Samsung has been tinkering with its tri-fold smartphone for a few years now, but unfortunately, the Korean tech giant was quickly overtaken by Huawei with its Mate XT in September. It’s time for Samsung to stop being slow.
According to a new leak from Korean newspaper ET News, Samsung's tri-fold phone is expected to launch next year with a completely different design than Huawei's device and a giant 9- to 10-inch display when fully opened.
The new design is said to be completed by the end of November and will not be the rollable screen phone that Samsung teased in September. Instead, Samsung will use an inward-folding screen, where both sides of the hinge can fold inwards, instead of the Z-shape like the Huawei Mate XT.
Huawei's tri-fold phone.
The Huawei Mate XT is equipped with an overlapping folding screen, turning the left side of the screen into the main screen when folded. According to ET News, the outer screen of the Samsung tri-fold phone will likely be similar to the current Z Fold 6.
Concept image of a phone that folds inward in three directions.
From the design of the Huawei device, we can imagine that Samsung's goal with this different folding screen is to protect the crease from being exposed like on the Mate XT. However, one of the two hinges on Samsung's device would be forced to be larger, causing an imbalance problem.
" The recently launched tri-fold phone in China has one side that folds inward and one side that folds outward, but Samsung Electronics chose the inward folding style for durability reasons. If it folds outward, the screen will be exposed to the outside, making it susceptible to damage when bumped or dropped ," an insider told ET News.
Samsung's tri-fold phone concept was shown in prototype form at CES 2022, called the Flex S and Flex G. The Flex S has a folding mechanism similar to the Huawei Mate XT, while the Flex G shows an inward-folding design. However, the device does not have an external display.
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