Huawei Mate XT: The New Revolution in The Mobile World. Chinese citizens have taken to social media to express pride in how Huawei has developed the Mate XT tri-foldable smartphone.

By Jose Enrico | Published Sep 11, 2024 11:02AM EDT

Chinese citizens have taken to social media to express pride in how Huawei has been able to come up with the Mate XT tri-foldable smartphone and, second, in claiming it can challenge Apple even with the current US sanctions. 

However, the cost of the device has been criticized for being too expensive and it costs $2,800 which even real Huawei enthusiasts are complaining about. 

Before this happened, the Mate XT reached 3 million pre-orders in China alone.

(Photo : Huawei/YouTube) | Huawei Mate XT, the newest tri-foldable phone has an absurd pricing at $2,800. Despite that, Chinese buyers believe it can "out-innovate" Apple's iPhone 16

Just imagine buying more than three iPhone 16 phones. You now get the gist of the Mate XT's pricing, according to BGR. 

Huawei launched the Mate XT on Tuesday as the tri-foldable phone in the industry while Apple introduced the AI iPhone 16 models on the same day. 

The timing of this has also attracted attention, Huawei's new device has become a symbol of technology strength against US sanctions for many Chinese users.

Interestingly, the Mate XT is believed to be launched on September 20 the same as the iPhone 16. Nonetheless, there are actions that suggest that the Mate XT will be launched only in China, which will only serve to deepen the people's pride in domestic electronics.

Nationalism Drives Huawei Support on Social Media

Purchases of Huawei's new telephone model skyrocketed and when this was posted to Weibo, the Chinese micro-blogging site, people could only shower the company with praises. 

Posts like "Apple didn't drop, but Huawei has indeed come back" and "Change is coming nothing can stop it, and the US sanctions are useless" depict some satisfaction from the Chinese users. 

At one time, virality hit Apple's employee's apparent visit to a Huawei store to see the Mate XT launch becoming the no. 2 trending topic on Weibo for over 13 and half hours. This video was watched 91 million times and more than 6,600 comments were placed.

Yahoo reports that this has created a buzz around the release of the Huawei Mate XT and it is seen as a return of Huawei to the 5G smartphone market after the successful release of its Mate 60 series phones and the Pura series of phones also have home-made chips. 

These milestones are described as the triumphs over US sanctions which have withheld Huawei's access to the kind of US chips and technology since 2019.

Huawei vs. Apple: A Battle for Technological Supremacy

However, many people are not happy with the price of the Mate XT, which is about $2,800 without taking into consideration some individuals quite like Elon Musk.

The basic version is 19,999 yuan, while others with greater storage are within the bracket of 23,999 yuan ($3,300).

Out of 9,200 participants of the Weibo poll regarding the Mate XT, only 966 are willing to buy the phone, Moreover, more than 4,700 mentioned the high price as an issue.

"No matter how much I like the product, the price tag just sounds crazy to me. Maybe Huawei isn't really targeting people like me," a Huawei loyalist surnamed Xu commented.

US Sanctions on Huawei

As we know, Washington has a beef with Beijing when it comes to technology. The US admin aims to curb China's development. Most importantly, it wants to restrict the latter's dominance in the military.

Huawei has been struggling to keep up with the restrictions since a few years ago, making it harder for the company to acquire US-made chips. Despite this, the smartphone maker did not cave in, trusting its local semiconductors.