Let’s be honest here, the best foldable phones are no longer that exciting. It’s been more than half a decade since the first book-style foldables hit the scene, but they haven't been able to break more than 2% of overall phone marketshare despite more players joining the fray.
What we need is a little excitement, and a totally different kind of foldable could be coming soon to shake things up. We’ve been hearing rumors about more advanced foldables, with a tri-folding screen, and now word is that it could be arriving sooner than we thought.
All we know is what leaker Digital Chat Station (via Chinese social network Weibo) has told us, which is that the first “commercially-viable” tri-folding smartphone is about to enter mass production.
Other details revealed by Digital Chat Station include claims that this is a “top-spec’d” device with a crease resistant screen. The fact that it’s a tri-folding device also means that it’s likely to be thicker than a regular foldable phone, and could very well cost more. How much more isn’t clear, but considering the Galaxy Z Fold 6 just increased its starting price to $1,899, this could be one pricey foldable.
Digital Chat Station also said that this foldable will be better than the manufacturer’s “business flagship." Though what that business flagship could be isn’t clear, and it’s not a term I’ve heard used before. So it doesn’t really help us narrow down who might be responsible.
So who is behind this phone? While foldable phones are primarily Samsung’s domain in the west, and we have seen some Samsung concepts featuring a tri-folding display, that’s no guarantee that Samsung is behind this mystery device. Especially given the sheer number of foldables produced by Chinese companies for the home market.
Not counting Oppo and OnePlus, which are still very new to the scene, Chinese buyers can go out and buy foldables from most of the major domestic brands. These include Xiaomi, Huawei, Honor, Vivo, TCL and others. All of these companies have been involved in foldable phones for some time now, and have produced a variety of interesting concept phones over the years — in foldable and non-foldable form.
The only question is, when will we see this phone announced? If this triple foldable phone is already going into mass production, then it could be anytime over the coming months. And since we don’t know which company is involved, we can’t even make a guess — though it is possible that such a landmark device could appear at CES 2025 in January.
Stay tuned to see if this triple threat becomes a reality.
