While I’ve liked the idea of folding flip phones, big folding phones have never made much sense in my opinion, since even unfolded the screen isn’t that much larger for practical purposes. However, when you add a third fold to the mix, things get much more interesting, and perhaps this could be the extra wrinkle folding phones need to become more than a curiosity.

A Triple Fold Is a Worthwhile Screen Size

My biggest personal issue with folding phones is that the big ones aren’t that useful. When you double the screen area of a typical phone, you aren’t really gaining so much real estate a to transform how you use the device.

Tripling the screen size? Now we’ve moved squarely into the mini tablet category, competing with devices like the iPad Mini. Not only that, but the aspect ratio of a tri-fold is much more usable for media like video, or reading documents comfortably. I like flip folding phones because there’s a clear benefit to them, and I think a tri-fold phone would also be genuinely more useful than a standard phone or a normal folding phone.

What About Total Thickness?

The above photo was leaked by an X account called @WhyLab, which no longer has any posts. Since then, the phone has been officially confirmed, but what’s interesting is how thin the phone looks in its most compact form. That doesn’t look any thicker than a Galaxy Fold, and certainly isn’t far off any regular phone.

That’s not to say that everyone who has a phone like this in the works can make it as thin, though doubtless Samsung’s take won’t be far off, it goes to show how far mobile technology has come. After all, look at how slim the M4 iPad Pro is, and they still managed to stack two OLED screens inside it. So it seems we might not have to be concerned even with first-generation models that the phones will be too thick to use.

The Internal Design Must Be Something Else

What’s really intriguing to me is how the internal layout for these phones work. Does every third of the phone have important components? Which part has the system-on-a-chip? Is it in the back for cooling? Do these phones have multiple smaller batteries? The mind boggles at the engineering that has to go into a device like this. Of course, when the first ones hit the market someone on YouTube will probably have it torn down faster you can say “warranty voided.”

Twice the Folds, Twice the Failures?

Folding phones have improved so much that the latest generation of devices can actually stand up to normal daily use. A phone with moving parts will never be as strong as the monolithic slabs most of us still use, but it only needs to be good enough. Given all the experience and development that’s already happened with folding phones, I’m feeling pretty positive that this newer form factor won’t be a total trainwreck out of the gate.

That said, having two folds and three phone sections statistically raises the odds of failure, because you have more bits that can go wrong. Whether that’s going to make a practical difference over the two to five years someone might use a phone is an open question.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6

8/ 10

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 is a sleek, foldable smartphone with a dynamic AMOLED 6.7-inch internal display and a robust hinge mechanism. Powered by the latest Snapdragon processor, it offers exceptional performance, a greatly improved dual-camera system, and Flex Mode for hands-free selfies and video calls.

$1100 at SamsungSee at T-MobileSee at VerizonSee at AmazonSee at AT&T

All I know is that, for the first time, a folding phone actually interests me. I’ve been tempted by flip folding phones like the Galaxy Z Flip 6, but never enough to give up my Galaxy Ultra phones. A tri-folding Galaxy Fold? Assuming it doesn’t cost as much as a car, that could be the one that finally brings me into the fold.