Samsung Galaxy 'S Foldable' with tri-fold smartphone display teased

This Samsung Galaxy 'S Foldable' asks why you would only have your screen fold once

Samsung Galaxy S Foldable
(Image credit: Samsung)

Samsung is at the forefront of the best foldable phones industry right now, with devices like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip leading the way in terms of smartphones that have screens that fold.

However, the South Korean smartphone maker doesn't seem to be resting on its laurels in terms of flexible display tech, as evidenced by its presentation at the World Information Display Society's Display Week 2021 event.

At this event, as detailed in an official communication distributed via the Samsung Display News Room, the South Korean firm showed off a teaser of its Samsung Galaxy 'S Foldable' smartphone device, which has a flexible screen with two hinges.

The S Foldable was shown off in a video and is described like this:

"The 'S-foldable', which Samsung Display showed as a video, is a product that can confirm the world's best OLED technology, and is a multi-foldable product that can be folded twice inside and outside. When the screen is opened to the maximum, the size is 7.2 inches, and when folded twice, it can be used like a smartphone, and when fully opened, it can be used like a tablet."

So far we've not had a folding phone hit the market that has more than one hinge in its display, so this tri-foldable AMOLED display is really something to write home about, and also shows us what could be coming down the pipe in terms of foldable phones.

Clearly this device isn't near release, if it does ever seen the light of day, and we still fully expect to see a dual-folding Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 in August this year. But it does show how Samsung clearly sees a future for foldables and is experimenting with various different technologies and designs.

Indeed, at the same Display Week 2021 event Samsung also showed off a 17-inch foldable display, a slidable OLED display and a laptop with an under panel camera in its OLED screen (see below).

Samsung Galaxy

The 17-inch foldable screen.

(Image credit: Samsung)

Samsung Galaxy

The slidable OLED display.

(Image credit: Samsung)

Samsung Galaxy

The laptop with under panel camera.

(Image credit: Samsung)

Which again goes to hammer home to us at T3 that Samsung really seems to be operating at the top of its game right now. Not only is it killing the market now with awesome products like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Book Pro, but that it is also looking to dominate future flexible display consumer markets, too.

Put simply, it looks like Samsung is at the vanguard of flexible display technologies and, aside from a few major competitors like LG, looks like it is accelerating away from the competition, both on paper and in terms of actually released products. Here's hoping we get to see real world products released sooner rather than later with the impressive folding OLED display tech shown off here.

Robert Jones

Rob has been writing about computing, gaming, mobile, home entertainment technology, toys (specifically Lego and board games), smart home and more for over 15 years. As the editor of PC Gamer, and former Deputy Editor for T3.com, you can find Rob's work in magazines, bookazines and online, as well as on podcasts and videos, too. Outside of his work Rob is passionate about motorbikes, skiing/snowboarding and team sports, with football and cricket his two favourites.