Weekly poll: is the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold the form factor of the future, your next phone even?
Earlier this year, we ran a poll on the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate, the first commercially available tri-fold smartphone. The key takeaways from that were: 1) 26.4% said “I want a tri-foldable, but cheaper”, 2) 22.1% said “I want a Mate XT Ultimate” and 3) 16.7% said “I want a tri-fold, but not from Huawei”. This week Samsung may have delivered the answers to 1) and 3).
May have. The Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold will go on sale next week and we only have the Korean price to go off on. It’s roughly 40% higher than the equivalent Z Fold7 (512GB storage), which means that the global pricing should come under the hefty €3,500 that Huawei charges for the Mate XT Ultimate (note: this is for a 1TB model).
Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold
The Z TriFold is an interesting design – it is a Z Fold7 with an extra layer. That does mean that it measures 12.9mm when closed and weighs a substantial 309g, though this has a much larger screen. Not on the outside, the cover screen is the same 6.5” panel – it’s what is inside that counts.
The phone unfolds to a tablet-sized 10.0” with a 15:11 aspect ratio. Being wider than the squarish bi-folds has its advantages (for videos and games, especially), but the way it folds and unfolds is clever too.
Samsung was careful not to leave any of the vulnerable folding panel out in the open – even the side of the phone puts the hinge on the outside and keeps the display inside. This is in contrast with the XT Ultimate, which does leave one third of the display uncovered. Not needing a cover display saves only a minimal amount of thickness (12.8mm folded) and weight (298g), though.
Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold
The Galaxy TriFold has a bigger battery than any Samsung flagship too. At 5,600mAh, it is almost one-third bigger than the 4,400mAh battery of the Z Fold7. And it supports faster (but not fast) 45W charging (vs. 25W). The Huawei tri-fold also has a 5,600mAh battery but with 66W wired charging.
Screen aside, the TriFold is very similar to the Z Fold7 – it has the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (not Gen 5), the same 200+10+12MP camera and the same punch hole selfie camera inside.
This form factor is too new – there’s really only the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate and the slightly upgraded XTs Ultimate (new chipset and a better 40MP ultra-wide camera). And remember that they run HarmonyOS instead of Android.
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate • Huawei Mate XTs Ultimate
What do you think of the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold – is it the form factor of the future or even your next phone? Is the price too high or is this just a gimmick, anyway?
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate
