Huawei launches the Mate XT 2 Ultimate Design, its third tri-fold smartphone, today, September 7, at an event in China that doubles as the release of HarmonyOS 7. Huawei’s HarmonyOS 7 support page lists the start as 14:30 China time, which is 9:30 AM in Kenya.
The support page directs viewers to Huawei’s Chinese consumer website and to its Vmall store. Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei’s consumer business, gave the same 14:30 time on Weibo when he showed the phone’s new design in late August. Huawei presents its China launches in Mandarin.
The event’s full title is “HarmonyOS 7 | HUAWEI Mate XT 2 and All-Scenario New Product Launch”. “All-scenario” is Huawei’s phrase for the rest of its range, from tablets to earbuds. The support page names only the phone and the operating system, and Huawei has not published the rest of the programme.
What Huawei has already confirmed
The phone itself is not a mystery. Pre-orders opened in China on August 31 with 16GB of RAM across the range and four configurations: 512GB, 1TB, 1TB with a privacy screen that blocks side viewing, and 2TB with the privacy screen and a stylus. Colours are black, white and purple. Prices come at the launch.
The design is the biggest change. As we reported on August 30, the Mate XT 2 folds inwards and adds a cover screen. The original Mate XT folded in a Z shape, which left one third of the main display on the outside of the closed phone. Folding inwards protects the flexible panel when the phone is in a pocket, the same approach Samsung took with the Galaxy Z TriFold that we compared with the Mate XT in December.
Supply chain leaks put a Kirin 9050 Pro chip and a battery above 6,000mAh inside. Huawei has confirmed neither.
What the original tells you
Huawei’s original Mate XT specifications are the reference point for today. That phone has a 6.4-inch screen closed, 7.9 inches with one fold open and 10.2 inches fully open. The battery is 5,600mAh, charging is 66W by cable and 50W wireless, and it weighs about 298g. The Mate XTs of September 2025 kept those screens and that battery, swapped in a Kirin 9020 chip and started at CNY 17,999, about KES 345,000 at today’s rate.
Those numbers are what the Mate XT 2 has to beat. They are not its specifications, and the inward fold means the screen sizes could change.
Screen size is only part of the comparison. How comfortably does the phone sit in a pocket when closed? How do applications resize as it opens? What does a damaged display cost to replace? And more questions.
HarmonyOS 7
HarmonyOS is Huawei’s own operating system for phones, tablets and watches. Huawei’s support page describes the upcoming Version 7 with three changes:
- Xiaoyi, its AI assistant, becomes what Huawei calls an all-round assistant;
- spatial computing brings 3D effects to the interface; and
- a security architecture Huawei names Star Shield sits under the AI features.
For Kenyan buyers, the more important gap is where the phone will be sold. Huawei’s phones outside China run EMUI, which is built on Android’s open source code, and the original Mate XT went global in February 2025 on EMUI at EUR 3,499. A Mate XT 2 bought here would arrive the same way, with importer’s markup and warranty.
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