Who Asked for This?
Let me be clear - I like innovation. I loved the Z-Flip the second I saw it. A phone that folds in half to become smaller when you’re not using it? Genius. It solved an actual problem: giant phones that don’t fit in your pocket.
The Z-Fold, on the other hand? Dumb. A phone that turns into a tiny tablet solves no problem. It just adds new ones: bulk, fragility, weird aspect ratios, and an astronomical price tag.
And now… a tri-fold?
Who out there is sitting at home thinking, “You know what? My folding phone just doesn’t fold enough.”
We’ve officially entered the “because we can” era of smartphone design - the one where companies make bizarre prototypes no one asked for, just to convince us that progress is still happening.
Solving Problems That Don’t Exist
Look, I get it - Samsung needs to keep its reputation as “the innovator.” But the truth is, the tri-fold doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t improve portability, it doesn’t improve usability, and it definitely doesn’t improve affordability.
It’s basically a $3,000 origami project that lets you unfold your phone twice before it breaks once.
Meanwhile, the company literally had to halt production on its new “Edge” ultra-thin phone because nobody wanted it.
Why? Because it solved no problem. Nobody is walking around complaining, “Ugh, my phone is just too thick.”
Smartphones have peaked. We reached “good enough” years ago — now it’s just a race to see who can invent the weirdest hinge mechanism before they run out of screen real estate.
A Flimsy iPad With Commitment Issues
From what’s been leaked, the tri-fold will expand into something roughly the size of an iPad Mini, but flimsier and three times as expensive.
Imagine unfolding your phone like a map every time you want to check your email - now imagine doing it with the constant fear that one wrong move will cost you a month’s rent.
And just wait until app developers have to design for this thing. You thought optimizing for the Z-Fold’s aspect ratio was a nightmare? Try building for a phone that’s a rectangle, a square, and a parallelogram depending on how many times you’ve unfolded it.
The Truth About “Innovation”
What we’re really seeing here isn’t progress - it’s desperation. The smartphone market is stagnant, and companies like Samsung need a reason to make us care again. So they build something wild and call it the “future.”
But here’s the thing about the future: if it costs $3,000 and you can’t put it in your pocket because it will absolutely scratch, it’s not the future - it’s a gimmick.
I’m sure it’ll be a marvel of engineering. I’m sure it’ll get glowing YouTube reviews from people who play with it for 48 hours and call it “game-changing.” But in a month, it’ll be sitting next to the 3D TV and the Apple vision pro in the Museum of Tech That Solved Nothing.
Until then, I’ll be over here with my boring rectangular phone that doesn’t need three hinges or three batteries to check my email.
Because sometimes - just sometimes - the best innovation is knowing when to stop.
