Samsung Electronics Co. announced that its Galaxy Z TriFold, the first foldable phone of its kind to ship in the US, will sell for $2,899 and become available Jan. 30.
The price is substantially higher than any other smartphone on the US market. Samsung’s own Galaxy Z Fold 7, which has one fold rather than two, retails for $2,000, as does a fully loaded iPhone 17 Pro Max from Apple Inc. with 2 terabytes of storage.
Samsung will exclusively sell the TriFold through its website and Samsung Experience Stores, which means mobile carrier partners including Verizon Communications Inc., T-Mobile US Inc. and AT&T Inc. won’t be offering the device directly.
The TriFold, which unfurls into a large 10-inch tablet, measures 3.9 millimeters at its thinnest point and is rated for 200,000 folds over its lifetime. The US model will come with 512 gigabytes of storage and can only be purchased in black, according to Samsung.
It initially went on sale in South Korea on Dec. 12 for a price of 3.59 million won (about $2,450 at the time).
Some early reviews have praised the device for its expansive inner screen, which makes movies and other video entertainment more immersive than on regular foldables with a squarer form factor such as the Fold 7 and Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold.
But the TriFold’s hefty weight of 309 grams (0.68 pounds) and its thick dimensions when folded shut are significant downsides. Its software features also often come off as half-baked when you factor in the ultra-premium price.
Destined to remain a niche luxury purchase, the Galaxy Z TriFold is above all else a showcase of Samsung’s industrial design prowess in the foldables segment rather than something the company expects will sell in significant volumes or drive serious revenue.
Apple, for its part, will unveil its first folding iPhone later this year. Apple has been working to eliminate the inner screen’s visible crease, a longtime annoyance of the category. Samsung Display showed off a creaseless folding display prototype at the CES conference earlier this month before abruptly removing the sample from its exhibit.
Welch writes for Bloomberg.
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