahead of Apple\u2019s unveiling of its latest iPhone series on Wednesday, with expectations high that it could also introduce a foldable phone.<\/p>\n

Huawei is currently the only major brand selling a so-called tri-fold phone. The Chinese tech giant is barred from selling products in the U.S., where Washington has deemed it a national security risk.<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s Samsung Electronics, the world\u2019s biggest foldable smartphone vendor, launched a tri-fold device in December but reportedly discontinued sales after three months. In July, it expanded its foldable lineup to include a passport-sized foldable phone.<\/p>\n

Huawei led China\u2019s smartphone market with a 22.6% share in the second quarter, ahead of Apple\u2019s 18.1%, according to the consulting firm IDC. Xiaomi held a 12.4% share.<\/p>\n

Huawei was even more dominant in folding phones, accounting for 68% of shipments in China in the second quarter, according to U.S.-based research company Smart Analytics Global.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chinese tech companies Huawei and Xiaomi launched new flagship foldable smartphones on Monday, stepping up competition in China\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[49,48,190,61],"class_list":["post-887714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}