Samsung Galaxy TriFold has been discontinued already – will there ever be a TriFold 2?

Is innovation about to stagnate at Samsung?

Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold
(Image credit: Future / Britta O'Boyle)
Quick Summary

Samsung has cancelled the Galaxy Z TriFold and it will no longer be available to buy.

The dual hinge device is thought to be too expensive to produce with increasing component costs.

Samsung has confirmed that it is ceasing sales of the Galaxy Z TriFold, its dual-hinged folding phone that looked to shake-up the folding phone landscape.

The cancellation isn't because Samsung had a problem selling it: by all accounts, the Z TriFold sold out in minutes because the production run was limited and enthusiasm amongst early adopters was high.

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But, Samsung has confirmed to Bloomberg that there will be no restocks, with sales halting in Korea. So once the stock is gone in the US, it's gone – listed only as "sold out".

That relegates the Galaxy Z TriFold from next-gen marvel to engineering oddity, an exploration of what might happen with folding phones. In the here and now however, it just doesn't seem to be a viable solution – even at $2,899.

It's thought that there's a lot more going on at Samsung, with reports that the company is tightening its belt across all departments. With the cost of components on the rise – fuelled by the demands of AI infrastructure – it's thought that the Galaxy Z TriFold is too expensive to manufacture and probably won't see the demand that Samsung wants.

There could be a bigger problem at Samsung though, with reports that executives have been banned from flying business class as cuts are made. According to Korean news outlet Hankyung, large "austerity measures" are being put in place in the device experience division – which includes smartphones, TVs and home appliances.

It's been said that Samsung is moving into "emergency management" mode with a forecast that it will post a loss for its mobile division, due in part to the increased cost of building devices.

Elsewhere, it is facing increasing competition from rivals, especially from China. And while Samsung dominated smartphone sales over a number of years, brands like Xiaomi are increasing the pressure, while in televisions, Samsung's top spot is threatened by the scale of brands like TCL.

The cancellation of the Galaxy Z TriFold might be dismissed by many as a passing oddity, but this could be a sign that the increasing pressure on Samsung means it can't continue to be as aggressively innovative as it has been in the past.

That would be a crying shame.

Chris Hall
Freelance contributor

Chris has been writing about consumer tech for over 15 years. Formerly the Editor-in-Chief of Pocket-lint, he's covered just about every product launched, witnessed the birth of Android, the evolution of 5G, and the drive towards electric cars. You name it and Chris has written about it, driven it or reviewed it. Now working as a freelance technology expert, Chris' experience sees him covering all aspects of smartphones, smart homes and anything else connected. Chris has been published in titles as diverse as Computer Active and Autocar, and regularly appears on BBC News, BBC Radio, Sky, Monocle and Times Radio. He was once even on The Apprentice... but we don't talk about that.

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