If one fold is good, two folds are better. That seems to be the thinking at Samsung’s R & D department, where engineers are reportedly working hard on a dual-hanging phone in the Galaxy Fold range. According to a business report from Nikkei, Samsung is investigating a dual hinge design with the hope of unveiling it before the end of 2021. On top of that, it’s the new version of Samsung’s existing folding designs, the large Galaxy Z fold and the clamshell Galaxy Z Flip.
Patents already granted to Samsung, which shows a larger folding phone with a three-layer folded position, would presumably be the basis of this work. According to the report, Samsung regards the foldable as the new and exploitable market for former buyers of its high-end Galaxy Note series, which has long been rumored about the cutting block because it has shared too much market space with the premium Galaxy S. investors said they are not planning a note release for this year.
Note: the image above is a fast and dirty Photoshop illustration. There are no leaked images of the double hinge design.
Nikkei cites several anonymous sources from Samsung and the larger South Korean mobile industry. The goal is to create a larger tablet-sized device when fully expanded, with an aspect ratio of about 16: 9, ideal for most video content and requiring less specialized work from app developers. The Galaxy Z Fold series uses more square folding screens, which greatly expands the real estate, but is less ideal for some videos and games.
As all the information presented in the report is anonymous and even if it is very important thanks to the success of internal development programs, it is possible that none of this will happen. But Samsung will not be the first company to create a triple screen, but only the first one to bring it to the mass market. Such a device would almost certainly be the flagship model of the company, a status symbol with the price that matches it.
