I went hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold, and it feels like the best and worst of foldable phones turned up to 11

Only an elite few gadgets get to keep their allure weeks after they debut. And whether it's because of its cutting-edge design, or because it's difficult to find in the wild, the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold definitely has it.

While a lucky few have been able to try the TriFold out before me, I finally got an opportunity to go hands-on at Samsung's U.K. headquarters this week. And I'll say straight up that I really like the TriFold, and wish I had more time to play with it. I mean, just look at my expression as I first got to handle the phone.

But with a second hinge comes additional complications, as well as a big dose of pure techy joy. And it's why I can't quite figure out if Samsung's showing us the next stage of smartphone evolution, or if it's just invented a very slick way of parting willing buyers from two and a half grand.

The foldable goes widescreen

As I was handed the device, I could feel that the unfolded TriFold was a fragile device I'd forever feel guilt for were I to ever drop it. It's got enough substance to it that you can feel confident handling it or folding it up, despite it being one of the thinnest devices I've ever held, measuring 3.9mm (0.15 inches) at its thinnest point.

Closed up, you have the same sized 6.5-inch display as the Galaxy Z Fold 7, only with a little extra heft behind it. You can tell it's a heavy phone but it doesn't feel unusably so. Obviously the main reason to buy a triple foldable is for the inner display, but when needs must, the outer panel will let you get things done.

The Z TriFold opens up to 10 inches, exceeding the 8-inch size of small tablets and approaches the 11-inch size of the best tablets. It's more screen than I knew what to do with, but fortunately Samsung has plenty of good ideas of what you can use it for, beyond just looking at more of your home screen than usual.

A number of apps have been optimized to work on the larger display, offering wider or extra preview windows to help you see more. For example, the YouTube app basically works like the tablet version — letting you watch a boxed-in video with suggestions and comments or a full-screen video. The Photos app lets you see edits side-by-side in a spacious interface, and the My Files app has a three-column structure for easier navigation of whatever you've got saved in the phone's spacious 512GB default storage.

Sorting files on a phone may not seem like the most important thing, but the Galaxy Z TriFold is effectively a folding Galaxy Tab S11 in terms of productivity abilities. In addition to opening single apps in the widest-possible view, you can split up to three apps across the display, or set up DeX mode and open a number of PC-style windows and desktops, just like one of Samsung's flagship slates.

Working off of a tablet is still not something everyone can manage, given the limitations of the apps you may need to do your job on Android. But pairing the Z TriFold with a keyboard (perhaps even the one Samsung will sell you as an additional accessory) and a mouse gives you the best possible work rig that would fit into a sling or small purse.

About the only thing a tablet then has over the Galaxy Z TriFold is stylus support. The lack of it on the TriFold makes sense considering Samsung removed that from the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but also seems like a big oversight for a device with this much display to play with.

Beyond the display

The Z TriFold's combination of lightness, size and proportions gave me what may have been the best mobile gaming experience outside of a dedicated gaming handheld like the Switch 2.

I have historically disliked playing games on foldables since the squarer aspect ratio of the inner screen means you don't get the view of the action that you're used to, or you end up with wasteful black bars. But playing Asphalt on the Z TriFold felt perfectly natural, with the 16GB RAM and Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset ensuring I had all the power I needed to have a good time racing.

Photography is handled by the same set of cameras you find on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. So they're more than passable, especially the main 200MP sensor. But unlike other standard apps, the camera isn't really designed for use with the inner display. Even with the preview window open, there's a lot of space not being used.

Folding the Z TriFold in the correct way seemed natural enough, but the dire warning that pops up (accompanied by an intensifying vibration the further you fold it) will make sure you don't ever make the wrong folds by accident. Having the hinges in this orientation means you never expose the inner display to the outside world apart from when you are using it. But I would perhaps prefer a Huawei Mate XT-style display, where one edge is exposed but you can then use the phone in a part-opened state as and when it makes sense.

We also can't draw this story to a close without acknowledging the price. At an expected price of $2,400-$2,500, the Z TriFold is more expensive than any other phone I've seen, excluding wild customized versions of other popular phones with precious stones and metals stuck to the outsides. It's enough to buy one of Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra phones, a Tab S11 Ultra and still have some spare change. But what does money matter when you can own this insane piece of engineering before anyone else?

Extraordinary, for both good and bad

The Galaxy Z TriFold will be on sale soon enough in those five lucky countries that Samsung's selected, and when that happens we'll have a full review of it to bring you. But let me try and help you figure out now if it's worth starting a last-minute savings pot for your own TriFold.

At its simplest, the Galaxy Z TriFold distills all the pros and cons of foldables we're familiar with into an even more advanced form. It costs more than, and has an even greater risk of damage than a regular foldable. But the things a foldable phone does well, like big-screen media viewing, acting as a portable work station and so on, this device just as well, if not better. Other than perhaps the battery life - but we'll get back to you on that.

The Galaxy Z TriFold is the herald of a possible future for phones, no doubt. Maybe as folding phone tech gets more affordable, the candybar-style phone will disappear, and it'll be the tri-foldables that take over as the most luxurious and advanced of mobile tech. But given the difficult economic times we live in, and the affordability and practicality of regular smartphones, I can't shake the idea that the TriFold is intriguing, but ultimately a niche product itself laying in the wider, but still limited, niche of folding phones.

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