Samsung Galaxy Tri-Fold Phone May Launch Later This Year

With slab phone innovation stagnating except for the cameras, foldable phones are picking up pace. 2022 saw a record number of sales figures for Samsung regarding foldable phones.

In 2023, we have some challengers to Samsung’s Fold 4 and Flip 4. Oppo’s Find N2 Flip competes well with Samsung. Unfortunately, it loses out on a water resistance rating, has no wireless charging, and also an atrocious 8MP ultra-wide camera for about 1000$.

Oppo’s Find N2, Vivo and Xiaomi’s foldable phones, Tecno Phantom V Fold, and Huawei’s devices are excellent competitors to the Z Fold 4. However, they lack global availability and the optimization of One UI on foldable phones.

If you want a foldable globally, Samsung remains an easy choice. However, since there’s a lot of competition in the segment in 2023, Samsung has to try new things and attempt to push the market forward once again.

A few early reports said that Samsung would launch three high-end phones later this year, not including the S23 lineup. We already know two of these phones: the Z Fold 5 and the Z Flip 5.

There isn’t anything specific on what those phones will bring to the market, but we can expect a better hinge and a new SOC, with some software tweaks.

They might finally move to the waterdrop style design for an excellent foldable form factor with a less visible crease.

A famous leaker, Yogesh Brar, on Twitter, claims that there isn’t any development happening on the S23 FE. Several reports show that the S23 FE will launch in 2023 with an Exynos 2300 or a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.

These reports are incorrect, and Samsung has no such plans. This contradicts what others say about the S23 FE; we can’t confirm a cancellation.

Samsung didn’t launch the A74, so we can assume some midrange phone is still in the works for the 500-600$ segment that isn’t the A74 or the S23 FE. Many argue that killing off the FE is the right move.

The price of the FE is usually too close to the A7X phone at the time and too close to the base S model. The vanilla S23 goes on discount many times, making the FE lineup redundant.

Instead of an FE, this third phone is supposedly a triple-folding phone from Samsung, and it could be called Galaxy Tri-Fold. We’re unsure about the hardware specs, but it’ll feature a triple-folding hinge. It’ll work as both a smartphone and a tablet when expanded.

The Z Fold and Flip 5 will finally fold completely flat without leaving a gap. This is excellent news for foldable fans. The new Galaxy tri-fold is a fascinating device, and we have seen it before.

We saw it at CES 2023, where they showcased a hybrid flexible OLED display. Since Samsung uses a flexible OLED panel, this improved version may be even better. Of course, initial durability concerns exist; this is only a first-generation product.

We expect better durability and practicality in future iterations. This tri-fold with a foldable OLED and two hinges will push innovation forward for now.

These new reports are in line with claims that Samsung is working on better screens for their phones. If the tri-fold does not launch publicly in 2023, then it probably had issues with mass manufacturing.

After 2023, Samsung will gradually shift most of its focus to foldable phones. They’ll keep iterating on the already great slab phones.