Earlier this year, we ran a survey on the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate, the first commercially available tri-fold smartphone. The main findings from that were: 1) 26.4% said, “I want tri-foldable, but cheaper”, 2) 22.1% said, “I want Mate XT Ultimate” and 3) 16.7% said, “I want tri-fold, but not from Huawei”. This week Samsung may have answered 1) and 3).
It is possible The Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold will go on sale next week and we only have the Korean price. That’s about 40% more than the equivalent Z Fold7 (512GB storage), meaning global pricing should come in 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 – it’s the Z Fold7 with an extra layer. This means that when closed it measures 12.9 mm and weighs 309 grams, although it has a much larger screen. Not on the outside, the cover screen is the same 6.5” panel – it’s what’s inside that counts.
The phone opens to a tablet-sized 10.0″ with a 15:11 aspect ratio. Being wider than squarish bi-folds has its advantages (especially for video and games), but the way it folds and unfolds is also clever.
Samsung was careful not to leave any vulnerable folding panels out in the open – even with the phone’s edge hinged on the outside and the display housed inside. This is in contrast to the XT Ultimate, which leaves a third of the display open. However, not requiring a cover display only saves a minimal amount of thickness (12.8 mm folded) and weight (298 grams).
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 Z Fold7’s 4,400mAh battery. And it supports faster (but not lightning fast) 45W charging (vs. 25W). The Huawei Tri-Fold also has a 5,600mAh battery but with 66W wired charging.
Apart from the screen, the TriFold is largely identical to the Z Fold7 – it has the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (not Gen 5), the same 200+10+12MP cameras and the same punch hole selfie camera inside.
This form factor is very new – there’s really only been a Huawei Mate XT Ultimate and a slightly upgraded XTs Ultimate (newer chipset and improved 40MP ultra-wide camera). And remember they run HarmonyOS 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 pretense?
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate
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