Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 looks ancient next to Huawei Mate XT in new hands-on image

Hours after the iPhone 16 series was announced last week, Huawei tried to upstage Apple by unveiling the Mate XT, the world's first tri-fold smartphone. While the phone's 19,999 yuan price tag, which equates to around $2,819, might limit its appeal, nearly four million people have expressed their interest in the device and while all of this buzz may not translate into sales, the Chinese company has managed to set a new standard for top foldable phones like the Galaxy Z Fold 6.

While Samsung was busy poking fun at Apple for not having a bendable phone in its lineup, Huawei one-upped it by releasing a phone that can be folded twice. Despite essentially having three screens, the Mate XT is only a hair thicker than the Z Fold 6. A photo uploaded on Reddit shows us how the two phones look next to each other.

According to official specs, the Mate XT is 12.8 mm thick when folded. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is a smidge thinner at 12.1 mm, but in the leaked photo, it looks about as thick as the Mate XT.

That makes the Mate XT an insanely impressive piece of hardware and the Fold 6 looks practically ancient next to it.

Samsung is slowly losing its grip on the foldable market, with alleged pre-order figures suggesting that fans have had enough of iterative upgrades. While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with Samsung's foldable phones, users have slammed recent models for not bringing anything exciting to the table.

With Huawei majorly outdoing Samsung in the design department, the South Korean giant's stagnancy has become even more apparent. Even before the Mate X2 was released, phones from rivals like OnePlus and Honor were building up pressure on Samsung to do better.

While Samsung may not release a tri-fold smartphone anytime soon, the company is reportedly preparing to release a thinner foldable phone with a 200MP camera, but it will allegedly only be available in South Korea and China.

That sounds like a calculated move and could help Samsung stay relevant in China, where competition is more cutthroat than it is in the West.