• Huawei Mobile South Africa has confirmed that the tri-fold Mate XT will be launching locally in April.
• No recommended pricing has been shared yet, but it is expected to cost in the region of ~R50 000.
• It will be joined by the MatePad Pro 13.2”tablet in April too.

Huawei will indeed launch its first tri-fold smartphone, the Mate XT, in South Africa in a couple of months.

In an email sent to Hypertext, Huawei Mobile South Africa confirmed a number of new devices that will be landing locally in the first quarter of Q1, including the Mate XT, MatePad Pro 13.2″ tablet, FreeArc wireless earphones, and Band 10 fitness wearable.

Our focus right now, however, is on the Mate XT, as it will be the first triple folding foldable phone launched in South Africa. We spoke with Huawei executives late last year who confirmed that the device was coming to our shores, but now we have a better idea of when.

The company did not share a specific date in April though, with the recommended pricing also missing at the time of writing.

“Foldables are very important. We can provide the three-fold, no-one else can make it in the industry. We can supply the chipset, the smartphone itself, and the unique foldable technology,” shared Peter Feng, GM for Consumer Business Group at Huawei South Africa last year when we discussed the new device with him.

“We believe foldables are the next generation of smartphones,” he concluded emphatically.

Feng also bandied about the figure of ~R50 000 for the Mate XT, but seeing as how Xiaomi recently debuted a non-folding flagship phone for close to that amount, we think this preliminary valuation to be too low.

We will need to see what the actual asking price for the phone will be as we get closer to the April local launch. For now you can scroll through the specifications of the Mate XT below.

To read about our hands-on experience, as well as check out some pictures, of the Huawei Mate XT, click on the story embedded below.