Jan 12, 2026
3 min read
With its new Galaxy Z TriFold, Samsung is betting it can surprise users with an iPad-sized screen that folds like a notebook to fit in your pocket.
For years, sci-fi shows have depicted futuristic computers with shape-shifting screens that can fold or expand depending on the situation.Now Samsung supports the concept in an attempt to lead the future of mobile phones.
The new Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold folds in two – almost like a brochure – to fit an iPad-sized screen in your pocket.
Samsung showed it off at a press conference at the CES tech conference in Las Vegas on Sunday ahead of its upcoming US launch.and after launching in limited quantities in its home market of South Korea.As is typical with new devices like this, the concept promises no compromises.
The phone is impressively thin as a tablet but chunky as a phone.And it will almost certainly be prohibitively expensive to attract many early adopters, let alone the average smartphone buyer.(Samsung hasn't announced pricing yet, but its Galaxy Z Fold 7, which has a smaller screen that folds in half rather than thirds, starts at $2,000.)
It doesn't matter if the phone captures a lot.It's the world's largest smartphone maker's effort to prove that billions of portable rectangular devices haven't peaked and have a long way to go.Liz Lee, vice president of Counterpoint Research, said in an email that the phone is likely a "strategic pilot" to test how the new technology reaches consumers.
And since Samsung is the biggest phone in the world and almost every Android phone brand has followed suit with a book-shaped foldable phone, even a relatively rare product like this can carry weight.
A big screen in your pocket
Samsung's Galaxy Z TriFold aims to build on its fairly successful Galaxy Z Fold series by offering a screen that gets bigger when you need it and gets smaller when you want to take it with you.
The TriFold has a 10-inch screen that folds into two places like a brochure, compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 7's 8-inch screen that folds in half.
Samsung says the new phone is aimed at people who use the device primarily for work and productivity, and it's easy to see why.
In addition to running apps in split-screen mode, the Galaxy Z Trifold's display can also act more like a PC — making it possible to run apps more like desktop windows that can be resized and dragged around the screen as needed.Combining the phone with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse can make it a viable mini-laptop alternative for some.
Google's Gemini Assistant can also answer questions about different apps in use on the screen, Samsung says, which can make it easier to juggle apps with a few taps and swipes.
Now more flash than function
But keep your expectations in check.While the device is paper thin when opened, it's like holding two phones on top of each other when closed.
However, Samsung in some ways started the Galaxy Z TriFold stronger than the first folding phones.Several generations of these devices had inferior cameras, non-folding phones and a noticeable drop in the middle, among other defects.
The TriFold's cameras are similar to those on Samsung's top-of-the-range Galaxy S25 Ultra, meaning buyers won't have to sacrifice camera quality for a giant screen.
However, Samsung does not have a very good argument as to why consumers want to carry around larger screens.Other than launching several apps at once and having a larger area for reading and watching videos - the functions of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 can already be done - TriFold does not have many features compared to smartphone models.
Foldable phones have already experienced a boom in the market.Samsung's other smaller foldable phones have only recently started to gain traction, having first gone on sale nearly seven years ago, and foldable phones are still just a slice of the broader smartphone market.
Foldable phones like Google's Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold are already more expensive than the average smartphone.According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, a firm that tracks the tech spending habits of Americans, most US consumers only buy new phones when they replace their current ones.
But whether consumers like it or not, the foldable phone trend seems to be here to stay.Almost every major Android phone manufacturer now offers one, and Apple is expected to release its first later this year.
And it's all part of Samsung's larger strategy to sell phones of all kinds and see what catches on.
Drew Blackard, senior vice president of mobile product management at Samsung Electronics America, said in September, "I think the exciting part is getting it into the wild and finally seeing different consumers who are attracted to different profile factors.""So I think you will only see the evolution from there of what we can do."
