Report

Sneak Peek at Apple & Samsung’s Brand-New Foldable Model, Huawei Pura X Max: First Impressions

June 30, 2026

The passport ratio provides excellent portability when the device is closed and creates a more natural book-like experience when opened by eliminating the wasted screen space common in traditional square foldables.
Huawei reached this horizontal layout first, but the company faces tough competition as Samsung and Apple are projected to introduce similar screen ratios alongside their stronger app ecosystems in late 2026.
Huawei decided to prioritize practical everyday utility over chasing an ultra-thin design by equipping the device with a significantly larger battery and faster charging speeds.
The lack of full Android support due to HarmonyOS and the very limited international availability remain the most significant challenges for this phone in markets outside of China.

Huawei is the first OEM to ship a "passport ratio" foldable. Open it and the wide, near-A4 inner panel sits much closer to a paperback page than the squarish displays that have defined book-style foldables since the original Galaxy Fold. What's interesting goes beyond the phone itself. The same wide ratio is widely expected to anchor Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 series and Apple's first foldable iPhone, both aimed at the second half of 2026. So this is the market's first real test of a shape the two biggest premium brands are about to standardize, which makes it a decent preview of how the next foldable cycle will land.

It builds on last year's Pura X, which used the same wide aspect ratio but was really a different product, down to the repositioned front camera and the reworked cover display. The Pura X felt like an experiment. The Max feels like the first try at turning the idea into a flagship.

The display

Display within thumb’s reach again

Folded, it's genuinely comfortable to use one-handed, and that quality has quietly vanished from the flagship tier. As regular phones have grown taller and wider, using them with one hand became a compromise that software one-hand modes only partly cover. The folded Pura X Max answers that more cleverly: narrow enough to thumb through with one hand, but wide enough that video, browsing, and everyday apps don't feel cramped. For a category that has struggled to justify itself on ergonomics, that's a real selling point, not a party trick. It also changes what the closed state of a foldable is for. On a narrow book-style fold, the cover screen is something you put up with until you open the phone. Here the folded state is usable on its own, so you open the device for media, not because the outside was too tight to do anything.

[Pura X Max unfolded & folded] — Source: Counterpoint Research

A panel built for content, not just size

Unfolded is where the form factor makes its case. The wide panel suits media well, and not only video. Long reading sessions feel native on it instead of stretched, because the proportions are close to an actual page. Conventional book-style foldables, with their near-square inner screens, force a constant trade between app layouts designed for tall phones and the awkward dimensions of an opened tablet. Widescreen video sits inside thick black bars, and reading layouts never quite settle. The passport ratio looks like an attempt to cut that dead space and land on a shape closer to how people actually consume content. It also moves the conversation away from the number the category has fixated on, how large the inner screen can get, toward a better question: what shape makes that screen worth opening? On the Pura X Max, the answer feels closer to right than it has on the taller, wider panels that came before.

[Pura X Max ratio compared with Galaxy Z Fold Series] — Source: Counterpoint Research

The crease

The crease is better, but only in line with what the rest of the segment already manages. You can see it at an angle and feel it under a thumb, though it stays out of the way in normal head-on use, about on par with the better book-style foldables already out there. Huawei has matched the field here rather than passed it. What makes the device distinctive is its proportions, not some breakthrough in panel engineering.

[Pura X Max’s level of crease when unfolded] — Source: Counterpoint Research

The hardware

On paper it's clearly a flagship: 120Hz LTPO OLED, 12 to 16GB of RAM, storage up to 1TB, and Huawei's in-house Kirin 9030 Pro, which shows the company is still shipping competitive silicon despite ongoing supply problems. The trade-offs come with the territory for a compact wide foldable. At 229g it's heavier than the leading book-style rivals, and the smaller folded footprint plus a big battery pushes thickness up at a time when the industry has spent a cycle competing on thinness. You get endurance in exchange. A 5300mAh cell is generous for this form factor, and 66W wired charging beats several competitors. Huawei seems to have picked battery life and a pocketable folded profile over the thinness race, which is a reasonable call when the phone's value rests on usability rather than a slim spec sheet. The triple rear camera looked bulky at first, but the more telling detail was how much the system leans on the cover display for framing and assistance. It wants to get real use out of the dual-screen hardware instead of treating the fold as overhead.

The nagging caveat is software. The Pura X Max runs HarmonyOS, Huawei's own platform, rather than a AOSP. Sideloading apps can extend compatibility, but full support isn't guaranteed, and together with limited international availability that's still the single biggest thing holding the phone back outside China.

[Pura X Max’s in use] — Source: Counterpoint Research

Takeaway: Maybe the shape it should have been

As a first hands-on, the Pura X Max makes its case, and what sticks with me is how versatile the display is: pocketable closed, properly media-first open. The bigger claim is the strategic one. This might be the shape the book-style foldable should have settled on from the start, and Huawei got there first. Getting there first and owning it aren't the same thing, though. Samsung's new Z Fold and Apple's first foldable are both expected to chase a similar ratio in late 2026, each with the app ecosystem Huawei can't touch.

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Author

Matt Lim

Matt Lim’s main focus as an analyst is global smartphone market, with a particular interest in foldable devices and emerging device trends. Before joining Counterpoint, he spent 2.5 years at Amkor Technology in roles supporting global operations and device analysis. His research centers on product strategy, market dynamics, and the evolution of next-generation mobile form factors.