Exclusively released in South Korea last week ahead of a future expansion to markets like China, Taiwan, Singapore, the UAE, and the US, the first groundbreaking member of the Galaxy Fold family since... 2019 is giving its manufacturer some serious headaches on (at least) two different fronts. Fortunately, the design, apparent durability, and overall performance are not among the Galaxy Z TriFold's key issues... for now.
Sold out in minutes, soon to go back in stock for a limited time
Don't think you'll be able to afford the Z TriFold when it (eventually) goes on sale stateside? That was apparently not a problem for a few thousand hardcore Samsung fans in the tech giant's homeland, who formed physical lines at 20 stores across South Korea or flocked to the company's official regional website to drop the rough equivalent of $2,455 for the first-of-a-kind product on Friday, December 12.
Despite its chunky profile, the Galaxy Z TriFold is selling like hotcakes in South Korea. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena
Because the handset's manufacturing process is not exactly a walk in the park, all initial inventory was depleted in a matter of minutes, with a second wave of units scheduled to land both online and offline this Wednesday morning.
It remains to be seen now if everyone who wants a Galaxy Z TriFold in Samsung's domestic market will be able to get their hands on a unit this time around or if a third wave of availability will be needed. The fact that scalpers are attempting (and, presumably, occasionally succeeding) to obtain large profits on resold devices strongly suggests early demand is exceeding Samsung's expectations, which is likely to prove the case outside South Korea too before long.
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Do you have any plans to buy the Galaxy Z TriFold?
Not if I have to sit in line for it
3.23%
Not at that price
51.61%
I'm still thinking about it
29.03%
Yes, at any cost
16.13%
That's definitely a nicer problem to have than supply outstripping demand, which is basically what happened with the Galaxy S25 Edge, for instance. But it's a problem nonetheless, and it's going to be mighty difficult to solve when Samsung reportedly only planned to make between 2,000 and 3,000 (yes, that's thousand, not million) Z TriFold units for domestic sales and around 20,000 for the entire world.
A production ramp-up is unlikely for two reasons
What do you do when a product is more successful than you anticipated? You build more of it, right? Well, what if things are not that simple? What if the product was never intended to become a big commercial hit, but merely show off Samsung's technological prowess as a sort of teaser for more mass-friendly devices down the line?
I'm sorry to inform you, but that may very well be the case here, and not just because triple-folding handsets are obviously harder to mass-produce than "conventional" foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7.
The chances of seeing the Galaxy Z TriFold release in more than 20 or 30K units worldwide are virtually nonexistent. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena
Believe it or not, another problem with the Galaxy Z TriFold is that its price was set too low to yield a significant profit. Yup, a $2,455 phone is apparently too cheap to be considered a smart investment for the number one handset vendor in the world.
That's due primarily to the wild production costs of the displays used by the massive 10-incher capable of switching into a 6.5-inch smartphone (and vice versa), as well as the folding mechanisms, but also other components like the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and 16GB RAM.
As insane as it sounds, Samsung views that price point as one "made difficultly, by cutting everything possible", which really makes me wonder if triple-folding devices will ever be able to break into the mainstream (at least to the degree that single-folding phones have managed thus far).
Should Samsung focus more on "traditional" foldables?
In my view, yes. While I can certainly appreciate the occasional demonstration of technological prowess, Apple's threat over the foldable landscape as a whole and Samsung's supremacy in the market segment in particular is becoming too large for the company to keep wasting time on these types of experiments that are very clearly not going anywhere.
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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