Galaxy Z TriFold is official: insane 10” screen, and the largest battery on a Galaxy

Folding it the right way

The Galaxy Z TriFold uses a unique multi-folding, inward design, which helps protect its main display. The folding operation is guided by a carefully calibrated mechanism that incorporates an auto-alarm feature. Should the user attempt an incorrect fold, the system immediately intervenes with a series of on-screen messages and haptic vibrations, ensuring the folding is done correctly to maintain the device's integrity. Now, that's cool!



The Armor FlexHinge system — introduced with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 — is refined and uses two differently sized hinges with a dual-rail structure to ensure a smoother, more stable fold while minimizing the panel gap when closed.

The device's exterior utilizes a titanium hinge housing for mechanism protection and an Advanced Armor Aluminum frame, which adds rigidity and prevents the screens from making contact. Furthermore, every unit is subjected to stringent quality checks, including CT scanning of the flexible printed circuit board to verify manufacturing accuracy, and laser scanning to confirm the precise mounting height of all internal components.

In short: Samsung is doing its best to make this phone as tough as a foldable can be. But what about when we compare it to Huawei’s trifold: the Mate XT Ultimate Design? You can say that Huawei’s take folds inward and outward in a way that be compared to the letter “Z”. In contrast, the Z TriFold uses motions, which are more reminiscent of “G”. A bit ironic, considering the “Z” in the names of Samsung’s foldable phone family.

This means that when the Galaxy Z TriFold is fully closed, the entire main display is folded and completely protected. In contrast with the XT Ultimate, one of the panels of the main display remains folded outward and exposed. This also means that in Huawei’s tri-fold uses part of the main screen as an outer screen, while the Galaxy Z TriFold has a dedicated outer display.

 

All about that tablet-sized display

People who adore foldables crave two things: immaculate, large displays and cutting edge technology inside. Luckily for fans of foldables the Galaxy Z TriFold takes everything to a whole new level.

The new handset features a 10-inch main Dynamic AMOLED display with a 2160 x 1584 px, 269 ppi resolution, capable of going up to 1,600 nits in brightness. The adaptive refresh rate goes from 1 all the way to 120Hz, so that butter smooth responsiveness is guaranteed.

The cover screen is a 6.5-inch Dynamic AMOLED one, with 2520 x 1080, 422 ppi resolution in a 21:9 ratio. The outer display is much brighter at 2,600 nits peak brightness, and of course — a 120 Hz refresh rate.

When folded, the Galaxy Z TriFold is 159.2 x 75.0 x 12.9 mm. When unfolded, it grows to 159.2 x 214.1 x 3.9 mm. The center screen is 4.2 mm when unfolded, and the screen with the side button on it is 4.0 mm. That's mighty thin! It’s also quite weighty at 309 g, but hey — you’re practically getting a tablet that folds!

For the record, the Huawei's Mate XT Ultimate Design gets as thin as 3.6 mm when unfolded, and it weighs 298 gr. Yes — these numbers are lower, but the real question here is: has Samsung made the feature set worth the difference?

Cameras and performance

There are a total of five cameras on the new foldable:

• Main: 200 MP Wide-Angle Camera, Quad Pixel AF, OIS, f/1.7, pixel size: 0.6 μm, FOV: 85˚
• Ultra-wide: 12 MP, f/2.2, pixel size: 1.4 μm, FOV: 120˚
• Telephoto: 10 MP, PDAF, OIS, f/2.4, pixel size: 1.0 μm, FOV: 36˚, 3x optical zoom (up to 30x digital zoom)
• Cover screen selfie: 10 MP, f/2.2, pixel size: 1.12 μm, FOV: 85˚
• Main screen selfie: 10 MP, f/2.2, pixel size: 1.12 μm, FOV: 100˚

We expect that the Z TriFold will be able to easily match the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s performance in the camera department, so the real question lies elsewhere: how close to the S26 Ultra could it get? We’ll be sure to let you know when we get our hands on the phone itself, but we’re cautiously optimistic.

Under the hood, the phone is equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. Yes — that's not the latest Qualcomm chipset on the market (which is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5), but this silicon is super-powerful, too.

The Galaxy Z TriFold comes with 16 GB of RAM and either 512 GB or 1 TB of storage, which is to be expected of a smartphone of this magnitude. It also makes sense, because it’ll likely be packed with all manner of Galaxy AI-fueled goodies.

Naturally, the phone will come with One UI 8 (based on Android 16) out of the box, and will offer a capacitive fingerprint sensor on its side. What is interesting is that Samsung is betting that it knows your preferences for color at this point, and I hope they are right, because the TriFold will be available only in Crafted Black.

The material reminds me of carbon fiber, with visible strands, varying between shades of black and gray. Overall, it looks somewhere between industrial and premium, and certainly — unique. The only other phone that I can think of that has a similar vibe was the Motorola ThinkPhone from 2023.

The biggest battery on a Galaxy

The three-cell battery system adds up to 5,600 mAh of capacity. The wired charging tops out at 45W, while the wireless charging supports speeds of up to 15W. Of course — we would’ve loved to see these numbers chase new heights, especially considering the screen real estate that users will be working with here. That being said, keep in mind that you’ll probably be using the phone folded up during most of the time.

5,600 mAh is more than what non-foldable Galaxy S and Galaxy Z flagships currently offer: for example, the Galaxy S25 Ultra tops out at 5,000 mAh, just like many of its predecessors.

The Galaxy Z TriFold is rated at IP48, so I'd definitely recommend handling extra carefully when at the beach or at the pool. The device is not dust- or sand-resistant, as the rating proves. That being said, it is water-resistant to an extent, so long as that water isn’t too hot or salty in any way.

The Galaxy Z TriFold comes with Corning's Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 protection, while the back is protected with ceramic-glass fiber reinforced polymer. The 10-inch foldable display features a restructured design for improved durability. Samsung is known for making phones that are quite durable, but keep in mind: this is a foldable phone. It is likely going to be a step-up from what is currently available on the market, but I still wouldn’t treat at as I would, let’s say, a OnePlus 15, which has superb durability for a candy bar-style phone.

 

Is the Galaxy TriFold for you?

The Galaxy Z TriFold is primarily targeted at power users, and professionals who require maximum productivity and advanced multitasking capabilities in a portable form-factor. The 10-inch main display is the largest ever on a Galaxy phone, and it allows users to operate with the screen real estate equivalent to three 6.5-inch smartphones simultaneously.

This is perfect for complex workflows, enabling users like architects or designers to seamlessly run and manage three different applications side-by-side without interruption, such as drafting, writing proposals, and calculating measurements.

Further positioning the device for professionals, the Galaxy Z TriFold is the first mobile phone to include a standalone Samsung Dex feature. This allows users to establish a complete desktop working environment virtually anywhere, supporting up to four separate workspaces that can each run five applications concurrently. 

What is the difference between other phones, which already Support Dex? They require a separate display in order for that mode to get enabled, while the TriFold will let you use it “natively” when unfolded. This means that all you need is a keyboard and mouse, and you practically have a portable, quite capable mini-PC setup.

For the record, this is quite huge. Apps like GameHub are already breaking boundaries and enabling not just PC games, but apps to run on Android. The hardware of the TriFold is capable enough to handle quite a number of those, so if you’re a tinkerer — you can get quite a lot out of the Galaxy TriFold Dex experience. 

The only missing link would be a power pass-through mode (allows the charging brick to power the device without straining the battery), but realistically: it’s not Samsung’s MO to include such a feature.

For enhanced productivity, Dex can also utilize an external monitor in Extended Mode, creating a seamless dual-screen desktop experience for dragging and dropping items and working across complex projects with efficiency. The device's functionality is also integrated with Galaxy AI features, which is no surprise.

How does it compare to Huawei's Mate XT?

Huawei's Mate XT Ultimate Design has been out for almost a year now. It appears to emphasize battery charging speed, offering a significantly faster 66W wired and 50W wireless charging, compared to the Galaxy Z TriFold's 45W wired and 15W wireless. The Mate XT also has a main display with a higher pixel density (381 PPI vs 269 PPI on the TriFold), and a longer optical zoom on its telephoto lens (5.5x vs 3x on Samsung’s side).

The Galaxy Z TriFold features a more recent and powerful processor, and its camera boasts a 200 MP sensor. Not only that, but it has the huge benefit of running on Android — and OneUI at that, which is quite feature-packed. The sheer app availability and built-in Dex functionality make the TriFold a very intimidating contender in the foldable smartphone space.

Yes: Huawei’s phone is technically a bit more slim and lite, but Samsung’s take is much more powerful and capable, thanks to using newer hardware, and being part of the Android phone ecosystem.

 

Price and availability

Tech maniacs will be able to get their hands on the Galaxy Z TriFold soon. In its homeland, the impressive foldable is expected to become available for purchase on December 12, while other markets like China, Taiwan, Singapore, the UAE – and the US! – will be announced in the near days.

While we’re very happy to see that the phone will be coming overseas, we’re still eager to learn more about the price tag which Samsung might settle on. Make no mistake: this will be one expensive phone, but considering the above — it might very well be worth it, especially for certain types of users.