Huawei Pura X Max: the first wide foldable on the market arrives on April 20

Huawei fast-tracks the 2026 foldable calendar. The Huawei Pura X Max, officially launching on April 20 in China, introduces a format that Samsung and Apple plan to replicate later this year: the wide foldable book-style, wider than it is tall, with an internal screen that feels more like a tablet than a smartphone. Pre-orders are already open on VMall. Chipset, resolution, and battery are yet to be confirmed, but the design, colors, date, and AI stylus are official.

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What is the Huawei Pura X Max (and why it breaks with traditional book-style)

The Pura X Max is the first passport-style foldable reaching the mass market. Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 7 — tall, narrow, and oriented towards vertical use — the Pura X Max folds along the long axis: when you open it, you have an almost square screen in landscape format, closer to an iPad mini than to a book.

The journey doesn't start today. The original Pura X (March 2025) had already tested this approach in clamshell size, with an internal screen of 6.3" in a 16:10 aspect ratio. The Max scales the concept to something that behaves like a compact tablet when unfolded, with the same "wider than tall" philosophy but in a book-style format.

The launch date was confirmed via Huawei's official Weibo, along with the parallel announcement of the Pura 90 Pro series. Pre-orders are already open on VMall, the official Chinese store.

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Design and configurations

Five official colors: Zero White, Phantom Black, Interstellar Blue, Olive Gold, and Vibrant Orange. The rear panel has a tripartite partition — two vertically textured sections and a smooth one with the Huawei logo over the hinge — which breaks with the uniform panel used by the rest of the industry.

The camera module is horizontal and occupies the top quarter of the back, with three sensors plus two LED flashes and XMAGE branding at the base. The design language is clearly that of the Pura family.

Official configurations, according to VMall's listing: 12 GB RAM / 256 GB, 12 / 512, 16 / 512 (Collector's Edition), and 16 GB / 1 TB. No microSD card support.

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Screens and rumored specs

Here's what Huawei hasn't officially confirmed yet but was leaked by Digital Chat Station and Fixed Focus Digital, two sources with a good track record in the Chinese supply chain:

• Internal screen of 7.69" in 16:10 aspect ratio with WQHD+ resolution
• External screen of 5.5"
• Kirin 9030 chipset (the same that would debut in the Pura 90 Pro series)
• Estimated battery of ~6000 mAh, possibly with Silicon-Carbon technology
• HarmonyOS 6.1 out of the box
• Minimal crease according to official renders — we'll have to see it in hand

The 16:10 format is a significant difference compared to what is rumored from Samsung and Apple (4:3): closer to a horizontal iPad mini than a square book. For video consumption, reading, and vertical multitasking, 16:10 is more natural.

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AI Stylus: the bet Samsung left behind

There's an interesting tension between philosophies. Samsung removed the digitizer from the Galaxy Z Fold 7 to slim down the device. Huawei makes the opposite move: reintroduces support for M-Pencil on the Pura X Max, with He Gang (CEO of Consumer Business Group) confirming it last week in a promotional video.

Official demos focus on two apps. Born to Draw (灵感妙创) features an "Inspiration Creation" tool that turns scribbles or text prompts into stylized illustrations. GoPaint has been updated with animations and stylization tools powered by generative AI. Huawei also confirmed AI eye-tracking page-turning, which detects when eyes reach the lower edge of the page and turns it automatically.

There's a message in this: if you're going to carry a 7.7" foldable, what justifies the screen is not videos but creative and productive flows. The stylus makes the internal tablet useful beyond consumption. It's the same logic that Samsung abandoned and now — according to rumors of the Fold 8 — seems to want to recover.

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The battle for the wide foldable: Huawei arrives first, but the tsunami is coming

2026 is the year the industry converges. The "tall and narrow" book-style that Samsung established since the original Fold was the default; everyone copied that format. That consensus breaks this year, with three players targeting the same format at different times:

The race matters for several reasons.

Timing. Huawei arrives almost three months before Samsung and up to eight before Apple. For the Chinese market — where Huawei is dominant — that is half a season won. Globally it doesn’t compete directly (HarmonyOS without Google Services, limited distribution outside China), but the symbolic effect is real: it sets the narrative that the future of foldables is horizontal.

Technical convergence. Three companies are betting on the same format after years of different iterations. It is not a coincidence: tall and narrow foldables always had a usability problem — the external screen is too thin to operate comfortably, and the internal one ends up being an awkward vertical book. The wide format solves both issues. Apple, which usually defines categories by arriving late and well, is validating the approach that Oppo and Huawei explored first.

The race to eliminate the crease. Samsung Display showcased at CES 2026 an OLED panel without a visible crease, and that same panel would be the one Apple would use in the iPhone Fold. Huawei has not made specific statements about the crease of the Pura X Max — the official renders show it as minimal, but renders are renders.

What this model does not resolve is international distribution. Officially, the Pura X Max is not leaving China. HarmonyOS 6.1 does not run Android apps natively nor does it have Google services. For LATAM, it is a fundamentally inaccessible product except via blind importation — and without an official support network, it is not something I would recommend leaping into.

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Conclusion

Huawei outpaces Samsung and Apple in timing and conviction. The Pura X Max is not an experiment — it is a third generation of the wide format applied at different scales (Mate X series, Pura X clamshell, now Max passport). When Samsung and Apple arrive, they will compete against a product that will already have six months of real market presence and user feedback.

The AI stylus is the most interesting philosophical bet: the large screen as a workspace, not for consumption. If it works, Samsung will have to respond — and the rumors of an S Pen in the Galaxy Z Fold 8 suggest that they are already looking.

What remains to be defined will be resolved on April 20: confirmed chipset and battery, final pricing of each configuration, and first in-hand impressions on crease and durability. Until then, it is the most important foldable we are going to see this year.