Honor is "preparing for a flip phone launch" now that it's in the "final stages" internally, CEO George Zhao told CNBC on Tuesday. This marks a major expansion for the Chinese company's foldable phone portfolio, which currently consists only of book-style foldable phones. 

A wave of flip phones have hit the market in recent years, signaling a comeback of the clamshell-style phone popularized decades ago. Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Flip 5 weeks after Motorola's Razr Plus arrived on the scene in 2023. Both phones feature dramatic redesigns centered on the front screen. The Razr Plus for instance, is outfitted with a large 3.6-inch cover screen that raised the bar for flip phones, which until then had minuscule external displays that were good for little more than checking notifications. Oppo, a top Chinese phone-maker, shook up the design of flip phones before that in 2022 by introducing a vertically oriented cover screen on the Find N2 Flip. 

Foldable phones are still a niche, but sales of both book-style and flip-style phones are expected to rocket. Global foldable shipments were expected to reach 20.4 million units in 2023 based on the IDC's forecasts, representing 43.9% growth compared to 2022. Last year, IDC predicted that foldable phones would capture 3.5% of overall market share by 2027.

"We are very positive about foldables for the future," Zhao said.