Samsung Galaxy Z Tri-Fold — 7 biggest rumors so far

Samsung’s foldable lineup is pretty mature at this point, with the company releasing the seventh generation of its Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip phones earlier this year.

But since 2022, the company has been teasing the idea of a double-folding phone, with prototypes allowing for even greater flexibility. It now looks like the fabled Samsung Galaxy Z Tri-Fold will arrive before the year is out.

What can we expect from this bold new take on foldable tech? Here are the seven biggest rumors so far.

1. It will feature two folds for a whole new form factor

Currently, Samsung’s foldable phones exist in two form factors. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 looks like a standard phone that can be folded in half for added pocketability, while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 unfolds to reveal a larger internal tablet screen.

The thing that unites these two designs is that they both have a single folding point. The Galaxy Z Tri-Fold, meanwhile, will have two folding points, for more flexibility like the China-only Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design.

It’s not clear exactly how Samsung will take advantage of this new design yet, but it may open up interesting ways of propping up the phone, and of course allow you to switch between three screen sizes, depending on what you need your handset for at the time.

2. A giant screen for productivity

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a 6.5-inch phone that opens up to reveal a hidden 8-inch screen. That makes it large for a phone, but not particularly big for a tablet.

By contrast, while the Galaxy Z Tri-Fold is tipped to have similar phone dimensions, it’s expected to be as large as 10 inches when fully unfolded. That’s a huge boost for productivity.

Not only is that screen size difference similar to the jump between iPad mini and a regular iPad, but the two folds should also make the aspect ratio more tablet-like. While the tablet section of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has a 4.2:3 ratio, an extra fold could allow for something more approaching the 16:9 we expect from our tablets.

3. But it might not support the S Pen

This larger canvas should be ripe for doodling and annotation, which is exciting given Samsung makes one of the best styluses around with its S Pen.

But hold your horses. According to the leaker @TechHighest on X, the S Pen won’t be compatible with the new foldable.

This is perhaps not surprising, given Samsung dropped S Pen support on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. But the company has said it’s working on S Pen support for future foldables, so there may be hope for a second or third generation Tri-Fold, even if it is true for the first version.

4. It’ll include three batteries

One of the design problems that foldable makers face is battery capacity. The battery is one of the thickest components of a phone, and if the handset has to be folded in half it’s already going to be chunky. As a result, early foldables were disappointing in their battery life.

That’s improved in recent years, and a patent spotted by Galaxy Club shows how Samsung may avoid the pitfall entirely with the Galaxy Z Tri-Fold.

The patent shows a double-folded device with three separate batteries divided equally between the segments. Given Samsung was able to pack a 4,400mAh battery into the Galaxy Z Fold 7 with two segments, it seems likely that the Tri-Fold will easily clear the 5,000mAh threshold, with some rumors pointing to a combined total of 5,600mAh.

5. It’s likely to offer superb photography

Foldables don’t dominate our often-updated list of the best camera phones, but with its 200MP main camera, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 gives the impressive Galaxy S25 Ultra a run for its money. In fact, in our comparison test, the S25 Ultra only enjoyed a real edge when it came down to telephoto shots over 3x magnification.

The good news is that the Galaxy Z Tri-Fold is set to at least match, and possibly exceed, the current flagship foldable’s camera specs.

While it’s widely expected to match the 200MP main sensor and 12MP ultrawide camera, the jury is currently out as to whether it will maintain the 10MP 3x optical zoom, or boost it to a 50MP 5x model. Either way, it should provide some excellent photographic tools.

6. It’s going to be powerful

For its new foldable flagship, expect Samsung to go all out on making sure it’s powerful enough to make the most of its multitasking-friendly form factor.

We’ve heard that it will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, at least 12GB (and possibly 16GB) RAM and a minimum of 256GB storage with larger capacities available.

While we’ve heard the Snapdragon 8 Elite quoted a few times, with Qualcomm just announcing the Gen 5 version of the chip, we’re crossing our fingers for Samsung debuting it in the Galaxy Z Tri-Fold. If it does, Qualcomm says we should see a 20% boost to CPU performance and 23% increase on graphical output.

7. Expect to pay a fortune

While a lot of these rumors are speculative, one thing we can be pretty sure about is that this is going to be an extremely expensive handset — and probably Samsung’s priciest to date.

Foldable phones are expensive, and that’s doubly true for new designs where companies are looking to recoup some lost R&D costs. With the Z Fold 7 currently starting at $1,999, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the Galaxy Z Tri-Fold costing at least $2,299, and the leaker Yogesh Brar has suggested it could be in the $3,000 to $3,500 ballpark.

However, it’s worth noting that this post was written back in May, when the Galaxy Z Tri-Fold was rumored to be a limited exclusive for the Chinese and South Korean markets. Since then, a wider release has been predicted, and that hopefully means the economies of scale will reduce that price considerably. Even so, the first generation will strictly be for those flush with cash.

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