Is a tri-fold flip smartphone from Samsung in the cards?

Samsung has been making foldable smartphones for nearly seven years now. The company’s portfolio includes a book-style foldable and a clamshell foldable. However, a recently discovered Samsung patent suggests that that portfolio could expand to cover a tri-fold flip phone.

Samsung’s tri-fold flip patent

The patent suggests that Samsung is working on a clamshell tri-fold phone with a z-shape design. Right now, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip series folds and unfolds in half, transforming from a regular-sized smartphone into a smaller, more compact form factor.

This is fine for users who prefer a smaller device versus a larger tablet-like device. However, this Samsung patent suggests that Samsung could adopt a tri-fold form factor for its future Galaxy Z Flip series. This would allow the phone to unfold into an even larger device. That being said, it might be weird.

This is because its tri-fold design makes it look very long, giving it a weird display aspect ratio. Earlier Galaxy Z Fold devices had this issue—the narrow outer display made them awkward to use. Samsung might repeat this with this patent.

That being said, 91mobiles suggests several potential uses for this device. One example is using the phone as an AR or VR controller due to its wider screen. It’s an interesting approach, but we don’t know if Samsung plans to pursue it. This is because patents don’t always materialize into actual products.

However, Samsung isn’t alone in considering this design. At MWC 2025, Infinix showed off its ZERO Series Mini Tri-Fold. This is a concept tri-fold clamshell smartphone that the company envisions can double up as a wearable camera, similar to GoPro’s action cameras.

Samsung’s tri-fold coming later this year

What we do know, however, is that Samsung is working on a tri-fold book-style foldable. The handset will launch later this year, although recent rumors suggest that it won’t launch alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 phones.

Samsung also isn’t the first to come up with a tri-fold device. Huawei surprised everyone when it launched the Huawei Mate XT, the world’s first tri-fold smartphone.

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