Samsung Galaxy Z Tri Fold Impressions: NOW It Makes Sense!

Okay, so this is it.

Welcome to a hands-on and first impressions of a multifolding smartphone.

This is the Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold.

And it might sound crazy,

like there's already so many comments

that I've seen about how this looks ridiculous

and pointless and looks like a gimmick

and all that,

but now that I've used this phone,

this is a device that's actually starting to make foldables make sense to me.

Hear me out.

So, this is the shape of most other foldables we've seen.

Looks, you know, like a single phone

when it's closed and

then you open it up to a larger maybe 8 in square,

which is super cool.

But this is the trifold.

It opens not once

but twice to give you a massive 10-in tablet basically

that can fit in your pocket.

And the difference between an 8 in screen

and a 10-in screen might not sound like much.

Hold your jokes.

But it's the shape of that screen,

the rectangular aspect ratio that's what's making all the difference here.

Now, this is technically not the first trifold smartphone.

Uh, this is this is the Huawei Mate XT

that I made a video about back in 2024.

This one, though, folded like a Z.

So, what you have here is this super large display that's folded over the

outside.

So, you could use either a single pane

or a dual pane

or all the way open

as this trifold with a huge screen.

and it's always on the outside exposed to the elements.

So, this Samsung trifold is a little different.

It folds a little more like the letter U.

So, there's a cover display on the outside

or you can flip it over

and fully unfold everything to reveal a second interior display,

which is the one that folds twice.

So, while you use that,

the cover display is just kind of sitting unused on the back.

So, this is really interesting.

Clearly worse in some ways, but clearly better in some other ways.

I have a lot of thoughts.

Uh, but let's just get the specs out of the way first.

So, it's a Snapdragon 8 Elite 4 Galaxy inside.

So, it's technically not the absolute latest and greatest 8 Elite Gen 5,

but it seems like they've been working on this phone for long enough

that this is the most recent flagship chip they could use,

and it's obviously only a year old,

so still a really great chip. 16 gigs of RAM

and 512 gigs of storage.

Then there's the triple cameras on the back.

They're essentially the same ones as the ZFold 7.

So, a flagship grade 200 megapixel primary camera,

but then some pretty mid other cameras,

a 10 megapixel 3x zoom and a 12 megapixel ultrawide.

The cover display up front is also essentially the same as the ZFold 7,

6 1/2 in, 21x9, 120 Hz, and 2600 nits.

The biggest difference, of course,

is how much phone you're holding

when you use it in single screen mode

because you can see all of

that metal and those hinges.

This phone is a heftier 12.9 mm thick

and it's also over 300 gram.

So, it feels like it's about 50% more phone you're holding than the regular

Fold.

Now, looks crazy on camera and looks crazy on paper.

Those are big numbers, but holding this phone and using it,

it doesn't it's not sleek by any means, don't get me wrong,

but it doesn't feel that ridiculous.

For some perspective, this is actually thinner than the ZFold one

and the ZFold 2

and the ZFold 3

and the ZFold 4

and the ZFold 5.

Something to think about.

Either way, it does mean, you know, while using this phone closed,

it is a little bit clunky.

The bezels are pretty thin and all,

but this is obviously not why you're getting this phone.

You're getting this phone

because you can unfold everything

and you end up with this massive tablet- sized 10-in display.

So now when it's open,

this tablet is 3.9 mm thin at its thinnest point,

which is over here on the left,

and 4.2 mm at its thickest point.

So it feels really thin and easy to hold.

And suddenly 309 g is not so heavy after all.

And I think context again helps so much with this.

Most like 10-in tablets are around 500 g, so they're heavier than this.

But also, most roughly 10-inch tablets, including Samsung's own,

have like 8,000 milliamp hour batteries.

Not this one.

This battery has to be squashed into this super ridiculously thin form factor.

And it's also split into three separate columns.

So, this one totals 5600 mAh, which technically, yes,

is the largest ever in any Samsung folding phone,

but it's also definitely on the small side for something with a 10-in tablet

size screen,

if that makes sense.

I feel like I've hammered this home so many times this year,

but silicon carbon battery, maybe maybe the next gen.

It just feels like the the perfect phone for that.

Obviously, being super thin like this,

but it is also still it's actually the fastest charging uh foldable Samsung's ever

made is 45 watt charging now with a charger included in the box.

So, that's pretty nice.

And they also kept 15 watt wireless charging along with the IP48 rating from

the ZFold 7.

So, the specs are pretty solid.

Sure.

But the reason I'm saying

that this phone is making foldables make sense now is

because the screen that you get

when you unfold it,

this widescreen 10-in tablet is a massive difference from all the regular folds here.

I think this really says it all.

This is a full screen video on a regular slab phone.

And we're all used to this right now.

This is the same full screen video on the inside screen of a fold.

You know, it's a big screen technically.

It's an 8 in square,

but the video frame that you're watching is not that much bigger.

There's just a bunch of blank pixels around it.

So, this is the same video on the trifold.

And you see how much better that is.

That's the main theme here for why this is worth exploring this widescreen aspect

ratio thing.

In this case, it's 16 by1

and it just really makes for a way more expansive canvas. full screen videos.

Also, full screen games feel really nice.

There's a ton more real estate for them.

And while we're at it,

here's a few more nicely optimized things I noticed

while playing with this large horizontal display.

The files app lets you see multiple columns at once,

so you can fit a whole three layers of the file system deep

and see it all.

The YouTube app also looks really nice, basically,

because it's just the tablet YouTube app,

so you can scroll related videos

or read comments while the video still plays in a pretty big window.

Web browsing is also just better from having a sheer ton of real estate.

I keep using that phrase, but I actually enjoyed a lot of regular apps,

just like the web browser

or social media apps in portrait mode

and landscape mode just

because they feel huge.

Also, sidebyside apps, whether you split them top, bottom, or left, right,

you can do three apps side by side,

they all just have way more room to breathe instead of being compressed

and tiny.

Oh, and this just happens to be the only Samsung phone

that they'll let you run Samsung Dex on its own.

So, without being connected to a monitor,

it will do the multi-wind

and multiple spaces with different setups with a connected mouse

and keyboard.

And if you do connect it to a monitor,

you can have it act as a second screen, which is smart.

I also got to say,

I've only spent a little bit of time with this phone,

but I I do feel like you can see

that it is very well considered.

Like I I can almost feel like the different variations

and versions that they went through to get to this point.

Like for example, opening the phone, you always pull from the same spot.

They made the bottom leaf of this trifold just a little bit longer than

the other two.

So it actually sticks out a little bit.

And that is super convenient to just grab

that little lip to open it up.

And then the strength of the magnets

that hold it together are really nice

and solid.

Then you pull the lip, it opens.

Then the leftmost hinge also springs nicely open

because there's a lot of nice force to it.

It all just feels very solid to open and close.

Then the nice smooth fiberglass composite on the back.

You know, this is the only color available for this phone,

but I also think it makes a lot of sense

because it's touching screen on the back here.

It's also a huge finger magnet, so that's too bad.

But then, you know, you can only fold it a certain way.

Left side first, then right side, which wraps around it.

So, if you try to fold the right side first,

it gives you this little message. and vibrates and tells you, "No,

don't do that.

That's not how you fold this phone."

Also, without a case, I noticed that just like the Fold 7,

this is one of the biggest rockers on a table the world has ever

seen.

But alongside that charger,

this phone also comes with a case that basically fixes that.

So, what's the catch?

There's got to be a reason why not everyone's doing this.

There has to be downsides, right?

Well, yes, but there's not that many.

Like, the middle screen is the obvious one.

This is going to be the most delicate part of the phone having a

display that not only folds twice,

but also folds in two different directions and with two different radi.

Like you can obviously see these creases if you're looking for them,

but you can also see

that the crease on the left is a little bit smaller than the crease

on the right because it is a tighter curve radius

when you fold it up versus folding the right side around the left side.

I also obviously don't have any long-term data on using this phone,

but I would I would consider this a firstgen device

when thinking about durability

and how that might go.

I mean, it's nice that it is fully protected on the inside,

but it's just it's going to be a delicate screen.

It's also not the brightest in the world.

So, the outside screen is full 2600 nits.

The inside uh is only 1,600,

so kind of limits like the outdoor use and super high brightness stuff.

Stuff that I guess I expect with firstg.

You could also totally say

that the thickness and weight

while using it closed is a con

because obviously it's worse than normal folds today.

But then again, I really I just I don't know how much thinner this

thing can actually get.

I mean, they they still have to get a decent battery in there

and decent speakers and still a USB type-C port.

This is starting to feel pretty close to the dimensional limit of a trifold

setup.

So, it will be interesting to see, you know,

how they evolve it from here and what a second generation actually looks like.

But then, of course, the elephant in the room, price, obviously.

I mean, this is two screens,

so twice as many screens as a normal phone.

It's twice as many parts.

Obviously, twice as many hinges as a regular Fold.

It's like 50% more screen

and then also 50% more thickness

and 50% more weight.

So, 50% more price.

Now, Samsung in the US has not given me an official cost for what

this is going to retail for here,

but I bought this one uh and I imported it from Samsung Korea.

And this cost the equivalent of about $2,500 US there.

So, I'm just doing the math.

I expect it to probably be in the same range,

$2,500 to $3,000 here, which is a lot.

It's pricey.

It's the top of the range, but also maybe maybe not insane.

You know, I think my take is for the right person who knows what

they're getting into,

this can be worth it.

I really think this would be a nice fun phone to use

and daily for having a legit 10-in display,

a tablet in your pocket wherever you go.

Like, that's such a game.

And it's interesting now to see different approaches to the trifold thing with the

Z that folds to the outside.

And sometimes the ability to use half open is kind of interesting,

but again it's just the square

when I just feel like the rectangle huge thing is way more interesting.

So yeah, I don't know.

This is this is really cool.

And it's also just hilarious that this exists from Samsung, isn't it?

Like the same company

that is ridiculously slowm moving

and chill and conservative on their Galaxy S phones.

Like they don't want to change too much.

They don't want to rock the boat or do anything crazy.

But they'll also try this this completely insane trifold thing

and just throw stuff at the wall to see

if it sticks and maybe it'll stick.

I think people are going to get this phone

and are going to really like it.

Obviously the asterisk still is durability.

We'll see.

But yeah, it makes sense now.

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Thanks for watching.

Let me know what you think of the Trifold in the comments below.

I think it's a pretty polarizing phone,

but I'm curious to see what you guys think.

Peace.