January is always a strange transition point in the tech world. Long weeks of relative quiet, emails that aren’t sent and announcements postponed until after the holidays, and then – all at once – everything wakes up. The second week of the month marks the official return to routine, and as usual, it arrives with CES in Las Vegas. Even in 2026, despite the fact that the exhibition’s shine is no longer what it once was, it is still the place where major companies allow themselves to show where they are headed, even if not everything is ready for the market. Amid the noise, lights, and massive booths, we got a glimpse of one of the most intriguing devices Samsung has presented in recent years – the Galaxy Z TriFold.
This is Samsung’s first foldable device that folds into three parts, expanding its foldable lineup beyond the familiar Z Fold and Z Flip. After nearly a decade of working on foldable phones, the company is trying to take another step forward with a multi-fold design that opens twice and creates a huge 10-inch screen. On paper, and also at first glance, it’s very impressive. The device feels premium, improbably thin, with a thickness of just 3.9 mm when fully open, and two different hinge systems that work together to maintain stability despite the three body segments.
The display itself, a Dynamic AMOLED 2X with a 120Hz refresh rate, delivers a viewing experience that already feels like tablet territory. Watching video, working with multiple windows, and even simple scrolling feel natural, and the double fold does indeed reduce crease lines compared to classic foldables. The specs also leave no room for doubt – Snapdragon 8 Elite, 16GB of memory, storage of up to 1TB, and a camera array with a 200-megapixel sensor.
But דווקא in simple, everyday use, the limitations begin to surface. Too many times during the experience we found ourselves closing the device “the wrong way.” Because of the three parts, there is a very specific direction in which it needs to be folded, and it’s not always intuitive. Samsung tried to solve this with a system that warns of incorrect folding via vibration and on-screen alerts, but in practice it still feels like a device that requires attention and handling, not something that works automatically in your pocket.
There is also the external display, and this may be where the gap between the impressive engineering and actual use is most evident. This is a 6.5-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X cover screen, bright, sharp, and well built, one that does the job when you need to glance at a notification, reply to a message, or perform a quick action without opening the entire device. The problem is that here the tri-fold format takes its toll. When closed, the Galaxy Z TriFold reaches a thickness of 12.9 mm, a figure that is very noticeable in the pocket and in the hand, making the device feel massive and significantly thicker than regular phones and even other foldables. It’s not just a matter of comfort, but a general feeling that the device is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t really exist. When the cover screen works well but the entire closed package feels so thick, it’s hard not to wonder whether there is really a genuine reason for developing such a device, beyond Samsung’s desire to prove that it can.
Bottom line, the Galaxy Z TriFold feels good, impressive, and advanced, but in our opinion still not very practical as a foldable device for everyday use. It looks more like a technological statement and a glimpse into the future than a mature product for everyone. It is important to note that it is not sold in Israel, and Samsung has also not published an official price. At CES 2026 it managed to generate a lot of interest – now it remains to be seen if and how this concept will mature into the next generation of foldable devices.
Disclosure: The author was a guest of Dreame at the exhibition.