Huawei’s New Foldable Isn’t a Phone — It’s a Laptop

Last week, Huawei teased the launch of a new foldable product. However, if you were expecting a smartphone, think again. Instead, this week, Huawei has debuted the MateBook Fold Ultimate Design, the company’s first foldable PC.

Specs and design

According to Huawei, the MateBook Fold Ultimate Design foldable PC weighs about 1.16kg and measures an impressive 7.3mm thin when fully opened. For context, this is nearly on par with foldable phones out there. Granted, it is thicker than phones, but considering its size and it’s PC is pretty impressive.

The PC comes equipped with the world’s first dual-layer OLED screen with 1,600 nits of HDR peak brightness. It also sports 3-carbon fiber support layers that improves impact resistance by three times. The PC also sports an 18-inch display with a 3.3k resolution. However, its aspect ratio is a bit odd at 3:2, versus the 16:9 you might find on traditional laptops.

This means that you might have some getting used to if you plan to use it as your daily driver. However, it might be a worthwhile compromise since it’s easier and more portable to carry around.

Also, since this is a considerably larger device than a phone, it needs a hinge to match. Huawei has equipped the MateBook Fold Ultimate Design foldable PC with a basalt water drop hinge. It has a three-stage shaft with mortise and tenon structure, making it more stable and durable.

The company does not share what processor powers the PC, but it does come with diamond aluminum dual fans and antigravity VC technology that helps it keep cool under loads. It also comes with 32GB of RAM and up to 2TB of NVMe PCIe SSD storage and it runs on Huawei’s very own HarmonyOS 5.

Not the first

While Huawei might be the first to market with a tri-fold smartphone, it is not the first to launch a foldable PC. Over the years, we’ve seen other foldable PCs from other companies, such as Lenovo, which launched the ThinkPad X1 Fold a few years ago. ASUS also came up with its own foldable in the ZenBook 17 Fold, although its concept is slightly different with the use of a detachable keyboard.

If you’re interested in picking up the Huawei MateBook Fold Ultimate Design, it is priced starting at 23,999 yuan (3,328 USD). However for now it looks like it is only available in the Chinese market.