Huawei copies Samsung’s privacy display in its latest trifold
Developed over time first seen 2 months ago
Huawei has launched the Mate XT 2, its third trifold smartphone, in China, becoming the first foldable to feature a privacy-enhancing display similar to the one Samsung introduced on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The device also abandons the accordion-style folding mechanism of earlier Mate XT models, which left parts of the flexible screen permanently exposed, in favour of an inward-folding design that echoes Samsung's Galaxy Z TriFold. The launch highlights how closely Huawei and Samsung are now converging on similar foldable form factors and display technologies.
The Mate XT 2's 10.2-inch flexible screen folds inwards on both sides for protection, and the phone runs on Huawei's new Kirin 9050 Pro chipset, with an IP59 water-resistance rating and a triple rear camera. The privacy display, which dims the screen at side angles while keeping it visible head-on, is an optional extra available only on the 16GB RAM, 1TB storage configuration, for an added ¥1,000 (about $150). The Mate XT 2 starts at ¥19,999 (around $3,000) with no confirmed international release, while Samsung's own Galaxy Z TriFold was discontinued shortly after launching last year, though reports suggest a successor is in development.
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In short
- Huawei's Mate XT 2 trifold copies Samsung's privacy display and folding design
- Optional privacy screen costs an extra ¥1,000 (~$150) on top-spec model
- Launched in China at ¥19,999 (~$3,000); no international release confirmed
How this story developed
- 2 months ago Huawei has launched the Mate XT 2, its third trifold smartphone, in China, becoming the first foldable to include a privacy-enhancing display similar to the one Samsung introduced on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
- 2 months ago Huawei has launched the Mate XT 2, its third trifold smartphone, in China, and the design shows clear influence from Samsung.
- 2 months ago Huawei has launched the Mate XT 2, its third trifold smartphone, in China, becoming the first foldable to feature a privacy-enhancing display similar to the one Samsung introduced on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Full account
Huawei has launched the Mate XT2, the third generation of its trifold smartphone, introducing two design choices that echo Samsung's recent foldable efforts. The handset abandons the accordion-style hinge used on its predecessors in favour of an inward-folding mechanism similar to that of the Galaxy Z TriFold, meaning the flexible display is now protected on both sides when closed rather than left partly exposed. Unfolded, the device offers a 10.2-inch screen with 3K resolution, shrinking to a 6.5-inch display when folded shut, and it runs Huawei's own HarmonyOS rather than Android.
The more notable addition is a privacy display option, which Huawei is presenting as a first for a foldable phone. The feature narrows the angle at which the screen's pixels emit light, so the display looks dark to anyone viewing it from the side while remaining clear to the person looking at it directly. It closely resembles the privacy screen Samsung introduced on the Galaxy S26 Ultra earlier this year. On the Mate XT2, it is not a standard feature but a paid add-on, and buyers can only select it alongside the model with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.
Elsewhere, the Mate XT2 is built around Huawei's new in-house Kirin 9050 Pro processor, which the company says delivers a substantial performance gain over the chip in the original Mate XT. The phone gains improved water resistance and carries a camera system built around a high-resolution main sensor, an ultra-wide lens and a periscope telephoto lens capable of several times optical zoom, plus a separate camera embedded in the inner display for selfies and video calls.
The Mate XT2 starts at 19,999 yuan, equivalent to roughly $3,000, with pricing rising sharply for higher-specification models, including a top-tier version with 2TB of storage that costs considerably more. Huawei has not indicated whether the device will be sold outside China, and given the trade restrictions the company continues to face in the United States, an American launch is considered highly unlikely. The move is widely seen as part of an ongoing rivalry with Samsung in the fledgling multi-fold phone market, a segment Samsung entered with a device it discontinued not long after release, though further Samsung foldables are reportedly still in development.
Where outlets differ
From the full account, which is AI-written from the sources:
One outlet frames the phone primarily as a design and display story, emphasising the shift to an inward fold and the privacy screen as a copy of Samsung's approach; the other frames it more as a specs-and-pricing story, giving fuller detail on the chip's performance claims, the camera breakdown and the full range of storage/price tiers.
Pricing in dollars is quoted slightly differently between the two accounts (around $3,000 versus around $2,980 for the base model), likely reflecting different exchange-rate conversions.
One report gives the added cost of the privacy display as a specific surcharge on top of the top-spec model, while the other implies the cost by quoting a higher total price for the privacy/1TB variant, without stating it as a separate add-on fee.
There is a discrepancy over the release timeline: one account describes the phone as already on sale, while the other specifies a forthcoming on-sale date some days later.
Only one outlet mentions the phone's water-resistance rating and describes the rear camera set as a triple array, while the other totals four cameras by including the inner selfie camera and provides more granular megapixel and zoom figures.
Only one source draws out the wider market context of Huawei's rivalry with Samsung and the fate of Samsung's own trifold device, and only the other source explicitly raises Huawei's continued exclusion from the US market.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Advocates for Huawei's approach argue that iterative refinement across competitors is how consumer technology has always advanced, and that no single manufacturer holds a moral monopoly on inward-folding hinges or angle-dependent privacy coatings, both of which build on display techniques explored by multiple firms for years. They would note that Huawei has paired the feature with its own chipset, water-resistance rating and camera hardware, meaning the device is a genuine engineering effort rather than a simple clone, and that healthy imitation ultimately benefits consumers by making useful features like privacy screens more widely available.
The case against
Critics would counter that launching a near-identical privacy display and folding mechanism so soon after Samsung's releases raises fair questions about original investment in research and design, and risks normalising a pattern where costly innovation is quickly replicated rather than independently pursued. They would argue that when close imitation goes unremarked, it can dull the incentive for companies to take risks on genuinely novel features, and that consumers deserve clarity about which firms are pioneering technology versus following it, even if the resulting products are well made.
Explained simply
Huawei's Mate XT 2 is the newest version of its trifold phone, a device that unfolds from a phone into a tablet-sized screen using two hinges instead of one. It has just gone on sale in China, and reviewers have noticed that its design and one of its new features look a lot like recent phones from Samsung, its long-standing rival in the foldable phone market.
Samsung is significant here because it makes the Galaxy Z TriFold, a similar trifold device, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which introduced a privacy screen that keeps the display readable to the person holding it while making it hard to see from the side. Huawei's new model adopts a comparable inward-folding design and offers its own version of that privacy screen, something no foldable phone had previously copied.
The story matters because it illustrates how competitive the foldable phone market has become, with manufacturers closely watching and mirroring each other's designs and features. It also raises questions about how these companies differentiate themselves, and about the future of trifold phones more broadly, given that Samsung reportedly discontinued its own Galaxy Z TriFold shortly after launch.
Coverage · 2 sources
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