- 2 days ago
Turns out it actually is three times the fun
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TechTranscript
00:00This is Samsung's brand new Galaxy Z Trifold, a phone that folds out not once but twice to reveal
00:05a 10-inch tablet display on the inside. And I've ended up wanting one a lot more than I expected
00:10to because of what they've done with all of that screen. So the Trifold ships in a pretty massive
00:14box by today's standards. Samsung did this with their very first Galaxy Fold 2. I guess it's their
00:19way of rewarding the early adopters. The first thing inside is this insert which has three things,
00:24a SIM ejector up here, a USB-C to C cable, and then a case which as you can tell is pretty
00:29skimpy. It's not going to cover up a lot of the phone but I think it's pretty well designed with
00:33this extra lip that acts a bit like the spine of a book covering up the hinge when the phone is
00:38closed. Then there's the Trifold itself and interestingly underneath that a 45-watt charger
00:44too. Not quite sure how that lines up with not including the charger on every other phone for
00:49eco reasons but I'm happy to see it here. I don't think it's a safe assumption that people just
00:54have these 45-watt bricks lying around.
00:59So this is what the Galaxy Z Trifold looks like. From the front it's actually identical to the
01:07existing Galaxy Z Fold 7. Same 6.5 inch cover display, the same sized screen bezels but then
01:13you look around the device and it's a chonga. The thing weighs in at 309 grams so side by side with
01:19current foldables the Trifold is almost 50% heavier and just the sheer thickness from having this entire
01:24extra layer means that this absolutely cannot pass as a normal phone when it's folded up. And then
01:29to open it you kind of do what you normally do with the fold. You reach around and then instead
01:33of grabbing one layer you grab two and you pull them out followed by a second unfolding to get you
01:38to complete tablet form. I'd say it takes 20 minutes before that movement starts to feel very intuitive
01:43helped in part by how the thing will vibrate aggressively if you try and fold it in a way that
01:47you're not meant to. And also by how if you look closely can you see that the rear section is actually a
01:52tiny bit longer than the others? Well that protrusion exists so that when you are reaching around to grab
01:56those top two layers to unfold it they feel separated from the back one. And then when you've unfolded that
02:01you'll notice the middle panel then pops up ever so slightly because there's a magnet behind pushing it
02:06which makes that one easier to lift as opposed to you having to dig your claws underneath it. These are
02:11clever touches and it actually makes this whole maneuver less fiddly than you might be expecting. And
02:17considering how thin the phone ends up 3.9 millimeters at its slimmest point making this the
02:22thinnest Samsung phone by quite a margin. I'm super impressed by how solid everything feels. It's got
02:28nice snappy magnets zero wobble and the whole thing does lock out completely flat when unfolded. But at
02:33the same time there are absolutely some niggles here. There's creases now on the display. Yes they are
02:39multiplying because there's two sets of hinges now. And I would say each one of these creases is fairly
02:44prominent. Like the moment any kind of light casts on your screen you will be reminded of their lurking
02:50presence. There's the fact that the phone's incredible weight combined with the typical
02:54Samsung camera placement in the top corner and the narrow width of the phone all put together makes
02:59this practically unusable on a flat surface with every tap eliciting a resounding thunk from your table.
03:05When unfolded it's a little better but still not great. The only thing that mostly fixes it is the case
03:11which may well explain why they decided to include it. The main thing that I find difficult about this
03:17Trifold though is just the absolute insane task that it is to look after the thing. The phone is
03:22finished with a fiberglass composite material. I assume it's a strength to weight ratio decision.
03:27That you don't want thick gorilla glass across every surface when you're trying to shave off every
03:31micrometer. But the issue is with its vinyl type texture. It's a bit sticky and pretty shiny.
03:39Which means that every one of the six faces of this Trifold device is consistently picking up
03:44fingerprints. So it is borderline impossible to be holding this and unfolding this in a way where
03:49you're not persistently messing something up. And while the fingerprints can be fixed with a wipe,
03:53or seven, you'll have a much harder time trying to fix any damage to your screen. I don't anticipate
03:59the cover display will be an issue because it's protected by Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2, but this inner screen,
04:03or at least the screen protector that rests on it, which you can't replace without giving the phone
04:08back to Samsung, is so soft that I managed to get deep gouges on mine just by leaning it against a vase.
04:15Plus now, remember, with a Trifold, you've got more room than ever for random pocket particles to end up
04:21between your screens. So the maintenance is a real consideration. And specs-wise, I wouldn't say
04:25there's anything particularly special going on here. Like the chip is the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is
04:30still very powerful. And of course, gaming on this inner display is a spectacular experience. But
04:35notably, this is not the absolute latest Elite Gen 5 chip that some phones have already started
04:41shipping with. So this is lagging behind from day one. 16 gigabytes of RAM, which is the same as the
04:47top-spec version of the Z Fold 7, but cool to see it come as standard on the Trifold with 512 gigs of
04:52fast storage. The cameras are pretty much one-to-one copied directly from the Z Fold 7, which is to say,
04:58great main 200-megapixel camera, but then a fairly mid-experience when it comes to the 10-megapixel
05:04three-time zoom camera and the 12-megapixel ultrawide. You do have the extra foldable benefits
05:09of being able to let whoever you're capturing see themselves, and then being able to see yourself
05:14while shooting selfies with your main rear cameras. And you can also see your recent shots
05:18while you capture new ones. But as far as I can find, there is no distinct camera benefit from this
05:23being a trifold versus the normal bifolds. Tell you what does put a smile on my face. The battery
05:28has had some love. Compared to the 4,400 milliamp hour capacity on the Z Fold 7, this trifold gets 5,600,
05:35which, because the thing's so thin, has had to be achieved with three separate batteries, one per
05:40slice. And it charges faster than other foldables, with 45 watt wire charging, which is the same as
05:45Samsung's top-end S25 Ultra, and then 15 watt wireless charging, while retaining the same IP48 water and
05:52dust resistance as the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Which is good as far as foldables go, but just less than
05:56what you would get on a bar phone. So really, what this all comes down to, the only reason that I
06:01think this is still overall a really compelling phone, is the 10-inch 16 by 11 aspect ratio display
06:07that you get on the inside, and what Samsung have enabled you to do with it. And I'd split this into
06:12three categories. First is the pretty obvious quantity of information. The moment that you start
06:17opening full-screen apps on this, it is very immediately clear that this is not just a
06:22stretched version of the typical foldable experience. The apps actually just work better.
06:27Like with the Files app, you can now go into a folder, and then into a subfolder, while still
06:31keeping every part of the file directory on screen at once. The gallery's got a tweaked interface with
06:36this really slick navigation bar, but still while giving you tons of extra room to see your photos.
06:42Actually, a pretty cool comparison is Samsung Health. Have a look at just how much more content fits on the
06:46screen of the Trifold versus the Z Fold 7, and therefore how much less scrolling you have to do.
06:52Same for YouTube. Can you see how it's not just bigger, but it's completely reformatted so that
06:56you can see and scroll through suggested videos and flick through a lot more comments in one go,
07:01without needing to interrupt or shrink the video that you're also trying to watch. And then if you
07:05did want to just solely focus on the content, then that content gets even bigger than the increased
07:11size of the phone would suggest. Because the Trifold opens out to be more rectangular than square,
07:15then as long as it is widescreen content, which let's be honest, it almost definitely will be,
07:20you're getting like a 50% bigger overall picture with still noticeable, but much smaller black bars
07:26on the top and bottom. And it's a nice extra to also be able to have two different orientations.
07:30You know the normal fold, it doesn't really matter which way you hold it, it's a square. Whereas the
07:34Trifold, like a typical tablet, lets you rotate into portrait orientation, which is just how I like my
07:40doom scrolling sessions. So my point is that instead of a bifold phone, where you feel like you're almost
07:45straddling two different types of form factor, and your apps often feel like a clumsy halfway
07:50house between them. What I love about this Trifold is that you can move between two very clear,
07:55distinct classes of app. The pure smartphone layout of an app when it's folded, and then the pure
08:00uncompromised tablet layout of an app when you're unfolded. And remember, Samsung has had plenty of
08:05time to optimize that side of the equation because they've been making tablets with 10-inch displays,
08:10very similar to this one for over a decade. The second notable feature then of this extra large
08:15display is that the Trifold is the first time on a phone where you cannot just use Samsung DeX,
08:20but it kind of is Samsung DeX. So Samsung phones have had DeX for ages. You flick down,
08:26you select the option for DeX, you choose a monitor to connect your phone up to. You can even wirelessly
08:31connect to a monitor these days. And that will basically cast this desktop style interface to use
08:35on that monitor, with your phone acting as the computer, and then a mouse and keyboard as your
08:40way to interface with it. But now, the phone is big enough that it can also just be the monitor.
08:45So flick down from the control panel, click DeX here, and you're just in it. It won't look
08:51immediately different, but it is a very different way to use Android. For example, when you open apps
08:55in DeX mode, now they will default to this windowed view where you can move them around by dragging the
09:01tops and resize them by dragging the corners. It also means that you can have multiple
09:05permanent desktops. So let's say I'm playing a game here, but I'm done for a minute. I can keep
09:09that game in memory while I temporarily flick over to the football match I'm catching up on,
09:14and the new app that I'm looking to download from the Play Store on my second desktop. It's still not
09:18quite like using a laptop, in that generally any of the more intense applications will pause when
09:23you're not actively using them or playing them. But for the purposes of office-type work, it's pretty
09:28close, especially when you connect up to a mouse and a keyboard, and you use the fancy kickstand case to
09:33prop the whole thing up. The fact that this setup folds up to fit inside your pocket
09:38is super impressive to me, and I would say well past the point of being gimmicky. Let's be very
09:42clear though, this is not the first triple folding phone. You've probably seen Huawei already take a
09:47stab at this form factor last year, and I do actually think that phone did some things better.
09:51Like instead of the Samsung, which folds out like a U, the Huawei folded out like a Z, which meant that
09:56you could use one part of the screen, you could use two parts of the screen, or you could use all three.
10:01Whereas the Samsung is a little bit more rigid. It only lets you go between the one cover screen,
10:05and then the completely unfolded inner screen. And also, Huawei managed to achieve all three of
10:09these form factors with just one folding display. Whereas Samsung's cover screen is a completely
10:15separate additional component to its folding display, which will be what's making this tri-fold
10:20the heavier of the two phones. I brought this up with Samsung. I said, why did you make yours like
10:24this even though it's less space efficient? And they said it so that when the phone is folded up,
10:28no part of the soft inner display is being exposed to the elements, which I suppose seeing just how
10:33soft that inner display is feels somewhat justified. But then DeX has one final trick up its sleeve.
10:39So just like with other phones, you can also still use it to connect up to a monitor. It's just that
10:44when you do it on this tri-fold, the tri-fold itself can become an extension to that monitor. So even if you
10:51just have your phone and your laptop, you can have a dual monitor display on the go, which you have been
10:55able to do before on Samsung tablets. I just think it's sick that you can now do it with a phone
11:00that will almost definitely be with you. That said, I probably won't be doing a whole lot of DeXing,
11:05just because the way this phone handles multitasking, even without it, is really intuitive. So let's say
11:12we load up the Netflix app on this side, and then a browser on this side for some casual shopping while
11:17we watch. Let's search for friends, because I'm in the middle of my fourth watch through right now, and
11:21oh, it's not there. So now we drag Surfshark VPN, our sponsor to the far right, and that becomes the
11:28third app running in parallel, which makes us feel very much just like three normal bar phones glued
11:33to each other. So now we can use that to change what country Netflix thinks we're in from South
11:38Korea to the UK. And if we now go back to Netflix, then like magic, friends just reappears and we can
11:44resume the binge. What's also cool is there's a little button here to quickly swap the position of the
11:48apps. So you're not bound by the order that you opened them in. And even though there is tons going
11:53on at once, every animation that I tested was buttery smooth. From here then, you can also
11:58change the layout, flicking between the more uniform three apps in portrait view, and then what I'm
12:03going to call the one big, two small view. I guess you'd use this when you're focused mostly on one app,
12:08but you just want to keep an eye on a couple of other things like the score of a football game or
12:13the WhatsApp chat you're expecting a quick update from. But my favorite part of this is how you can then
12:17save any of these three apps as a trio, meaning you can launch them as a trio by tapping this one
12:23icon and how that icon shows you not just which apps they are, but also in what layout they're
12:29going to open it. So if your trio is set to open the apps each in the portrait view, then you will
12:34see each of the logos small and side by side like that in the icon. And likewise, if you've set save
12:39Surfshark to always open as the main window, then can you see how its logo is displaying bigger than the
12:43other two? And if you go to surfshark.com slash boss, you can get Surfshark for less than two
12:47dollars a month with four extra months for free. The only downside that I could find with this
12:52supersized display is brightness. The Trifold dinner display has a peak of 1600 nits, which compares to
12:582600 on the Z Fold 7, which will matter occasionally, but the day-to-day difference won't be nearly as
13:03much as that number makes it sound. So honestly, I don't think the Trifold is this experimental,
13:10quirky phone option. I actually think that this phone has immediately become the definitive
13:15Samsung foldable. You will have to handle it with care, and you'll definitely have to pay for the
13:19privilege. I don't have the final dollar price yet, but the Korean price converts to around $2,400,
13:25which, when you consider that that is 50% more expensive than the Korean price of the Z Fold 7,
13:30I would guess we're looking at closer to $3,000 when it launches soon in the US.
13:35It's fine, just think of it like a grander slice. But because Samsung has spent so long
13:39making normal foldables, and so long making tablets, this fusion of the two products doesn't
13:44feel like the first-gen experiment that you might expect it to. It is already polished,
13:49and it is already taking full advantage of the extra space.
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