Uncategorized

It will cost you over $1,100 to replace the screen on Huawei’s tri-fold phone

The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design smartphone partially folded.
You’ll want to be extra careful with Huawei’s new tri-fold Mate XT Ultimate Design smartphone. | Image: Huawei

Huawei has revealed the cost of replacement parts for the world’s first dual-hinged, triple-screen folding phone, and it’s another round of sticker shock. The Mate XT Ultimate Design itself starts at around $2,809, but should you damage its folding screen enough to need repairs, you’ll be potentially paying an additional 7,999 yuan, or around $1,123, for a replacement OLED panel.

That’s assuming you agree to let Huawei recycle the damaged screen for free. Should you turn down that offer, a new screen for the Mate XT will instead cost you 9,799 yuan, or over $1,376. Ouch.

The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design smartphone shown folded shut and unfolded.
Image: Huawei
More folds means more potential points of failure.

Huawei does offer some ways to save money on screen repairs for its new tri-fold phone. A refurbished replacement screen is slightly cheaper at 6,999 yuan (around $983). The company is also selling screen replacement insurance plans that start at 3,499 yuan (around $492) for a single screen replacement within the first year after the Mate XT was purchased. That’s certainly cheaper than paying the full price for a repair, but still expensive for just a year’s worth of coverage.

For comparison, repairing the folding inner screen on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, which includes replacing the OLED panel, its metal bezel, and the phone’s battery, is discounted to $200 the first time it’s needed. If you break it again, the price jumps to $549 for subsequent repairs. For the original Pixel Fold, Google partnered with iFixit to sell the replacement folding screen for $899.99, or $909.99 as part of a repair kit that also includes new batteries.

Other replacement parts for the Mate XT Ultimate Design are a little cheaper, including a 499 yuan (around $70) battery and cameras that range in price from 269 to 759 yuan (around $38 to $107). However, users will want to keep their fingers crossed that nothing happens to the Mate X’s motherboard. A replacement is a steep 9,099 yuan (around $1,278).