Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold hands-on: Your biggest questions answered

I have to admit I was pretty skeptical heading into my first hands-on experience with the Galaxy Z TriFold, which morphs from a 6.5-inch phone into a ginormous 10-inch tablet. Isn’t it too thick and heavy to carry around? Who is the target audience for this thing? And how much is it going to cost?

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There’s lots of questions surrounding the Galaxy Z TriFold, which is officially coming to the U.S. during the first three months of 2026 and has the potential of making our best foldable phone list. So I’m going to answer the biggest ones after spending two hours with the device.

Screen size, main

10-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X (2160 x 1584; 120Hz)

Screen size, exterior

6.5-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X (2520 x 1080, 120Hz)

Chipset

Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy

RAM

16GB

Storage

512GB, 1TB

Rear cameras

200MP main (f1.7), 12MP ultrawide (f/2.2), 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom (f/2.4)

Front cameras

10MP main display, 10MP exterior

Battery size

5,600 mAh

Size, opened

159.2 x 214.1 x 3.9mm (6.3 x 8.4 x 0.15 inches)

Size, folded

159.2 x 75.0 x 12.9mm (6.3 x 3.0 x 0.51 inches)

Weight

309 grams (10.9 ounces)

Galaxy Z Fold 7. You get the same 6.5-inch cover display found on that book-style foldable.

But once you unfold the TriFold, you’ll be greeted with a huge 10-inch display with a 4:3 aspect ratio. This is important because the display’s not square like it is on the Z Fold 7. This means that when watching videos like the “Avatar: Fire and Ash: trailer, those black bars above and below the action are way smaller, and you get a much more immersive viewing experience.

Having a 10-inch display also comes in hand when using Galaxy AI features. For example, it’s easy to see the before and after results of your generative AI edits in your photos when they’re side by side.

The main panel is rated for 1,600 nits, which trails major flagships — the Z Fold 7 goes to 2,600 nits — but it should be bright enough to use in direct sunlight.

The trifold design means you now have two creases instead of one, but I didn’t find them that noticeable during my demo session. This panel also gives you a much bigger canvas for running three apps side by side. You get the equivalent of three bar phones in one.

Galaxy Z TriFold (left) and Galaxy Z Fold 7 (right) (Image credit: Tom’s Guide)

The good news is that the Galaxy Z TriFold is super thin when you have it open. In fact, at 4 to 4.2 mm, the TriFold is even thinner than the Z Fold 7 (4.2 mm). There’s barely enough room for a USB-C port.

The bad news is that, at 12.9mm, the Galaxy Z TriFold is pretty thick when closed; that’s a lot thicker than the Z Fold 7’s 8.9mm profile. I would put this phone in a breast pocket or back pocket (before sitting down), but not the front pocket of jeans.

Weighing 309 grams or 10.9 ounces, the Z TriFold is on the heavy side compared to other foldable phones. That’s more than 3 ounces more than the Z Fold 7. So you’ll really want to consider the portability factor before investing.

16-inch MacBook Pro.

On the other hand, if you have the cash to splash on the $2,000 Galaxy Z Fold 7, you might be willing to pay the premium to get a larger display on the TriFold and all the benefits it brings to the table.

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)

To unfold the Galaxy Z TriFold, you fold the left side first and then the right right side. If you do it the other way around, you’ll feel a vibration and get a warning message on the main display, so you don’t accidentally break your foldable.

The device feels fairly sturdy when using it, but I did worry about dropping the Galaxy Z TriFold when holding the 10-inch device in one hand while filming our video.

Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)

In a word, awesome. While you can easily run three apps at once in regular mode, the Galaxy Z TriFold has a shortcut for DeX mode right in the Quick Settings. Press that, and you’ll be able to run up to five apps at once and resize them as you see fit. It’s very much like having a laptop in your pocket.

Even better, you can create and save up to four desktops, so you could have one for work, one for play and more.

Hard-core multitaskers will appreciate Extended Mode, which lets you connect an external monitor and work across two screens at once. Add a wireless mouse and keyboard and you can make the case for the TriFold as a replacement for your laptop or mini PC.

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)

Kind of. The Galaxy Z TriFold offers the same camera setup as the Z Fold 7. That means a 200MP main wide camera, a 12MP utlrawide and 10x telephoto with 3x optical zoom

That zooming power pales in comparison to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which offers both a 3x 10MP telephoto and 5x 50MP telephoto. And I feel like it’s a missed opportunity on the Galaxy Z TriFold when you have a viewfinder this large to play with.

Otherwise, the TriFold offers a 10MP selfie camera for the cover screen and 10MP lens for the main screen.

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)

We still have to test the Galaxy Z TriFold, but I would say things look promising. With its 5,600 mAh battery, the TriFold has the largest battery of any Samsung phone period. And it really needs it when you’re powering a 10-inch display.

Compare that to the 4,400 mAh battery on the Z Fold 7, which lasted about 11 hours on the Tom’s Guide Battery Test. We’re hoping for even longer endurance on the TriFold. And you’ll definitely see longer battery life if you use the cover display fairly often.

The TriFold offers 45W charging, which is a boost over the 25W on the Z Fold 7. This means you should get up to 50% in 30 minutes.

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)

Well, you can’t yet. But once the Galaxy Z TriFold becomes available I could see early adopters and those looking to leave their laptop at home being very interested in this device.

What we don’t know is how durable the TriFold is going to be in day-to-day use, how long the battery life is going to last, and if it’s heft is going to cancel out the glory of having a 10-inch tablet in your pocket.

Stay tuned for our full Galaxy Z TriFold review.

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