Samsung's tri-fold Galaxy phone tipped to come with a hidden battery surprise

Samsung is expected to announce an extra phone during its annual foldable devices launch. Called the Galaxy G Fold, we’re expecting this tri-fold device to get mentioned alongside the Z Fold 7 and the Z Flip 7. But we’re also expecting it to be nice and slim – so how is Samsung going to do this?

According to a report from a leaker who is often reliable, Samsung is going to be using new battery tech in the phone. This comes from PandaFlashPro on X, who says that the G Fold will use a silicon carbon battery.

Silicon carbon batteries have a slightly different chemistry to the regular lithium-ion equivalents that have been in electronic devices for the past few decades. They have a significant advantage, allowing greater power density. That means you can have a physically smaller battery that has the same capacity as a larger cell of the older tech.

We’ve seen a couple of phones with silicon carbon batteries so far, including the OnePlus 13 and the Honor Magic 7 Pro. Those phones both boast big numbers, but for Samsung, we’re told that the G Fold will have a battery that is “under 5000mAh”. That might come as a surprise for a phone that’s effectively equipped with three times the display space of most devices.

This isn’t the first time that silicon carbon has been mentioned in relation to Samsung. Yesterday, I reported that the Z Fold 7 could be the slimmest folding phone so far, speculating that shrinking the physical size of the battery would be possible by switching to silicon carbon tech.

With these new details emerging about the Galaxy G Fold, I’m more convinced that ever that this is Samsung’s approach. Using that slimming tech will mean the company can reduce the volume needed by the battery, so it can create a thinner device, following the lead of the Galaxy S25 Edge, which is due to be announced on 13 May.

The Galaxy G Fold is expected to be something of a prototype device, with only 200,000 due to be constructed. The innovative handset is expected to have a 9.96-inch display when unfolded, which is 6.54-inches tall.

That means that the G Fold is going to be more like a folding Galaxy Tab than it is a Galaxy phone.

According to the source, it's going to have basically the same hinge design as the Z Fold 7, opening flat, while it also has the same speaker cut-outs – perhaps a niche design point of reference, but a leak is a leak.

The Galaxy G Fold is expected to be teased or announced with a limited release at Galaxy Unpacked in summer, with rumours of an early-July date for an event being held in New York.

We’re sure there will be plenty more leaks before we get to that date, so stay tuned.