Samsung's Tri-Fold Design Revealed in New Patent?
A new patent discovered by Patently Apple reveals Samsung's possible plans for the future of foldable devices. This isn't just another foldable like the Z Fold 6; the patent describes a device with multiple folds and hinges, suggesting a form factor to rival the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate.
The Patent
The patent was filed fairly recently with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on May 23, 2024 and published on January 2, 2025. This is pretty good indication that work is likely still ongoing. The patent shows a device with two folds, which for some reason is called a tri-fold. Don’t talk to me about wallets. The device looks a lot like a Z Fold with an additional fold with the area where a cover display would be appearing very similar in terms of the wideness and aspect ratio to the current Z Fold 6. It’s important to remember that this device could be a Galaxy Tab style device in which case their may not be a cover display at all. The camera layout does appear to be nearly identical to the Z Fold 6. Of course, this is a patent and not some kind of final design we’re looking at.
Differences from Huawei's Tri-fold
One interesting thing to note is that the camera on Samsung's tri-fold device is in the middle, unlike the Huawei tri-fold device, where the camera is all the way over on one side. This is a pretty big difference, and it will be interesting to see how Samsung implements this in the final product. Rather than folding accordion style, this device folds inward twice.
Due to that double inward design, when the device is fully closed the foldable screen is completely inside. This means that there is no foldable screen on the outside, which could make the device more durable. With the Huawei device, the cover display is literally just part of the fragile folding OLED, with a portion of that display exposed on the edge of the device.
Laptop Mode
It's unclear if or how Samsung's tri-fold device will work in laptop mode. It's possible that you could have one side down, with the other side open, so that you have most of the screen standing up. However, it remains to be seen how this would work in practice. That would involve quite a bit of weight up top and that might result in a device that would be easy to tip over.
There is still a lot of speculation surrounding this device, and it's important to take all of the rumors with a grain of salt. However, it's exciting to think about what Samsung might be working on, and it will be interesting to see what the final product looks like.