To me, 2025 represents the year that foldables have finally gone mainstream.
They’re still absurdly expensive, yes, but prices are starting to creep down, and more importantly, the hardware finally feels mature.
No longer are you spending almost double the cost of a regular phone to get something that’s all-round more fragile and delicate, while simultaneously being much thicker and heavier than the phones you’re used to.
But, dear reader, what could very well be the best foldable yet is still to come – and it could be here sooner rather than later.
The maturing foldable phone market
There’s no shortage of fantastic foldables available in 2025, with manufacturers across the board stepping up their game in one way or another.
In the world of clamshell-style foldables, the likes of the Motorola Razr 60 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 represent solid alternatives to regular bar phones.
The Razr 60 Ultra impresses with its huge 4-inch cover screen that allows you to do basically anything you’d do on the larger internal display, from running third-party apps to replying to messages, while the Z Flip 7’s modern design feels solid, durable and all-round more premium.
There are real improvements to battery life too, with both Samsung and Motorola’s foldables no longer struggling to last all day without scrambling for a charger.
But arguably, it’s the larger book-style foldables that have stolen the show this year – and for good reason.
Oppo came flying out of the gates with its impressive Find N5 early this year, offering the slimmest build from any foldable yet at just 4.2mm folded and 8.9mm unfolded – though with very limited availability, most of us never got to experience it for ourselves.
Months later, Samsung responded with its alternative, the significantly upgraded Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. Unlike recent iterations of Sammy’s top-end foldable, the Fold 7 represents a huge upgrade that, like the Find N5, focuses mainly on a slimline build. At a similar 4.2mm unfolded and 8.9mm folded, and weighing 215g, it certainly achieved that aim, being lighter than phones like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
More importantly, it didn’t come at the expense of the overall experience; the phone still provided all-day battery life, a solid camera experience, genuinely helpful software tweaks and some fantastic screen upgrades, with a seriously reduced crease.
Hot on its heels, Honor replied with its Magic V5, which at the time of writing, is the thinnest foldable around at 4.1mm and 8.8mm – though that’s just if you go for the Ivory White finish.
Semantics aside, Honor’s foldable really pushes the boundaries of foldable tech with a massive 5820mAh battery – the biggest in a foldable yet – along with top-end performance, fast charging and a capable trio of rear lenses.
It’s not just about being thin and light though; Google’s upcoming Pixel 10 Pro Fold might not be as light and thin as Samsung and Honor’s alternative, but it’s the first to offer full IP68 dust and water resistance, just like a regular flagship bar phone.
Considering debris like dust has traditionally been the foldable killer, getting into intricate components like the hinge and foldable screen, the Pixel’s dustproof nature represents a significant step in foldable development.
These are all significant steps forward for foldables that, just a few years ago, were massively thick and heavy and pretty delicate. But, for me, it’s the form factor that needs to be updated – and that’s why I’m so excited about Samsung’s long-awaited tri-fold.
The Samsung tri-fold could change the foldable game
Teased at Galaxy Unpacked way back in January as part of its roadmap of devices, the tri-fold is exactly what it sounds like – a foldable with three segments.
It’s not an entirely new concept; Huawei’s competing Mate XT has been around for a while now, and after getting the opportunity to play with it at MWC 2025 earlier this year, I can confirm that it perfects the foldable formula.
You get a smartphone-esque cover screen, a book-style larger internal screen, and an additional screen panel that expands and turns the phone into a tablet – a tablet with a semi-regular widescreen aspect ratio, just like other tablets.
It makes a lot of sense; you use the cover screen for quick tasks, the ‘regular’ foldable screen for slightly more intensive tasks like writing emails or browsing the web, while the new ‘tablet’ layout allows for a proper big-screen experience for gaming and watching Netflix – all in a single device.
Now, the problem with Huawei’s foldable is exactly that; it’s from Huawei. The company undoubtedly makes some of the best mobile hardware around, but with US sanctions still in place, it can’t utilise Google Play Services and, as such, Google services and apps like Google Play and Google Maps.
That makes the top-end tablet a non-starter for pretty much anybody outside of China – and explains why the tablet hasn’t seen quite as wide a release as some might’ve hoped.
This is where Samsung could excel with its tri-fold alternative; it has access to Google Play and the ability to ship the foldable worldwide, making it way more widely available than Huawei’s alternative.
It’s rumoured to feature a titanium and aluminium frame, allegedly for better durability, along with a top-end Snapdragon chipset and a whopping 16GB of RAM to boot. The consensus is that it’ll sport the same Snapdragon 8 Elite as the Galaxy S25 collection, but with Qualcomm revealing the next-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 recently, we could see the new chipset.
It’d make sense for the top-end foldable flagship to offer the very best performance, after all.
Rumours point towards a reveal in the coming weeks
The most recent rumours point towards a potential announcement on either 31 October or 1 November at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit.
That aligns well with claims from Samsung itself, with the company confirming earlier this year that it’d see the light of day by the end of 2025. That said, it was also rumoured to be revealed on 29 September and, as we now know, that didn’t happen – so probably best to take this rumour with a pinch of salt.
There are also whispers that it could be exclusive to South Korea and China, which would make sense; it’s a very expensive and experimental product, after all.
However, CNN, citing a “person familiar with the company’s plans,” claims that Samsung is “considering” launching the phone in the US – and if it launches there, there’s a good chance it could also reach other markets, such as the UK and EU.
I’ve certainly got my fingers crossed, because the launch of Samsung’s tri-fold could be the most significant launch since the reveal of the first Z Fold back in 2019.
