I’ve tested my fair share of thin and foldable phones over the years, but something about Samsung’s Galaxy Z TriFold struck me as particularly notable when I held it for the first time at CES 2026 in Las Vegas on Sunday.
At last, it seems foldables are approaching their long-desired goal: a two-in-one device that fits neatly in your pocket.
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The trifold — which technically folds twice but has three panels — feels like a true phone-tablet hybrid that stands well apart from its bar-style counterparts. Its value appears to lie less in flashy specs about its thinness and more in its utility and practicality.
The Z TriFold’s 6.5-inch cover display is spacious enough to feel like using a non-folding phone.
Instead, the Galaxy Z TriFold is all about getting things done on a portable scale. Need to shoot off a quick text or check an email? The 6.5-inch cover display feels remarkably close to using a non-folding phone — minus the slightly chunky 12.9mm thickness when the trifold is closed. And when it’s time to watch a movie, multitask or type up a paper, the expansive 10-inch internal display offers plenty of real estate.
That duality makes the Galaxy Z TriFold feel like a true hybrid device that can fill a niche that book-style foldables have yet to satisfy, despite their many efforts.
There’s a 200-megapixel wide, 12-megapixel ultrawide and 10-megapixel telephoto camera on the back of the Galaxy Z TriFold.
Two hinges on the trifold means double the screen creases, but they’re thankfully less visible than the Z Fold 7’s, which is already pretty subdued. Learning how to close the trifold correctly can be a bit of a learning curve, especially if you’re right-handed like me; you’ll need to close the left panel first. But each time you (I) mess up, the phone gives haptic feedback and an alert that you (we) are doing it wrong, which is helpful.
What’s perhaps most assuring is the trifold’s 5,600-mAh battery, which can hopefully allow the phone to power through a full day’s use, and then some. The Z Fold 7 has a 4,400-mAh battery, which lasted all day in my initial testing, but without much juice to spare. Hopefully, the Z TriFold remedies that. The trifold’s 45-watt super-fast charging is a nice perk, too.
Speaking of charging: Samsung told me the Z TriFold will come with not just a charging cable in the box, but also a charging brick. Nature is healing.
