Samsung still hasn't brought its first folding smartphone – the Galaxy Fold – to market, but the Seoul-based company already has some ambitious plans for its next-generation flexible handsets. Illustrations filed alongside a new patent from the company reveal just how ambitious those plans really are.
Dutch technology blog LetsGoDigital has created high-resolution renders of the handset described in the patent. Dubbed Z-Fold, the smartphone folds in two places – so that from above it appears like the letter "Z", hence the name.
Samsung filed the patent with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, known as KIPO, at the end of last year. Although the official documentation was approved at the end of May, it took until earlier this month before the certification body published the patent – and its illustrations online. So, Samsung has clearly working on this design alongside the single-fold seen on the Galaxy Fold.
Like the latter, this pliable design will allow smartphone owners to choose how much screen real estate to use at any given time. So, you can unfurl one side of the display if you want to have two emails running side-by-side on the display while working. Or, you can unfurl everything to watch a movie or play a blockbuster video game.
If you want the phone to occupy the smallest possible physical footprint, it's possible to fold both sides of the screen backwards, so they're tucked behind the middle portion of the Infinity Flex AMOLED display.
Interestingly, while this is just a patent, rival smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi already has a working prototype with exactly the same dual-fold design.
Of course, multi-national technology companies like Samsung will often patent designs and technologies that never appear in consumer products. So, it's worth taking all this with a pinch of salt. Then again, Samsung is widely rumoured to be working on a slew of new folding designs for its portfolio – it's perfectly possible this will be one of a number of variants hitting store shelves in the coming months.
-
Samsung's foldables get Android 15 (One UI 7) at last, but there's a catchYou might have to wait a bit longer for the full release
-
Samsung imagines the future of handheld gaming, and it's a big step up from Nintendo Switch 2The future of handheld gaming could be foldable
-
Samsung's tri-fold phone revealed in patent findSamsung's next folding phone could take things in a new direction
-
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge hands-on video leaks... brieflyA Spanish hands-on video allegedly showed Samsung's superthin phone before it was pulled
-
You can now use a Samsung Galaxy SmartTag with any Android phone, but there's a catchThere's a clever way to get your Galaxy Tag working on other Android phones
-
Your affordable Samsung TV could be getting a massive feature update anytime nowSamsung's premium TVs aren't the only ones getting extra smarts
-
One major Samsung Galaxy S25 upgrade could make all phones better going forwardIt's just not clear when rival handsets might get it
-
Samsung sneakily confirms its tri-fold phone for release this year – blink and you missed itA passing reference to a multi-fold device compounds rumours of a new device
