Earlier this year, we conducted a poll on the first commercially available trifold smartphone, the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate. The main way out were: 1) 26.4% said “I want a Trio, but cheaper”, 2) 22.1% said “I want a Mate XT Ultimate” and 3) 16.7% said “I want a Trio, but not from Huawei”. This week Samsung delivered the answers to answers 1) and 3).
May be. The Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold goes on sale next week and we only have the Korean price to drop. That’s about 40% more than the equivalent Z-fold 7 (512GB storage), which means global pricing should come under the hefty €3,500 that Huawei charges for the Mate XT Ultimate (note: this is for the 1TB model).
Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold
The Z-Trifold is an interesting design. This is a Z Fold 7 with an extra layer. That means it measures 12.9mm when closed and weighs a hefty 309g, even though its screen is huge. Not on the outside, the cover screen is a single 6.5” panel – it’s what’s inside.
The phone stands at a tablet-sized 10.0″ with a 15:11 aspect ratio. Being twice as wide as a quad has its advantages (especially for videos and games), but the way it folds and unfolds is also clever.
Samsung was careful not to leave any vulnerable folding panels exposed — even the side of the phone puts the hinge on the outside and the display on the inside. This is in contrast to the XT Ultimate, which exposes a third of the display. Although not requiring a cover display only saves minimal thickness (12.8mm folded) and weight (298g).
Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold
The Galaxy Trifold has a bigger battery than any Samsung flagship. At 5,600mAh, it’s about a third larger than the Zfold 7’s 4,400mAh battery. And it supports fast (but not fast) 45W charging (vs. 25W). The Huawei Trifold also has a 5,600mAh battery but with 66W wired charging.
Screen aside, the Trifold is very similar to the Zfold 7 – it has the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (not Gen 5), the same 200+10+12MP cameras and the same cartoon-hole selfie camera inside.
This form factor is pretty new—really just the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate and the slightly upgraded XTS Ultimate (new chipset and an improved 40MP ultra-wide camera). And remember that they run Sync instead of Android.
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate • Huawei Mate XT 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 it just a gimmick, anyway?
