Huawei Launches Mate XT 2 Trifold with Kirin 9050 Pro Chip

Huawei Technologies unveiled its Mate XT 2 trifold smartphone on Monday in Guangzhou, powered by the new Kirin 9050 Pro chip, which the company claims is its most powerful Kirin chip ever. The chip is based on Huawei's proprietary Tau Scaling Law, part of its strategy to enhance performance while reducing dependence on advanced foreign semiconductor equipment. Richard Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei's consumer business group, announced that the chip delivers a 42% performance improvement over the previous-generation Mate XTs model. The Mate XT 2 starts at 19,999 yuan (US$2,980) and is the first device to run HarmonyOS 7, the latest version of Huawei's self-developed operating system, which began rolling out to existing Huawei phones on the same day. The launch comes amid intense competition in the foldable phone market, with Xiaomi expected to announce a new foldable model later on Monday and Apple's first foldable anticipated on Wednesday. According to Counterpoint Research, global shipments of foldable phones grew 18% last year, with projected growth accelerating to 24% this year and 37% in 2027.