Samsung has reportedly been tinkering with triple folding smartphone for a couple of years now, but the Korean company was beat to the bunch by the supremely expensive and amazing Huawei Mate XT that launched in September of this year.
A new leak from Korean publication ET News (via @Jukanlosreve) suggests that Samsung's take on a tri-fold is coming next year with a totally different form factor compared to Huawei's device and a monster-size display that's between 9 and 10 inches when fully unfurled.
Supposedly, the design is going to be finalized by the end of November and it not going to be the rollable smartphone teased in September. Instead, Samsung is reportedly going to use an "infolding" display where both sides of the unfolded screen fold inwards.
The Huawei Mate XT, as you can in the image at top of this post, features a display with folds that collapse on top of one another. This makes the left side of display the main screen when it's closed. Based on what we're seeing from ET News, this means that Samsung would probably have an exterior display a la the Galaxy Z Fold 6. The new Pixel 9 Fold from Google similarly features an exterior display when closed.
Based on looking at Huawei's device, we imagine that Samsung's goal with this different type of folding display is to protect the crease that it is exposed on the Mate XT. This might require one of the hinges on Samsung's tri-fold to be larger, which could create balance issues.
An insider source told ET News (machine-translated), "The recently released double-folding foldable phone in China folded once inward and once outward, but Samsung Electronics chose the double-folding form considering reliability issues. If it folds outward, the display will be exposed to the outside, making it vulnerable to drops or impacts."
The idea of an inward or double folding smartphone from Samsung as the company showed off prototype devices during CES 2022 called the Flex S and Flex G. The S featured the same folding mechanism as the Huawei Mate XT but the Flex G showed off the inward folding display. Though that device did not have an exterior display.
Baesed on the ET News report, Samsung is looking to feature an unfolded screen size between 9 and 10-inches. The Mate XT's display is 10.2-inches unfolded while the current Z Fold 6 hits 7.6-inches.
ET News reported that Samsung Electronics announced a new form factor foldable device during a third quarter earnings call this year. "We are also preparing a new form factor for consumers who want a more powerful and innovative mobile experience, and we plan to introduce the product to the market when we have secured satisfactory quality and experience in the actual usage environment of customers," said Daniel Araujo, Samsung Electronics' Executive Vice President.
We're curious if the crease in these multi-folding displays will be more pronounced or less. The China and Korea-only Samsung Fold 6 SE has an impressive nearly zero crease on its display, which may translate to next year's Z Fold 7.
The report alleged that Apple will enter the foldable market with it's own iPhone Flip next year, but most reports we've seen suggest that Apple won't launch a foldable phone until 2026 at the earliest, and maybe not until 2028.
