Samsung loses first-to-market foldable laptop race to Huawei

Samsung Display has demoed countless foldable device concepts at trade shows over the years. One impressive concept was a 17-inch foldable laptop-tablet hybrid demoed at Display Week in 2021. It was called the Galaxy Book Fold 17, but it never materialized as a commercial device.

That's nothing new, as far as Samsung Display prototypes and real Samsung Electronics products go. Samsung Display shows tech concepts, and it's up to Samsung Electronics to decide whether or not it can or should use those technologies for commercial products. Regardless, the competition doesn't sleep, and today, Samsung lost the first-to-market foldable laptop race to Huawei.

More specifically, Samsung lost this battle in China, where Huawei has announced and just released the MateBook Fold ULTIMATE DESIGN. This laptop features a foldable tandem stack OLED LTPO panel (via @DSCCRoss). It measures 18 inches when fully unfolded and 13 inches when folded.

The Huawei laptop folds into two 13-inch screens, one of which might double as a touchscreen keyboard. It's probably not going to win any contests for serious typists, and even Huawei has a slide showing the fully unfolded laptop connected to a physical keyboard.

Nevertheless, Huawei is actually selling the device, at least in China, whereas Samsung's plans for a foldable laptop remain uncertain. The Huawei MateBook Fold ULTIMATE DESIGN costs 23,999 yuan ($3,328) and up. It's unclear if this foldable Huawei laptop will ever be released in other markets, but it likely won't.

The spec sheet (via FoneArena) also mentions the following:

Indeed, the Huawei MateBook Fold ULTIMATE DESIGN foldable laptop runs the company's proprietary operating system instead of Microsoft Windows.

All in all, it's fascinating to see Huawei trying something new, especially in an untapped market segment such as foldable laptops. It's a very interesting move, even though the more we look at this device, the more it seems like an oversized foldable tablet rather than a foldable laptop.

Even if it goes on sale in more markets, this Huawei device likely won't fly as a laptop replacement for productivity users — although casual users probably wouldn't mind it. Still, it is something bold and might even convince Samsung that it's time to join the competition. Let's hope that if Samsung decides to release a Galaxy foldable laptop, it will outdo Huawei in terms of specs and availability.