While Huawei has put a 19,999 yuan (US$2,800) price tag on the 256-gigabyte model of the Mate XT, many scalpers have listed the new 5G handset from 60,000 yuan to 70,000 yuan amid a growing number of inquiries, according to Lin Shen, a second-hand smartphone dealer in Huaqiangbei, the world’s biggest electronics wholesale marketplace.
“The prices at Huaqiangbei are still very unstable,” Lin said. “Most of the interest is from scalpers who are looking to resell [the Mate XT] and make a profit from the price difference.”
The Mate XT, touted by Huawei as the world’s first commercial tri-fold smartphone, had generated more than 6.3 million reservations on the company’s Vmall e-commerce platform as of Wednesday afternoon. Huawei started pre-orders on September 7.
The no-deposit reservations on Vmall, however, do not guarantee an immediate purchase for those who have signed up owing to the limited supply of the Mate XT.
