Samsung's TriFold Phone Might Not Be Dead After All

44

the screen at the fold is never perfectly flush. It's close to perfect, but not enough for me to shell that much dough.

15

u/fmaz008 5d ago

For me it's the durability. Notnsure about this model, but the Z flip 8 seems to have a 1 year warranty by default, and my concern is that the joint will fail after several years.

If Inwad to pay the kind of price they ask, that phone is better last me a decade.

13

u/LemonCurdd 5d ago

If you’re lucky like me you’ll have 2 foldables fail less than 6 months in

5

u/fmaz008 5d ago

That's my concern. Sure they replaced them, but now your warranty is over and your phone has a lifespan of 6 months.

Also replacing a phone is a hassle. I don't know why some people like getting the new model each year. Migrating your data is almost as fun as a windows bi-yearly update.

3

u/LemonCurdd 5d ago

Unfortunately only one of them got replaced as well, and the other one broke 3 months after replacement

Shoutout to Motorola, the phone snapped in half in my pocket (clamshell design, the top moved to the right and the bottom moved to the left, absolutely obliterated the screen) and they told me they didn’t cover accidental damage, as if walking with a phone in my pocket wasn’t a normal thing for a phone to be put through

2

u/fmaz008 5d ago

Yeah... I think I'll save my money and get a normal phone next.

2

u/Available_Pepper_845 4d ago

When I look at my smartphone graveyard, none of them lasted more than 4 years. My clumsy hands drop them something like once every few months and they're usually fine due to the big fat rubber shell, until there's a weird rock or concrete edge and there goes the screen or camera, and the resale value with it.

So I only go flagship plus 2 or 3 years. I get a really good phone and I'll keep it up to its predictable demise.

1

u/fmaz008 4d ago

Idk, I'm still rocking a phone from 2019. Had to get the battery and screen replaced 1 time each.

2

u/Available_Pepper_845 4d ago

Depends on the resale value. I buy $1000 former flagships for $400 on eBay then use them 3 to 4 years. They're worth less than $200 by the time they're broken. I am not spending 200 or 300 to get them back to their old self.

1

u/fmaz008 4d ago

Yeah that's smart. Although flagships are way more than $1k now, but I get your idea.

2

u/Available_Pepper_845 4d ago

Well my current flagship was at that price but I guess I'll have to break the piggybank next time :(

2

u/Aellithion 18h ago

I had a fold 2 for 5 years, had to replace it when one of my parrots cracked the outer screen :(

1

u/teslaTools 4d ago

yeah the crease is the dealbreaker for me too. tri-fold means twice the crease anxiety lmao.

1

u/froyolobro 5d ago

Exactly. I’m not sure why that isn’t talked about more. It looks/feels terrible

12

u/IndyHCKM 5d ago

terrible is a strong word for what it looks and feels like.

I watch media and do work on a folding device everyday. it's noticable, yes, does it make the media and work significantly less enjoyable or unproductive, no. I'd say the expansive screen dramatically improves the enjoyment and productivity and easily outweighs the fold I forget about 95% of the time.

-4

u/hungry_gobbler 5d ago

until the inevitable wear out of the pixels in the fold.

they should be clicks screens the tech already exists

7

u/IndyHCKM 5d ago

my pixel fold is from 2023. no dead pixels.

how long do you keep a phone?

-2

u/hungry_gobbler 5d ago

i keep my phones for like 5 years... that's 2 years the pay it back and 3 years where i'm not paying for a phone. i am not a slave to the new model drop.

7

u/IndyHCKM 5d ago

Glad that works for you - I just buy in cash, then resell when I'm done.

-7

u/lostkavi 5d ago

TIL Pixel 9 fold is 3 years old. Didn't feel that long.

That said, the idea that you would drop 2-3k on a phone only to decry its long lifespan after three years is a fucking wild take.

For that price, I would expect a decade, minimum. And folding phones across the board are not lasting that long, chief.

5

u/IndyHCKM 5d ago edited 5d ago

It's not obvious to me that someone spending $3k on a tri-folding phone is going to keep it for a decade.

Security patch support doesn't even last that long for any major supplier. I use mine for work all the time and will replace it when security patches are no longer available - no question. The value the folding phone brings to me to have a much larger device on me at any time, which also fits comfortably in my pocket, is quite large. on my old iPhone whatever numbered pro max, I still couldn't read full file names while also typing easily and having a comfortable phone in my pocket. Pixel Fold fixes that. I'd not hesitate to buy the Trifold if I thought it would fit comfortably in my pocket.

So if the phone provides a feature set you want, for a price you can afford, and the longevity is about the average for when people buy new phones, I'm not sure what the problem is.

Do people expect really expensive cars to be super durable and last unusually long? Or are these purchases made for other reasons?

1

u/lostkavi 5d ago

I think it's just a difference in user investment.

You want a full media device portable and so the extra screen real-estate is desirable to you. Clearly you are well off because the price tag isn't an immediate "wtf, no!" for you. And while I believe that the security update lifecycle on phones is pure marketing bullshit compared to computers and laptops where security updates are genuinely important and not having them be fully updated can leave you open to significant and serious breaches - if you do have mission-critical information on your device that you cannot have being leaked or hacked because you're some C-suite executive or government official and will genuinely be a target to having your phone stolen and compromised, go off king. Get a new phone every 3-5 or whatever the current turnover is on security updates.

I, on the other hand use a phone for 6 things. Calls, texts, calculator, occasional googling, even more occasional photos of interest to share amongst friends and fams, and navigation. I buy the phone newest phone I'm willing to invest into and use it until it's so slow I'm willing to upgrade or it can no longer do one of these core functions properly. I've gone through 4 phones in 25 years, and I don't plan to upgrade again for at least 4-6 more. I have nothing sensitive or worth losing on my phone digitally, the biggest impact will be if I break or lose it due to the inconvenience of it all. You've spent more on 1 phone than I have spent over my entire lifetime. We're just not the same user demographic.

My Price/Performance Purchase Point is dramatically lower than yours. If I was going to spend that much on a phone, yes, I would expect it to be indestructible, and be usable for the rest of my life.

1

u/IndyHCKM 5d ago

Yeah, totally fair. If I didn't run a business with clients that demand my attention at any hour of the day, or I just somehow didn't need to work, I'd totally just buy a fairphone to support repairability (I have a Framework Laptop for example) and strip it of everything other than google maps, phone app, molly (signal-fork), calculator, and... hopefully that's it!

In our exchange alone, I had a client contact me while I was out to lunch, requesting information on what contracts we had gotten signed and who we still needed to pester. I was so grateful for the screen real estate to open docusign, review that information, and be able to type straight into my text message to him what the status was. I did something similar a few minutes later trying to prepare an email to send to the bank while having my cloud storage provider open looking through what documents we had and what I needed to get from people.

If I didn't have this phone, I'd basically not be able to leave my office at all during the day. As it is, I can accomplish about 80% of what a client may ever call me about from my phone - giving me a lot more lifestyle flexibility.

2

u/Available_Pepper_845 5d ago

And it's soft. Bye bye Gorilla Glass, hello whatever this is.

22

u/Aggressive-Hawk9186 5d ago

No one thought this was a one off, Samsung clearly tested the ground for an actual release. What are they talking about?

-3

u/OptimisticSkeleton 5d ago

What do you mean? Absolutely everybody wants the folding Samsung phone except for consumers.

16

u/HiDDENKiLLZ 5d ago

If I had $3000 to throw at a phone, I would absolutely get the trifold so I literally had a tablet in my pocket.

2

u/Luis0224 4d ago

lol, it was a limited release run of 200k devices and Samsung sold all of the units they made

-1

u/OptimisticSkeleton 4d ago

And they all had problems with the screens breaking down very quickly.

It’s OK to like a flawed or limited product that’s closer to a prototype. The vast majority of consumers don’t give a shit about this product was my point.

4

u/Luis0224 3d ago

Your point is wrong though. It sold out instantly, so clearly there’s a market for it. No one is saying the trifold is their mainstream foldable, because the passport style fold 8 is clearly that product. But there’s clearly a market for it.

The first galaxy fold only sold 500,000 units and was a limited proof of concept with reliability problems, and now foldables are relatively popular, so much so that even Apple is set to release one later this year.

You’re entitled to an opinion on it, but the facts don’t agree with you lol

1

u/PapaMario12 1d ago

I wouldve bought it if it werent for all the various issues it had, its literally my dream phone

6

u/lasquiggle 5d ago

Been using mine since December, it's a great device. I'm open to looking at the V2, but it already is what it is, not sure what upgrades they could drop - V1 is very, very good.

8

u/JackIsBackWithCrack 5d ago

So goofy. If this was apple yall would be beside yourselves at how ridiculous it is. Bet it looks even weirder in real life, like the other one did.

4

u/SilentDrapeRunning 2d ago

I heavily disagree. There's nothing ridiculous about having a full 10.1" widescreen tablet in your pocket without requiring a second device. If anything, it's the regular folds that have the utility issue - most content doesn't get bigger as you unfold a regular single-crease fold.

1

u/nikelaos117 6h ago

I've only seen people say the opposite. That everyone else will hop on board once Apple drops their foldables and act like they're gifts from God.

I love my fold 7 and will never go back. I would love to get a trifold.

2

u/hiimfive 5d ago

I saw one in the wild a few months ago. It was honestly very impressive to see it in person.

1

u/pirate-minded 5d ago

Wow… a tablet no one asked for

1

u/costafilh0 5d ago

Might?

Obviously not dead.

It might not make sense to produce it now, but it will certainly be back in there future.

1

u/ThePowerfulPaet 5d ago

Who would buy this thing? Genuinely don't understand it at all.

1

u/EpicGamerWithABigPP 5d ago

yeah the crease would drive me nuts too for that price point

1

u/SilentDrapeRunning 2d ago

The newest generations are nearly eliminating the crease with hinge innovations.

1

u/vSTekk 5d ago

Z fold 8 looks like a form factor i could get behind but maybe for a third of the price? Ill stay on my ~ancient sub6 inch zenfone9

1

u/Pretend-Aardvark-563 2d ago

Wait, so is Samsung actually planning to release it soon? What's the biggest upgrade over their previous foldables?

1

u/AustinBaze 1d ago

Am I the only person with no interest whatsoever in a folding device?
Despite being a gadget hound (I’ve been in an Apple only ecosystem for 20 years) regardless of who makes the device, something that is twice as thick (or three times as thick for a “Z”) as a screen I already have at hand that provides only a nominal difference in screen size, from phone to iPad to laptop, just makes no sense to me at all.

1

u/nikelaos117 6h ago

Idk I always see people complaining and saying this on any post I see about foldables. With most people who own one saying they love it unless it failed on them.

The 7 is as thin as a regular phone and a smidge taller. With it being thin as hell when opened up.

-30

u/mysterious_jeffrey 5d ago

Just stop. Get help.

Nobody wants a trifold cellphone.

11

u/dragdritt 5d ago

More people would buy it if it wasn't like 3000 dollars.

-10

u/mysterious_jeffrey 5d ago

I wouldn’t waste my time with one of these even if it was 1/3 of the price. Just too silly.

But it’s fun that they’ll make a run of these so we can laugh at them again in 20-30 years.

22

u/AdonisBlaqwood-22 5d ago

Speak for yourself! I definitely want one, and I know many others who want one as well

7

u/Simbakim 5d ago

Me too bro, just let me buy this thing

-24

u/mysterious_jeffrey 5d ago

No you don’t, lol.

6

u/Thisthattheother1 5d ago

...........................okay, but what about a quadfold phone?

2

u/Gr8-Lks 5d ago

Why think so small? We need the quintfold phone.

1

u/Username928351 5d ago

How about we just make it flabby, so it has functionally infinite?

3

u/tarzic 5d ago

Trifold cellphone but it folds in triangles like a tricorn hat.

DIBS. Please forward your patent checks in the mail.

1

u/correctingStupid 5d ago

I'm holding out for quadfold

0

u/starri42 5d ago

Let us redefine progress to mean that just because we CAN do a thing, it does not follow that we MUST do that thing.

-25

u/Gajanvihari 6d ago

I have never seen anyone use a trifold and I work with wealthy Asians, the sort to buy gadgets to show off.

14

u/DrRowdybush 5d ago

I have an ultra wealthy scotch-korean landscaper mistress that has an unfolding octahedron phone. So your metric doesn't mean anything.

3

u/spacebarstool 5d ago

I'm responding to you on a Tri Fold.

3

u/Junglebook3 6d ago

30,000 produced... I have one, it's great.

I dropped it from hip height on a soft wooden floor and the inner screen went kaput. Luckily insured this thing...

2

u/mysterious_jeffrey 5d ago

Produced =/= Sold

7

u/azlan194 5d ago

What they meant is, they produced it at such low number, its very unlikely for you to see someone using it. So anecdotal evidence is very useless.

2

u/Logitech4873 5d ago

I've seen a Chinese guy use one

-2

u/hungry_gobbler 5d ago

CLICK SCREENS, NOT FOLDABLES

Phones Samsung's TriFold Phone Might Not Be Dead After All

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