Huawei's 3-in-1 phone

Hey, this is Vlad in Hong Kong. I laid my hands on Huawei’s Mate XT device, a 10-inch tablet that folds down to the size of a chunky smartph [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hey, this is Vlad in Hong Kong. I laid my hands on Huawei’s Mate XT device, a 10-inch tablet that folds down to the size of a chunky smartphone. But first... Three things you need to know today: • Microsoft’s CEO tells his cybersecurity team to [fix its problems]( • Telegram will cooperate when governments [ask for data]( • One of OpenAI’s X accounts was hijacked and [posted crypto scam]( A world-first that no one asked for Huawei Technologies Co. sought to match its big splash of last year — when it introduced a sanctions-busting, made-in-China mobile chip — with a never-before-seen [gadget that folds twice](. The Mate XT is described as a trifold, ostensibly because its folding mechanism allows it to be three things in one. It’s a large widescreen tablet, or, if you fold one of its three segments, it becomes a square 8-inch tablet, and one more fold will reduce it to a regular smartphone. The engineering feat is wildly impressive. Each of the three folding parts is vanishingly thin, just large enough to accommodate the USB-C charging port. Except for the protruding camera bump, this device is a study in reducing technology to its minimal physical form. And when you open it up, the Mate XT feels sturdy and rigid in the hand, showing no signs of sacrificing toughness for thinness. You should expect nothing less for the asking price — $2,800 in China, or significantly more if you try to export it to another market — and Huawei indeed markets this as an “ultimate design” exemplar. The company puts two chargers in the box plus a pair of Bluetooth earbuds, a far cry from the minimal extras that Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. offer. What is the point of this device, you may ask. It’s affirmation that Huawei is still in the game. Washington’s sanctions arguably hit the Shenzhen-based electronics giant harder than anyone else, sidelining its thriving smartphone business and reducing Huawei from China’s equivalent of Apple to a has-been in global consumer electronics. But last year’s Mate 60 and its homemade Kirin chip was Huawei waving a flag of resistance. That device powered Huawei back into relevance in China’s premium segment, reclaiming sales from [Apple’s iPhone](. This year’s Mate XT with two folds, whose launch was timed to coincide with the latest iPhone event, adds to the same effort. The day after this month’s [iPhone event]( typically an Apple extravaganza on Chinese social media just as it is globally, turned into a [Huawei fest]( instead. The Mate XT occupied several of the top 10 trending topics on Weibo, with many online expressing patriotic enthusiasm for Huawei pushing engineering boundaries forward. At a time that Apple hasn’t even done one foldable, Huawei is releasing the most fiendishly complex foldable ever. But, and it is a major but, I can’t tell you who this trifold gadget is supposed to be for. The Mate XT costs at least $1,000 more than conventional foldables from Samsung, Xiaomi Corp., Vivo, Oppo and even Alphabet Inc.’s Google. Which is to say, you can                                         buy one of those alternatives and still have plenty of money to splurge on a fully loaded iPad. There’s no cost saving when buying this 3-in-1 phone, but there is of course the perennial foldable compromise: creases in the screen where the folding mechanism resides. Except now you get two of them for your money. The geek in me is wowed by the engineering achievement, however the consumer is keeping his wallet firmly shut. The economics of this device don’t make sense for anyone outside of a narrow demographic that just wants the most exclusive tech. For that select group, where overpaying is part of the prestige, the Mate XT is a tailormade eyebrow-raiser. Huawei might also argue that it’s demonstrated an ability to keep innovating even after several years of punishing sanctions precluded it from accessing international suppliers. That may well be, but the catchphrase among hardware makers is to aim for meaningful innovation, and that’s the part where Huawei comes up short.—[Vlad Savov](mailto:vsavov5@bloomberg.net) The big story Palantir CEO Alex Karp has a love-hate relationship with Wall Street. He has often criticized analysts, saying they don’t understand his company, and puts more faith in retail investors. Nevertheless, [Karp has long sought one of Wall Street’s most coveted prizes]( — a spot on the S&P 500, a milestone the data analysis giant officially achieved Monday. One to watch [JoAnne Feeney of Advisors Capital Management speaks on Bloomberg Television about news that Apollo has offered to make a multibillion-dollar investment in chipmaker Intel Corp.]( Get fully charged The US should copy China and put big data centers for AI near power plants, Constellation Energy [CEO Joe Dominguez says](. The US Congress moved to speed up approvals for new [semiconductor manufacturing plants](. Chinese car dealerships are facing losses of almost $20 billion as unsold cars pile up due to [wary consumers holding off big purchases.]( More from Bloomberg Bloomberg Tech: Humanity has always relied on technology to drive growth. With the emergence of artificial intelligence, tech companies will affect the economy, media and health like never before. Join executives, investors and business leaders in London on Oct. 22 to discuss the risks and rewards of this new age. [Buy tickets today](. 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