Phew - just when it looked like foldable phones were getting a little boring, Huawei has booted down the proverbial door and unveiled the Mate XT: the first ever official, real, actually-going-on-sale tri-foldable phone.

If regular foldable phones are starting to look a little commonplace for your liking, then you need to check out the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design, which claims to be "the world's first commercial triple foldable phone." And it's a phone I just got to try out for myself.

Huawei and Apple's latest smartphones went on sale in China on Friday, with many fans of the Chinese company disappointed that its much-anticipated $2,800 phone - more than twice the price of the iPhone 16 Pro Max - was not available for walk-in customers.

The Mate XT comes in three versions: one with 16 gigabytes of random-access memory and 256GB of storage for CNY19,999 (USD2,835), the second with 512GB of storage for CNY21,999, and the third with 1 terabyte of storage for CNY23,999. The handset marks a major push by Shenzhen-based Huawei into the premium smartphone market.

Many of Apple’s affluent iPhone users in China are just as interested in Huawei’s pricier trifold phone, CNBC found during spot checks at stores Friday, the day the iPhone 16 and Mate XT launched in the country.

The phone is a piece of engineering marvel: when unfolded, the device measures only 3.6mm thick, making it the new thinnest portable computing device in the world. This slimness is needed, because when completely folded up, it is essentially three stacked layers, which then does increase thickness to 12.8mm.

Huawei has a host of AI features on the Mate XT, including AI Senior Editor, AI Information Consultant, AI Translation Expert, and AI Photo Editor. The $2,800 phone ships with 256GB storage, but you can upgrade to 512GB for around $3,090 (converted from Chinese Yuan) or 1TB for a whopping $3,371. The RAM is 16GB across all variants.

Huawei and Apple’s latest smartphones go on sale in China on Friday, with the Chinese tech company’s much-anticipated $2,800 tri-foldable phone offered at more than twice the price of the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Huawei's new trifold smartphone, the Mate XT, is set to hit stores on Friday. Online scalpers are already looking to make a quick buck on it.

Huawei is preparing to release its new ‘trifold’ smartphone on Friday — the same day as Apple’s (AAPL) latest iPhone comes out — but it’s already being listed in China for up to three times its price.