Huawei teases tri-fold foldable phone on eve of IFA 2024

Huawei has cheekily teased the launch of an ambitious tri-fold foldable device on the eve of Europe’s biggest consumer tech event, IFA 2024.

Honor may be about to announce the global release of the super-skinny Honor Magic V3 foldable at IFA 2024 in Berlin later this week, but former parent company Huawei is looking to steal the headlines with a cheeky teaser about a bold new foldable product.

In a post over on Chinese social network Weibo, the company confirmed that it will be holding a special event on September 10. That’s the day that IFA 2024 officially wraps up. Coincidence? Perhaps…

The event will feature a “new product launch”, and though it doesn’t here specify exactly what that product will be, we know for a fact that it’s going to be an ambitious tri-fold foldable device. As 9to5Google points out, Huawei executive Richard Yu confirmed as much last month.

In a follow-up Weibo post, the executive announced (via machine translation) that “Huawei’s most leading, innovative and disruptive products are here! This is an epoch-making product that others can’t think of but can’t do. With 5 years of persistence and investment, we have turned science fiction into reality. Huawei’s pinnacle, please look forward to it!”

Suspiciously well framed images have also emerged recently of the executive using the device out in the wild, so there’s that.

According to display analyst Ross Young, the tri-fold Huawei foldable is expected to feature a massive 10-inch display that folds out along two hinges rather than the usual one. It could well be the most expensive mobile display ever made, which likely means that this device is going to be seriously pricey.

Considering Huawei’s complicated relationship with western regulators, as well as the nature of this special event immediately after one of the world’s biggest consumer tech shows, it seems likely that the tri-fold Honor foldable will be a China exclusive – at least for now.

However, Huawei has continued to release some of its devices here in Europe, including tablets like the Huawei MatePad 11.5S. By the looks of it, this tri-fold foldable device will be as much a tablet as it will a phone, so you never know.