A crazy new foldable may have leaked in a cheeky spy shot

There’s nothing quite like a good old-fashioned unreleased-smartphone-spotted-in-the-wild leak, and that’s what we’re dealing with here. The device in question is Huawei’s rumored triple-fold smartphone, so called because it will fold three times in a Z- or N-style format. And we can have a little more confidence than usual that it’s the real thing because of who is holding the phone — none other than Richard Yu, the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group.

The cheeky spy photo (which we hope was taken with permission, and knowing the often amicable Mr. Yu, it’s entirely possible) was taken on board an aircraft, and it clearly shows Yu holding a large-screen smartphone that, when zoomed in on, seems to have three distinct sections to it, indicating it folds in the way expected from a triple-fold device. It also appears that a single selfie camera is set at the top of the screen section furthest away, which would be an unusual placement on a standard book-style folding phone. It’s also different fromHuawei’s Mate XS 2, where the camera is tucked away in the corner of the open screen, or hidden under the display in other models.

It does look like a fairly thick device though, at least in this single photo, but this may be down to the phone being a prototype, as these are often housed inside a chunky plastic frame-like case that disguises the design. The source of the image isn’t known, but it has spread over Chinese social network Weibo, where it’s also suggested that the tri-fold Huawei phone will be expensive, with a converted local price of at least $2,780. This is similar to the original Huawei Mate X folding phone.

We last heard about Huawei’s triple-fold phone at the end of July. In an interview, Yu talked up the phone, saying it had taken five years of research and development to reach its current stage, and that it was being prepared for release by the end of the year, with September being suggested as the launch month. If the photo taken on the plane does show an almost complete prototype of the phone, this approximate date sounds plausible. Should it be announced at this time, it will likely fight the Apple iPhone 16 series for attention.