Huawei’s new Pura X View brings the wide screen to a normal slab phone

Huawei has unveiled the Pura X View, a slab phone with a wide 16:9.5 screen. Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei’s consumer business, announced the device on 20 August 2026 at the company’s HarmonyOS Smart Mobility event in China, the same event where Huawei launched its Enjoy G9 electric vehicle. Huawei calls it the industry’s first wide-screen smartphone that does not fold. Pre-orders open on 28 August, and Huawei has not yet announced pricing.

The main attraction to this phone is its screen. The Pura X View has a 6.39-inch OLED display, which sounds small next to the 6.9-inch panels on most flagships. However, Huawei’s argument is that diagonal measurements mislead when the shape changes. Because the panel is wider, its display area is 114.27 square centimetres, which Yu said beats many 6.9-inch phones. Bezels are 1.05mm, the screen-to-body ratio is 96.1%, and the panel runs at 120Hz with 2160Hz PWM dimming and a claimed peak brightness of 6,500 nits. The phone is 6.68mm thick, weighs 201 grams, and still fits a 7,000mAh battery. It comes in four colours: Shadow Red, Linen Grey, Zero White and Phantom Black. It is also the first phone to ship with HarmonyOS 7.0 out of the box.

Pura X line now complete?

The Pura X View completes an idea Huawei has been building for 17 months. The original Pura X was launched in March 2025 as a flip foldable that opened into a 16:10 screen, the first phone to try a wide aspect ratio at all. In April 2026, we covered the Pura X Max, which scaled the same wide concept into a book-style foldable, and we argued then that it previewed what Apple’s upcoming foldable would look like. The Pura X View is the simplest of the three. It keeps the wide screen and drops the hinge, the crease and the foldable price.

More companies will copy this

When Huawei launched this aspect ratio, it may have seemed a little crazy. But that’s no longer the case. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 moved to a wider cover screen and a 4:3 inner display, and the early hands-on response online has been positive. Samsung kept the old tall format alive on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, with its 21:9 cover screen.

Apple’s first foldable, expected in September 2026, is rumoured to open into a 7.76-inch screen with an iPad-like 4:3 ratio. Three of the biggest phone makers are converging on the same shape, and Huawei got there first. We expect more aspect ratios like this across the industry, not fewer.

The unanswered question is content. Shorts, Reels and TikTok are built for 9:16 vertical video, a format the tall slab made universal. If wide phones spread, the pressure will run the other way, and we are curious whether the short-video platforms start accepting wider formats to match.

Conclusion

Huawei really isn’t afraid to try something different. What we aren’t sure about is if this device will go global.

Its recent pattern gives some hope: the Pura 90s Pro Max went global in July 2026 at an event in Kuala Lumpur, three months after its China debut. A global Pura X View would still come without Google services, the usual trade-off for Huawei buyers outside China.

In terms of pricing, the original Pura X started at 7,499 yuan, about USD 1,040 at launch, and the Pura X Max at 10,999 yuan, both foldable money. A wide screen without a hinge should cost much less to build. If Huawei prices the Pura X View like a normal flagship, the wide screen stops being a foldable curiosity and becomes something ordinary buyers can actually choose.