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9 Great Switch Games Are Up to 80 Percent Off This Weekend

by admin May 23, 2025

Image: Nintendo / CD Projekt Red / Kotaku

Memorial Day weekend invites important questions like what to marinate the kebobs in, whether it’s warm enough to put the pool up or not, and which new game you should buy while continuing to ignore your backlog. The Switch eShop currently has a few sales running that are worth a quick peek while waiting for the 45 minutes of coming attractions ahead of Mission Impossible 8 to end.

Fallout Season 2 Teaser Confirms Lucy and Ghoul are Heading to New Vegas

If you’re looking at physical Switch games, there are a few good deals going around at the moment. Advance Wars 1 and 2 Re-Boot Camp is currently just $30 at GameStop (half off) while Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is just $40 (33 percent off) at Amazon. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Catherine: Full Body, and Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster are all heavily discounted as well at VGP.

Meanwhile, in the digital world of the eShop, the following games are all great and pretty cheap right now:

Prince of Persia The Lost Crown – $20 (50 percent off)
It Takes Two – $20 (50 percent off)
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU – $8 (60 percent off)
Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak Deluxe – $20 (71 percent off)
Dead Cells – $12.50 (50 percent off)
Penny’s Big Breakaway – $15 (50 percent off)
Doom 2016 – $4 (80 percent off)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Complete Edition – $15 (75 percent off)
Rayman Legends Definitive Edition – $8 (80 percent off)

The Witcher 3 port is just short of ugly on Switch, but if you have no other way to play the grim fantasy RPG it’s well worth picking up, especially on the game’s 10th anniversary. Doom 2016 runs and looks better, and should help sate the urge to rip and tear for Nintendo fans who can’t access Doom: The Dark Ages. If you just want a fun, colorful throwback to pass the time, my suggestion is Penny’s Big Breakaway, one of last year’s great unsung Dreamcast 3D platformer homages.

There are two other Switch games that are only slightly on sale but might be of interest. The Chrono Trigger-like Sea of Stars is currently $22.75 (around 30 percent off), but just got a big free Throes of the Watchmaker DLC that adds a new eight-hour quest, additional character, and more classes. Labyrinth of the Demon King, meanwhile, is a lo-fi horror dungeon crawler that just came out last week and is already turning heads. It’s $16 this week (20 percent off). If you’re interested in what might end up on the list of 2025’s most overlooked games, I’d give this one a shot.

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May 23, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

3 great free movies to stream this weekend (May 23-25)

by admin May 23, 2025

Death still has friends at the theater. Final Destination Bloodlines, the franchise’s first entry since 2011, ruled the box office with a $51 million domestic opening. Thanks to good reviews and an impressive box office, expect more Final Destinations for years to come.

This weekend, Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning are the two biggest attractions for Memorial Day. If you can’t make it to the theater, there are plenty of free options on FAST services. One of our recommendations is Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. Our other two picks involve basketball and college parties.

We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.

Hoosiers (1986)

The NBA playoffs are in full swing. The unpredictability of the games means upsets are bound to happen. One of the greatest basketball upsets at the high school level is dramatized in Hoosiers. The late Gene Hackman stars as Norman Dale, a college coach who flamed out and gets to coach basketball again at Hickory High School.

The small Indiana town loves its basketball team but hates Coach Dale, who implements drastic disciplinarian measures in his coaching methods. However, Dale’s coaching and the return of star player Jimmy Chitwood (Maris Valainis) allow Hickory to experience a magical run in the 1951 state tournament. Hoosiers is the perfect underdog story and expertly captures the essence of small-town sports.

Stream Hoosiers on Prime Video.

Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011)

After the so-so reception to Mission: Impossible 3, Tom Cruise and Ethan Hunt needed a reset. Cruise brought in animation veteran Brad Bird to direct the fourth entry, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. The gamble worked, as the movie reignited the Mission movies and set the blueprint for future movies.

After being blamed for the Kremlin bombing, the IMF is disavowed, forcing Ethan (Cruise) to go on the run. To clear his name and restore the IMF, Ethan must team with other IMF fugitives to find those responsible for the bombing. Ghost Protocol leaned into set pieces and practical effects, highlighted by Cruise’s scaling of the Burj Khalifa, which might go down as his most memorable stunt.

Stream Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol for free on Pluto TV.

S#!%house (2020)

Cooper Raiff understands young adults. Not since Richard Linklater has a new filmmaker captured the ethos of a coming-of-age film like Raiff did in S#!%house. (We’re going with the marketing title, but by all means, pronounce it with the swear words.) Homesick college freshman Alex (Raiff) struggles to adjust to his new life.

One night, Alex attends a party at the “S#!%house” fraternity and meets Maggie (Dylan Gelula), his sophomore residential advisor. Alex and Maggie spend the rest of the night together walking and talking as they form a genuine bond. Alex wants more in this relationship, while Maggie looks for the exit ramp. Don’t let the vulgar title fool you. S#!%house is all heart and a fantastic directorial debut.

Stream Escape Room for free on Tubi.

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May 23, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Impossible Movies Deserve A Great New Game

by admin May 21, 2025

The fuse has been lit and the mission has been accepted. That’s right folks, it’s time for a new Mission: Impossible film. Final Reckoning, the latest entry in the popular action franchise, arrives in theaters this week. But if this new film has you all excited about the series again and you want to play a Mission: Impossible video game, well, bad news: It’s been over 20 years since the last one. That’s not cool. It’s time for a new MI game!

Nintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go Higher

This article was originally published on July 13, 2023. It has been updated as part of Kotaku’s Mission: Impossible Week.

The Mission: Impossible franchise technically started as a spy-themed television series from the 1960s, which got a sequel series in the ‘80s. But when most people talk about the Mission Impossible franchise in 2025, they are likely referring to the long-running action film franchise starring Tom Cruise that has grown into something much larger and over-the-top than the old TV shows. These films, which began in 1996, typically showcase Cruise risking his life in at least three or four large stunts and also, bizarrely, have only gotten better with each release. A globe-trotting action-adventure franchise that makes tons of money, is loved by critics, and has a massive fanbase seems like ideal material for a video game adaptation. Oddly, that’s not been the case.

Since the beginning of the franchise, only five Mission: Impossible video games have been released. (Confusingly, four of them are just named Mission: Impossible.) The first game launched in 1990 for the NES. The second game was released the following year for DOS. These two were based on the 1980s sequel series that aired on ABC.

Then in 1998, two years after the first Tom Cruise film, another Mission: Impossible game launched on the Nintendo 64. This one has some fans, and played a lot like a third-person spin on Rare’s popular GoldenEye 007 game. Two years after that, right before the second film hit theaters, a very short and not-good Mission: Impossible game landed on Game Boy Color. However, this game did include a neat feature that let players use the Game Boy as a remote control.

Finally, in 2003, Mission: Impossible — Operation Surma launched on PlayStation 2 and later GameCube. This third-person action-adventure spy-thriller takes place between the events of Mission: Impossible II and the third film, but is also never directly referenced in the films and doesn’t even feature the likeness of Tom Cruise. It was essentially a Metal Gear Solid/Splinter Cell clone and in 2025 has been mostly forgotten, like the rest of the M:I video games.

**It’s time for a new Mission: Impossible video game**

And…that’s it! After 2003, we stopped getting new Mission: Impossible games. I understand that the film series hit a six-year lull between the second and third, but after 2011’s Ghost Protocol, the franchise kept getting bigger and better with each entry. 2018’s Mission: Impossible Fallout is probably the best film in the series. (Dead Reckoning, sadly, couldn’t keep the trend going.)

And yet, even as the franchise grows bigger and bigger, no new video games are on the horizon. What a shame! So many moments in recent MI films feel almost like setpieces from AAA video games of the last decade. It makes sense to me that this series would translate well into a modern video game.

I understand that over the last decade or so, we’ve stopped getting crappy games based on popular films. And I’ve been mostly fine with that, as the vast majority of games based on films were awful and not worth playing. Then again, we are getting a new 007 game from the Hitman devs, and a new Avatar one from Ubisoft, so it’s not like games based on movies are impossible to make these days.

And I think a Mission: Impossible game—if done right and given enough time and resources—could be amazing. Honestly, a game where you just recreate all the famous and dangerous stunts from the films would be great, like a new Stuntman but based entirely on Mission: Impossible scenes. Actually, it’s been a long time since we got a good Stuntman game, too.

Okay, new plan: Someone convince the right people to fund the development of a new Stuntman-like game based on Tom Cruise’s wildest Mission: Impossible stunts. That’s the game I want. Thank you.

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May 21, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

UPDATE: “All eyes now turn to Liberty’s Heart” Helldivers 2’s big battle for Super Earth is here, as the Heart of Democracy update brings an Illuminate “Great Host” invasion

by admin May 21, 2025

UPDATE (20/05/25, 10:00 AM BST): Arrowhead has just dropped the Heart of Democracy update that leaks had previously hinted at, meaning missions on Super Earth itself have arrived.

“Fight among the towering skyscrapers and crowded streets of our home turf as the Illuminate rain down destruction all around you,” the studio wrote in a PlayStation Blog post, “Inside the city biomes, you will tackle operations and work to liberate cities together, having a significant impact on planetary campaigns.

Your mission is repel the invasion and arm some killer cannons, with Arrowhead explaining: “The might of Super Earth’s arsenal lies hidden beneath our peaceful, democratic streets. With your help, we must activate our Planetary Defense Cannons and take down the Illuminate fleet in a grand show of power.”

You’ll have help from some commandable squads of SEAF troops and have to avoid killing any of the Super Earth citizens you find running around the streets.

Original story follows:

It’s been clear since last week that Helldivers 2’s Galactic War is headed to Super Earth, with a renewed Illuminate offensive pushing towards the home planet of the Helldivers. With the conclusion of the latest major order seeing three planets fall in one fell swoop, that battle’s now imminent.

We’ll still have to see whether this fight for the ball that gifted the galaxy a militaristic force that acts quite fascisty comes with its own fresh update to the game, as leaks have suggested. Either way, though, it’s shaping up to be just as key a point in the war as you’d think.

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To set up this inevitable next step in the way, the game’s latest major order has just ended with players losing three planets to The Illuminate “Great Host” at once. Widow’s Harbor, Pilen V, and New Haven – all Altus Sector worlds which are right on Super Earth’s doorstep – are now occupied by the squids.

The Helldivers just couldn’t hold them, despite what looks to have been a very valiant effort. Especially so in the case of New Haven, which looks to have fallen at the order’s climax, leaving folks either watching on in horror from orbit or planting the Super Earth flag in defiance before exfiltrating one final time with a declaration that they’ll be back.

As I was writing this, Arrowhead’s just announced a further blow – The Illuminate have “razed” Mars, forcing Helldiver training facilities to be moved to another planet.

Mars has been razed by the Illuminate. All Helldiver Training Sites across the planet, where rigorous, thorough, and safe training of the Galaxy’s Elite has long occured, have been destroyed. The expert and seasoned facility PA operators who facilitated the training died… pic.twitter.com/16yEhLK0MM

— HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) May 20, 2025

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All these losses have got them pretty amped up to defend Super Earth too. “Super Earth’s hyper-urbanized landscapes once grew bountiful wheat. Soon, Illuminate blood shall make it fertile again,” a user with the handle Efficient_Menu_9965 wrote in one of those threads, while Diamondeye12 busted out the caps lock to bellow: “WE WILL HOLD SUPER EARTH TILL THE LAST MAN WOMAN AND CHILD.”

Arrowhead’s briefing for the order’s conclusion is every bit the ra-ra speech you’d expect with such an important clash in the offing. “Millions of Helldivers—paragons of valor, fortitude, and unshakable obedience—undaunted by a knowingly unwinnable fight, formed Democracy’s first line of defense,” the studio wrote making it clear this had not been “in vain”.

“Firstly, this heroic stand impeded the unforeseen Illuminate offensive and, in a testament to our martial superiority, reduced their estimated fleet strength by 21.5%,” it continued, “Additionally, the time secured by their sacrifice has been fully utilized: Mega Cities are now heavily fortified, garrisons reinforced by SEAF battalions recalled from distant sectors.

“The fight for our Freedom is upon us. There is no fallback. All eyes now turn to Liberty’s Heart, as the Helldivers prepare to fight for the very survival of Managed Democracy.”

So, get ready to lock and load. There’s a planet to defend, and you can’t just drop a crap tonne of mechs on your foes anymore.

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May 21, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Roborock Saros Z70 review: a great robot vacuum with a sometimes helpful arm

by admin May 20, 2025

I suspect my dog does not like the Roborock Saros Z70. Unlike the dozens of other robot vacuums that Gus happily lets clean around him while he sleeps, the Z70 keeps stealing his treasures. Not his dog toys — although that could be a future feature — but my family’s socks that he loves to collect and carry around the house with him.

Since the Z70 arrived, he’s had competition. The first robot vacuum with a mechanical arm, the Z70 features a five-axis arm, branded the OmniGrip, that uses onboard sensors and a camera to see, pick up, and tidy away a small list of light items, including the aforementioned socks, footwear such as slippers and sandals, tissues, and paper. In theory, this means I should spend less time picking up after my kids or rummaging in Gus’ bed to find the socks he’s stolen.

The Z70 can take objects it picks up to designated areas, including this box Roborock supplies with the robot.

In practice, it’s nowhere near achieving this goal. Yes, the arm can pick up items and put them away, which is seriously impressive. It collected my son’s discarded socks and a few balls of paper, putting them where I asked it to. But the Z70’s limitations are deal-breakers at this point, and its lack of consistency also lets it down.

For example, while the bot would detect footwear, it nearly always opted not to pick up any shoes, only once retrieving a slipper or sandal of its own volition. It also consistently struggled to place more than one item in the correct spot each time it cleaned.

Still, this is the first consumer robot vacuum to venture into appendage territory, and even in this beta-like stage, it’s remarkable. But for an eye-watering $2,599, the Saros Z70 needs to pick up more than a few socks.

$2599

The Good

Picks up smelly socks
Great vacuum and mop
Excellent navigation
Automatically removes its mops
Low profile gets under most furniture

The Bad

Twenty-six hundred dollars
Fails to pick up most shoes
Can’t see items on carpet
Sometimes misses its target

The Saros Z70 is a flagship robot vacuum that’s a big step up from my current top pick floor sweeper, the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra. With over twice the suction power, a more advanced navigation and obstacle detection system, and dual spinning mops that it can automatically remove, it’s an impressive cleaner.

However, aside from the arm, it’s essentially the same vacuum as the $1,599.99 Saros 10R that launched with it earlier this year — with a few modifications made to accommodate the mechanism, including a different roller brush and a smaller onboard bin and water tank. For $1,000 less, the 10R is a better bet right now.

The Z70 identified rug tassels as socks, but let go once it realized they were too heavy. I was also able to flag this in the app as something not to pick up.

While cleaning my house, the Saros Z70 used an AI-powered camera on the front of the robot to identify potential pickable objects, then returned to “sort” them. This process, which was very slow, involved scrutinizing the object for a few moments, then shuffling around, pausing to unfold the arm from the body of the robot, extending it, twisting it horizontally or vertically, and using its pincer grip to grab the item.

A camera in the “hand” sees the item and determines how to pick it up, then a grip sensor measures the weight of the object — 300 grams (0.66 pounds) is the max. Sensors along the arm also detect if anything is in the way, to stop it pinching an object or banging into something. At one point, it tried to pick up a rug tassel, realized it was too heavy, and let it go.

When it did manage to pick something up, it’d hoist the object high into the air and triumphantly carry it toward the zone I’d designated in the app. Socks or paper went into a Roborock-provided bin, with about an 80 percent success rate. The robot always dropped stuff, just not always in the bin. Sometimes just alongside it, and once or twice, when it got confused, absolutely nowhere near it.

Footwear was supposed to go to the shoe storage area, but it only managed to pick up one sandal during my testing, studiously avoiding the slippers, flip-flops, and Crocs I left strewn around. Even then, it deposited the sandal just outside the shoe storage zone.

Roborock suggested trying the manual control option in the app, which gives a live view from the camera on the arm to see if the bot could accurately identify and pick up one of the shoes it had been ignoring. This worked on the flip-flop, with the arm picking it up when directed. It just wouldn’t do it autonomously. (Sidenote: The camera in the arm can be used as a roaming home security camera, providing an additional vantage point to the forward-facing one.)

The Z70 did a good job with large socks, small fabric toys that looked like socks, and paper, but it didn’t like small socks. However, in most cleaning runs, it only picked up one or two items, even if there were half a dozen shoes and socks scattered around.

It also can’t pick up items on carpet, so those socks my husband slipped off and hid under the coffee table while watching telly will go untidied. Speaking of tables, the arm can’t reach under low furniture; if it detects anything above it within 45cm (17.7 inches), it won’t deploy its arm.

1/3The Saros Z70 should autonomously pick up footwear such as sandals and slippers, but I had to use the remote control option in the app to get it to pick up my flip-flop.

All of this illustrates the technology’s promise versus its current reality. The robot uses AI to identify obstacles and determine whether to avoid them (like pet poop), clean around them (like cables), or pick them up. The logs in the app revealed that its success was comparable to that of a preschooler using flashcards. On one run, it identified the black flip-flop as a cable, a piece of paper as a plastic bag, and a brown slipper as pet poop. But on the next run, it picked up the same ball of paper with no issues.

The arm is an impressive novelty, but not functional enough to be worth your money

Today, the arm is an impressive novelty, but not functional enough to be worth your money. However, the hardware feels solid, and if the software can be improved, it could be very useful.

I’m constantly picking up and relocating footwear that my family discards, and having a robot do it reliably would make my life easier, not to mention help with the Monday morning panic when we can’t find my daughter’s Crocs. If it could pick up larger items like clothes, deal with phone charging cables, and other common household clutter, I’d love to set it loose on my teenage kids’ rooms to tidy up before cleaning.

1/4One reason the Z70 didn’t try to tidy my shoes is that it thought my slipper was pet poop.

Price: $2,600
Suction: 22,000Pa
Brushes: Single “freeflow” rubber/bristle brush
Mopping: Dual spinning mop pads, auto removal, 22mm mop lift, warm water mopping
Battery capacity: 6,400 mAh, 2.5-hour fast charging
Obstacle detection: Recognizes 108 objects
Navigation: StarSight 2.0 navigation system
Height: 3.14 inches (7.98 cm)
Dock: Auto-empty, dual water tanks, detergent dispenser, hot water washing, hot air drying
Voice control: Built-in Rocky voice assistant
Smart home control: Matter (including Apple Home, Samsung SmartThings), Amazon Alexa, Google Home

Roborock claims to have a slew of updates in the works for the bot, beginning next month, which it says should improve reliability and expand its object repertoire, crucially to heavier items like sneakers. The bot is currently limited to 300 grams (0.66 pounds) but is capable of handling up to 700 grams (1.5 pounds), according to Roborock.

Hopefully, this will make the arm more confident when picking up footwear. Currently, it’s very specific about what it will collect, largely as a safety feature. It did pick up the occasional small cat toy and stuffed animal, but mostly opted against trying to grasp an item if there was any doubt.

Speaking of safety, both Gus and my cat, Boone, tried playing with the arm, and it immediately stopped moving, so I felt confident that they were safe. The arm is also surprisingly sturdy, although I’m not sure it would hold up to 70-pound Gus if he were determined to retrieve a sock. (There is an emergency stop button for the arm should something go wrong.)

Arm issues aside, the Saros Z70 excels as a robot vacuum. Its StarSight 2.0 navigation system (a combination of solid-state lidar, 3D sensors, and cameras) navigated smoothly, dodging obstacles and ably avoiding common robot traps thanks to its ability to lift itself up 10mm and cross thresholds of up to 4cm.

It’s the first robot vacuum I’ve tested that never once got stuck on my rug, under my sofa, or between my lounge chair’s spindly legs. Its 22,000Pa suction power demolished my oatmeal and Cheerio tests, and the dual spinning mop pads efficiently dispatched small spills of milk, juice, and dried ketchup.

1/4The Saros Z70 is an excellent vacuum and mop. At just 3.14 inches high, it can get into places few Roborocks have ventured.

If you love the latest tech and are willing to pay (a lot) for potential, the Saros Z70 is a fascinating peek into the future — not to mention a fun toy (yes, you can remote control the arm). But if you’re happy to pick up your own socks, Roborock’s Saros 10R ($1,599.99) offers all the same floor cleaning abilities, minus the arm, for $1,000 less. (The Z70 was initially priced at $1,899.99, but Roborock recently raised it to $2,599 due to tariffs.)

Are robotic arms the future of home cleaning? Probably. With the speed of innovation in home robotics, a Rosie the Robot-like autonomous cleaning machine in our homes is starting to feel less like science fiction. Roborock may have shipped the first robot with an autonomous arm, but it won’t be the last. For now, the Z70 is an impressive, if flawed, glimpse of what’s to come.

Bringing connected devices into your home also brings with it concerns about how the data they collect is protected. The Verge asks each company whose smart home products we review about safeguards it has in place for your data.

The primary home data a robot vacuum like the Roborock manages are the maps it generates and video and image data from its onboard cameras. Roborock says that all map / cleaning data is encrypted before being sent to the cloud. Additionally, it says data only leaves the device if you view the map on its smartphone app. Otherwise, it stays locally on the device.
The company says a maximum of 20 cleaning maps are stored at any one time, and any maps stored in the cloud are deleted after one year. A factory reset of the robot will remove any locally stored map information.
The remote viewing and obstacle photo features are optional, not enabled by default, must be physically enabled on device, and can be turned off in the app. Remote viewing is live-streaming only (no video is recorded or stored).
When viewing is enabled, the device collects your “user ID, network IP address, and video information captured via the camera,” according to Roborock’s Privacy Policy for Remote Viewing. This is in addition to Roborock’s standard Privacy Policy.
Photos of obstacles are governed by an Obstacle Photo Privacy Policy. Roborock says they are encrypted and stored on the robot vacuum and only sent to the cloud if you click on an icon on the map to view the image on your phone. Then it’s secured with Transport Layer Security. It will be deleted from the server within three working days and from your phone when you exit the app.
The robotic arm requires a camera to function. It is disabled by default and must be manually activated by the user. Once activated, it can be deactivated in the app.

Photos and video by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Huawei’s first trifold is a great phone that you shouldn’t buy

by admin May 20, 2025

Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately: you shouldn’t buy Huawei’s trifold phone, the Mate XT. And that’s alright, because you probably couldn’t if you wanted to — while it’s no longer exclusive to China, it’s only on sale in a handful of countries, and not in the US or Europe.

Besides, I can reel off a list of major problems with the Mate XT: at almost $4,000 it’s far too expensive, it doesn’t have native support for Google apps (though you can get around that more easily than you might think), it’s limited to 4G, and there are some pretty obvious reasons to worry about its durability. Any one of those individually would be a good reason to steer clear of buying the Mate XT. Taken together, they’re insurmountable.

But this isn’t a phone you’re meant to buy, at least not outside China. It’s a phone you’re meant to gawk at on the internet, to marvel at Huawei’s technological prowess, to ooh and ahh about its many and varied folds. This is Huawei showing off, proving to the world that it’s still got it. And in fairness, it has.

$4000

The Good

A versatile tablet replacement
Impressive battery life
Much thinner than you’d expect

The Bad

Incredibly expensive
No Google support or 5G
How tough is it really?

As I sit and write this — more than six months after Huawei first released the Mate XT in China — it’s still the only one of its kind. Rumor has it that Samsung has a trifold ready to show off this year, but it hasn’t yet. And by the time it does, odds are Huawei will have spent a full year as the only player in the game.

That might ring alarm bells in your head. This must be undercooked tech, you think, rushed out the door to beat everyone else to market. But the most surprising thing about the Mate XT is that it only occasionally feels first-gen.

This is the only way to display three apps at once, with one in a floating window.

There’s a hint of it in the multitasking, which refuses to allow you to fully open three apps at a time, pinning each to one of the three screen segments. Or when the fully open screen often doesn’t quite go entirely flat, which is more annoying than any crease will ever be. And you notice it when you open the phone, or close it, and the app you’re using seems to briefly reboot itself, losing your spot in a long article or (once, infuriatingly) discarding a Letterboxd review that was almost entirely finished. I’ve learned not to change the configuration while doing something, just to be safe.

But for the most part, these just don’t really matter. After several weeks using the Mate XT as my main phone, my primary impression is that it delivers on its promise, effectively offering three different devices in one.

First it’s a phone…

…then it’s a foldable…

…and then it’s a tablet.

Fully closed, this is simply a regular phone with a 6.4-inch display. At 12.8mm thick, it has a little heft to it, but not unduly so — it’s less than a millimeter thicker than Samsung’s Z Fold 6. It’s solid, and weighty, and even the cameras are decent. It’s as good a phone in this form as Samsung’s foldable, so long as you can live with sideloading the Play Store.

When I’m reading a long article or trying to keep up in the editorial Slack channels, I open the phone up to a 7.9-inch, squarish display that’s a pretty close match for what other foldables offer. For me, this is the least useful setup of the three, a reminder that current book-style foldables offer something I don’t really want most of the time, extra screen space in all the wrong places.

But that’s what the Mate XT’s full screen is for. Flipping one more section nets me a full 10.2-inch display, making this a thin, lightweight tablet I can fold up and fit in my pocket. It’s wider than it is tall, a close match for the aspect ratios in most streaming apps, ideal for watching videos and playing games, tripling the screen real estate for wide-screen entertainment. I haven’t traveled much in the time I’ve been working on this review, but this is a phone crying out for rail commutes and long-haul flights, a big-screen Balatro machine that fits in your pocket, not your backpack.

The creases look bad at an angle, but viewed head-on they all but disappear.

There are workarounds to get almost any app on Huawei phones these days — Google Wallet NFC payments were the only thing I missed.

Nine times out of ten, I use the Mate XT like a regular ol’ phone, and that extra screen space is probably wasted on me. But I don’t travel all that much, or make a habit of gaming on my phone; I wouldn’t make the most of this outside a handful of plane rides a year. Maybe you wouldn’t either, but I imagine anyone who already gets regular use out of both a phone and a tablet is feeling a little pull of temptation to merge them into one.

The main thing people have asked me about the Mate XT, once they get over the foldiness of it all, is whether the battery sucks. In my experience, it absolutely doesn’t. The 5,600mAh capacity proves more than capable of lasting a full day (and then some), but I’ll refer you back to the previous paragraph — I’m not spending all day with the phone fully open. 5,600mAh is a decent battery for a phone, but a small one for a tablet, so if that’s your main use case, then you should expect to feel a bit more of a pinch.

This exposed screen edge certainly feels like a failure point.

The second thing people ask is how likely it is to break. And compared to a regular phone, the answer is pretty likely! There’s a whole extra failure point in the second hinge, and no IP rating, so you can’t trust it to survive either water or dust. I’m more worried that one part of the soft, flexible screen is always exposed to the outside world. It’s going to get nicks, scratches, and dents, and there’s nothing you can do about it. My review unit already has a couple, and I’ve been babying the thing. I’d say you shouldn’t buy this unless you can afford to replace it, but again: you probably shouldn’t buy it at all.

Maybe you should buy the next one. Or the one after that. Or one a few generations down the line. Or just the first one that isn’t made by Huawei, because fantastic as the company’s hardware can be, I’m still not convinced it’s worth giving up proper Google support. But while the Mate XT may be the first trifold, I’m confident it won’t be the last. And this hardware, with Google and 5G, for two-thirds the price, and a generation or two of durability improvements? You should buy that phone.

Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge

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May 20, 2025 0 comments