A newly surfaced patent suggests Samsung is working on a widescreen tri-fold phone. If it ever comes to market, it would be one of the most ambitious foldable designs the company has ever attempted.
The ambitious part
The patent that’s caught everyone’s attention is for something Samsung calls the Galaxy Z Tri-Fold Wide, and it takes the broader Fold concept much further. The device has two hinges and three panels, and when fully unfolded it looks less like a phone and more like a compact tablet to work on. This is a significant difference from Samsung’s current Fold design.
When folded, the device can be stacked into a chunky but manageable shape, with a panel on the outside remaining visible and serving as a cover display. The back of this outer section houses a triple camera, and the overall frame looks deliberately thick and sturdy, which makes sense given that two hinges need to remain reliable even through thousands of folds. The most outstanding detail, however, is the tent mode. Samsung’s patent drawings show the device in a triangular shape, so it stands on its own like a small desk display. That opens up a different category of use cases: watch videos hands-free, display widgets, check notifications at a glance, or simply use it as a small second screen on a desk.
Should you be excited?
Patents are patents, and Samsung files many of them that never see the light of day as actual products. The more likely short-term story is still the Fold 8 and its bigger brother. The tri-fold width feels more like a glimpse of where Samsung wants to eventually go rather than something arriving at a store near you any time soon.
Given that competitors are already releasing tri-foldable devices and Samsung is clearly feeling the pressure to push foldable technology, it would be unwise to dismiss this product entirely. Samsung tends to be methodical about things like this, and the fact that it’s already patenting a wider tri-fold design suggests that the roadmap goes well beyond what’s being announced this year.
