Foregoing all the traditional means to unveil one of Samsung’s most interesting technological achievements — even if it’s rather late to the party — is certainly an odd decision. This morning, the South Korean smartphone manufacturer revealed the Galaxy Z TriFold, stepping into what could soon be a crowded market.
Rumours about Samsung’s first tri-foldable have flown about for months, with the most surprising bit being the lack of fanfare and the suddenness of the reveal. It follows in the footsteps of the company’s latest single-fold devices — the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 — but adds an extra fold in the mix simply because Huawei did it first.
Samsung folds under the pressure
Samsung’s new form factor handles all the bits you’d expect from any of the company’s other smartphones, except that this one folds not once, but twice, using a two-hinge design, ultimately turning this into a makeshift tablet with a coating of armour aluminium. Samsung’s managed to keep it pretty thin, too, measuring only 3.9mm thick at its absolute thinnest. That beats out even the single-fold Galaxy Z Fold 7, which measures 4.2mm thick unfolded
As you might’ve guessed, Samsung’s newest phone is pretty big when it wants to be. Unfolded, the TriFold’s 2,160 x 1,584 AMOLED display stretches a full 10in, hits 120Hz with ease, and peaks at 1,600 nits of brightness. The 2,520 x 1,080 cover display, also AMOLED, measures 6.5in and gets up to 120Hz and 2,600 peak nit brightness. Samsung reckons it developed a new display technology to help it withstand everyday wear and tear.
The Galaxy Z TriFold gets by with a 5,600mAh battery that somehow beats out the company’s devices that aren’t trying to impress us by folding up a bunch of times. It’s bolstered by 45W wired charging that Samsung reckons will get you up to 50% in 30 minutes. It’ll even manage 15W wireless charging, if that’s your thing.
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It’s no slouch under the hood(s?), either. Inside sits a 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, paired with 16GB of RAM and a choice of 512GB or 1TB storage. This enables the TriFold to perform some nifty multitasking and even supports DeX on its own to make for a half-decent laptop solution. Unfortunately, Samsung has fumbled S Pen support, according to SamMobile, which could have made this ideal for digital artists.
Packed into the rear lies a three-camera array comprising an impressive 200MP main sensor, coupled with a 12MP ultrawide shooter, and a 10MP 3x telephoto. A 10MP selfie camera sits inside a small punch hole on the front, located in its usual space when the TriFold is closed, and at the top-right of the device when unfolded.
Samsung’s Galaxy Z TriFold will launch on 12 December, first in South Korea at 3,594,000 KRW (roughly R41,800), then in China, Singapore, Taiwan, and the UAE later this month, and eventually in the US. According to SamMobile, the US launch is pencilled in for Q1 2026, though dates and pricing are under wraps. Don’t get your hopes up to hear about local availability anytime soon, if at all.
