Huawei Mate XT Ultimate review
A trifold screen like no other
The showstopper on the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate is the 10.2-inch trifold LTPO OLED screen, of course. It's got a 10-bit color depth, 90Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling, and 1440Hz PWM dimming. In its fully open state, it has a 3,184x2,232px resolution, for an aspect ratio of 16:11(.2), or 1.43:1 if that's how your brain works.
The Mate XT offers three screen sizes. The most impressive one is in tablet mode, obviously - a 10.2-inch diagonal. Then there is a 6.4-inch single screen when folded into smartphone state, and there's an inbetween 7.9-inch dual-pane option when you unlatch one side.
There's a pretty obvious screen crease at each fold, though the two are a little different in feel and appearance. Either one feels like it's a generation or two away from the current batch of Chinese foldables which have minimized their creases to nearly indistinguishable levels. Other than that, we can't find many faults with the screen. It's vivid, bright and the immense diagonal is great for content consumption.
The screen supports HDR10, but it is doubtful it will be recognized across western apps.
In our brightness testing, the XT Ultimate returned okay results. The maximum manual brightness we measured in tablet mode was 568 nits and the maximum automatic brightness was 944 nits. In smartphone mode, the screen offers similar performance - 575 nits for manual and 939 nits for automatic brightness.
The minimum brightness was 2.1 nits.
Max display brightness test
White test pattern, 75% fill (nits)
- Manual mode
- Auto mode
Pixel 9 Pro Fold (Cover display)
vivo X Fold3 Pro (Cover display)
Galaxy Z Fold6
Galaxy Z Fold6 (Cover display)
Xiaomi Mix Fold 3
Huawei Mate X6
Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 (Cover display)
Huawei Mate X6 (Cover display)
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate (folded)
The screen supports dynamic refresh rate up to 90Hz, but the integrated refresh rate counter is not working properly, so we cannot confirm the exact steps it can offer. The available options in Settings are High (up to 90Hz with using the maximum possible RR), Standard (up to 60Hz), and Dynamic (up to 90Hz, but smart switching for longer battery life).
The Mate XT Ultimate display supports HDR Vivid, which improves on HDR10 by using dynamic metadata to adjust brightness, contrast, and color levels on a scene-by-scene or frame-by-frame basis. In comparison, HDR10 uses static metadata, which is constant for the entire video. HDR Vivid is similar to Dolby Vision, but it is an open format unlike Dolby Vision.
In our testing, some apps detect the screen as HDR10-capable, but since the Mate XT Ultimate only supports Widevine L3 DRM, you will not get HDR or high-res streaming from any online service.
But if you use those apps via the GBox virtual machine, you may get maximum resolution and HDR10 streaming after all. This applies to Netflix and YouTube, too. Of course, that would depend on the smartphone model that Gbox chooses to emulate.
Another interesting bit is that Huawei does its HDR video playback just like Apple - meaning in a very flexible way. It's not necessary for the content to be displayed full-screen for HDR to work. It can just work on the portion of the display that has the video playing, which is a bit of an odd experience the first couple of times you encounter it.
Battery life
The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate is powered by a large 5,600mAh battery with a Si/C anode. It's made up of three parts, each thinner than 2mm, distributed in the different sections of the device.
The Mate XT Ultimate returned a rather uninspiring Active Use Score of 7:48h for its 10.2-inch display - you could call it poor, even. Then again, this is essentially a tablet with a smartphone-sized battery, so perhaps some perspective adjustment is necessary.
When used completely folded, on a 6.4-inch cover screen, the Mate XT posted an 11:56h Active Use Score with good web, video streaming, and gaming times. We've seen better, sure, but we will take it.
Charging speed
The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate supports Huawei's 66W SuperCharge and 50W Wireless SuperCharge. The retail bundle of the global model contains a proprietary 6A-rated USB cable, but no charger. The phone also supports reverse wireless charging up to 7.5W.
We've used an Honor 66W SuperCharge power adapter we've had lying around for the purpose of our charge speed test.
This 66W adapter and the bundled cable got us to 45% in 15 minutes, and the battery indicator was showing 78% at the 30-minute mark. A full charge took 60 minutes. This surely isn't the fastest possible charging, but plenty fast enough.
Note that the charging speed may drop by 50% if you charge the phone closed as an overheating prevention measure. Huawei suggests recharging the Mate XT unfolded for faster speed and longer battery lifespan.
Charging speed
- in 15 min
- in 30 min
- Time to full charge (from 0%)
Huawei Mate X6
Honor Magic V3
vivo X Fold3 Pro
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate
Oppo Find N5
Xiaomi Mix Fold 3
Galaxy Z Fold6
Pixel 9 Pro Fold
The Mate XT Ultimate supports Smart Charge, which learns about your charging habits and drops the charging speed once it reaches 80%, only to complete the charging closer to your expected waking time if you are doing an overnight charging. Or you can set the maximum charge limit instead of slowing the charging speed - it could be 70%, 80%, or 90% (or the full 100%, of course).
Speakers
The large Huawei Mate XT has only two speakers - one at the top and another at the bottom. The stereo setup is symmetrical when the phone is in the closed position and sort of diagonally opposed (top left - bottom right) when using it open.
We would have expected four speakers for this foldable tablet and we were a bit disappointed to find out there are only two.
Top speaker • Bottom speaker
While the speakers of the Mate XT offer rich sound with a balanced presentation, they turned out quiet and scored an Average mark on our loudness test. That said, the Find N5 with a very similar integrated loudness results just barely made it into the 'Good' category, so it's not a day and night type of difference.
The XT Ultimate does sound nicer to our ears than its X6 brother, though both the vivo X Fold3 Pro and the Galaxy Z Fold6 deliver superior output.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Reader comments
- Anonymous
- 21 hours ago
- xXx
a bifold wallet folds once. Trifold has always meant folding to have 3 sections, not folding 3 times.
- Kangal
- 23 hours ago
- Hqj
True, this folds twice... not sure why they're calling it a Tri-Fold. Maybe better to call it a Tri-Screen, nope a Dual-Fold sounds much better. As to what this is solving, it is putting a Tablet into a Pocket. That is ambitious. And should...
- DaFink
- 15 Mar 2025
- nxg
What fingers did I point? all I have done here is stuck to my opinion. You’ll have to go back and point out exactly where I have demanded others to agree. You’ll won’t be able to so stop wasting time with stupid comments. I have my opinion on th...