Samsung’s rumored G Fold could be a make-or-break moment for tri-fold phones

New form factors are a rare thing in the smartphone industry these days. There’s not much incentive to experiment when phone makers are already making money hand over fist, and many designs have already been tried. We’ve seen candybars, clamshells, sliders, and more recently book-style foldables like the

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold
and the

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6
.

That made Huawei’s

tri-fold
Mate XT, released in February 2025, a pretty big deal. Now Samsung is rumored to be launching its own tri-fold phone — possibly called the Galaxy G Fold, per SamMobile — by the end of 2025, possibly as soon as July. It could be a breakthrough for tri-folds, deciding whether they become a regular part of the smartphone landscape or another failed experiment.

What we know about the Samsung Galaxy G Fold

Not much, but also a lot

HUAWEI / Pocket-lint

Strictly speaking, we know very little about the specs, dimensions, or branding of Samsung’s product. It’s rumored to have a 9.9-inch screen when fully unfolded, possibly paired with a 6.5-inch external display for simpler tasks like calls and texts. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll note that this approach differs from the Mate XT, which uses a single uninterrupted screen. Samsung’s approach could potentially cost more in parts, but with the advantage of protecting the inner screen area.

It’s not even certain that it’ll be called the G Fold. At Mobile World Congress 2023, early tri-fold concept devices shown off by Samsung were labeled the Flex S and Flex G. I wouldn’t be surprised if the company slotted the product under its Galaxy Z lineup, where other foldables have gone, though calling it the G Fold would get around any confusion with the Z Fold. I like the idea of calling it the Galaxy Z Tri.

Even more uncertain is the price. It’s presumably going to be even more expensive than the $1,900 Z Fold 6, since when the Mate XT arrived in Europe, it cost €3,499 euros (over $3,600). I’d expect Samsung to leverage as much as it can to keep entry-level prices below the $3,000 mark. Despite positive reviews, Apple has struggled to sell its $3,500 Vision Pro headset, and no wonder — for the same price, you could buy a high-end gaming laptop.

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Why the Galaxy G Fold matters so much

Reaching out to the masses

Although Huawei is a huge corporation with international reach, it’s still focused mostly on its native Chinese market. Huawei products are restricted or outright banned in some countries, owing to the company’s ties to the Communist Party, which are often seen as a security threat.

Samsung, conversely, is not only free of those restrictions, but quite successful in markets around the world, including the US. Whenever the G Fold ships, it will be the first tri-fold many people ever see, with a far broader reach. If Samsung can keep its price under $3,000, it will also be the first real attempt at a mass-market tri-fold — as much as a device that costly can be. Many people still balk at spending $1,000 on a phone, never mind something priced twice as high.

For that reason, the G Fold will probably never be a hit on par with more conventional phones, and Samsung’s sales targets are likely to be pretty modest. If it misses even those, though, there could be serious ramifications for the tri-fold market. Other phone makers may see those sales figures and decide to skip tri-folds entirely.

If the product does succeed, it’s likely to inspire copycats, particularly if Samsung can get around some of the Mate XT’s design problems while keeping prices in check. The biggest of these is durability — because of the way it folds, the creases of its screen are always exposed to the outside world. On top of that, there’s no

IP rating
for dust or water resistance, whereas even the Z Fold 6 has an IP48 certification. Many non-folding phones have an IP67 or IP68 rating, meaning they’re effectively dust- and waterproof for most purposes, and some are even adopting IP69 specs, signifying resistance to high-pressure jets.

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Do we actually want tri-fold phones?

Some final thoughts

Huawei / Pocket-lint

For most shoppers, book-style foldables are overkill, never mind tri-folds. No one needs a tablet-sized screen for calls, texts, or swiping through TikTok and Instagram. And when a tablet is in order, there are plenty of standalone tablets out there, many of which are going to be cheaper even when paired with a single-screen phone. As of this writing, you could buy both a

Galaxy S25 Ultra
and a Galaxy Tab S10+ for under $2,000, the latter sporting a 12.4-inch display.

Foldables seem to be the wave of the future, however, particularly with a

folding iPhone
on the horizon. There’s an obvious benefit to them — while they may not be superb at any one thing, it’s quite a trick to go from texting your partner to watching The Northman on an 8- or 10-inch screen, or jamming out an article for the next day. If companies like Samsung can get prices down and durability up, many people may start buying foldables as their only mobile devices, leaving tablets or even laptops by the wayside.

The G Fold should be a watershed moment. I’m skeptical, given that tri-folds are both so new and so expensive. But if there’s any company that can make them work, it’s Samsung, which has a history of pioneering new form factors. It was a leader in shipping phones with edge-to-edge screens, and neither clamshell nor book-style foldables would be popular without the Galaxy Z line. Let’s hope the third time is the charm.

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