Samsung has had a pretty big year when it comes to smartphones. The Korean tech giant continues to dominate the Android market in Western countries by releasing new phones for every kind of buyer, from the budget A series all the way up to the super-premium Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Indeed, Samsung’s 2025 slab phone releases were consistently very good – the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus both earned four stars in our reviews, while the Galaxy S25 Ultra netted an extra half-star for its supremely powerful hardware.
Indeed, when I think of Samsung in 2025, none of the above phones spring to mind – instead, I think of the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Samsung went full pelt with its folding phones in 2025. Taking cues from various forward-thinking Chinese phone makers, it bumped the Galaxy Z Fold 7 up from a 7.6-inch to an 8-inch folding display, gave it a more usable 21:9 cover screen, increased the main camera sensor to 200MP, and shaved more than a millimetre off the phone’s unfolded thickness.
The ever–popular Z Flip lineup got some love too, with not one but two new models – the flagship Galaxy Z Flip 7, with a new edge-to-edge cover display, and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, the first FE-labelled Samsung foldable and therefore the first dedicated to achieving a lower price point. Samsung foldables tend to see pretty substantial upgrades year on year, but this generation leapt ahead like none other before it.
And this momentum is set to continue with the upcoming US release of the Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold, the first of the “multi-fold” devices Samsung teased all the way back at the start of 2025. I’ve been following the Galaxy Z Trifold closely for the last few weeks, and it seems like it could be a real revolution for mobile productivity, entertainment, and design.
Meanwhile, the latest Samsung Galaxy S26 rumors suggest another year of light iterative upgrades for performance, and stagnation in other areas; for example, the base-model Samsung Galaxy S25 and Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus could launch with the same camera system as last year, which would mark four years since the iconic triple-lens setup got an upgrade. Yikes.
In short, it looks like Samsung will continue to put its chips on folding phones in 2026. But why would one of the world’s biggest tech companies put so much stock into its most niche product?
The Apple effect
The first possible reason is a tried and true Samsung strategy – getting the drop on Cupertino. As I discussed in a recent op-ed, Apple is now definitely late to the party when it comes to folding phones, and by releasing the Galaxy Z Trifold alongside another pair of excellent Z Fold and Z Flip phones in 2026, Samsung could be looking to actively put pressure on its long-time rival.
Since folding phones occupy such a small fraction of smartphone sales, this is more about image than anything else. If Apple releases the long-rumored foldable iPhone in 2026, a backdrop of increasingly robust Samsung foldables and nascent tri-fold tech would, presumably, make it much harder for the American company to make an impact.
However, there’s no guarantee of this strategy working. As mentioned, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge failed to garner meaningful comparison to the iPhone Air, and Apple diehards are never going to consider a folding phone without an Apple logo on it.
Fewer distractions
My next theory is that keeping things steady with the mainline Galaxy S26 lineup and pushing ahead with folding phones could be a response to overall market conditions.
Phone makers and their customers are still feeling the impact of Trump’s tariffs, and more recently, the runaway growth of AI has spiked the price of RAM. Throw in rising living costs, and you don’t exactly get the ideal environment for expensive phone upgrades.
That might explain a lack of big upgrades in the mainline Galaxy S26 series, as Samsung might seek to keep prices stable amidst rising component costs. And though it seems counterintuitive, it might also explain a big push on foldable phones.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold is an exciting and conceptually brilliant device – but it’s also a first-generation effort in a complex new form factor. I’d be amazed if a year goes by without reports of some kind of hardware or software issues with the new phone. But early adopters know this is a risk, and will buy the phone anyway – so why not get the first generation out of the way in a year when the mainline Galaxy S lineup is less likely to distract would-be buyers?
If I’m a hardcore Samsung fan who buys the very best Samsung phone every year, I want to be sure that the Galaxy Z Trifold is indeed the very best Samsung phone of 2026. And if the Galaxy S26 Ultra isn’t going to be all that special, then Samsung’s shiny new multi-fold device – despite its inevitable first-gen problems – suddenly looks more tempting than it would in a year where the Ultra makes bigger strides.
The quest for innovation
The third possible reason I can imagine is that Samsung just genuinely believes in folding phones as either an alternative to or the future of traditional slab smartphones, and sees the Galaxy Z Trifold as a part of that vision.
Numbers don’t lie: Samsung is the market leader for folding phone shipments worldwide, but the other side of the coin is that folding phone shipments only account for a small fraction of total phone shipments.
There certainly has to be some serious belief in the form factor to push on for seven generations and debut a new tri-fold form factor, and it’s unlikely that Samsung expects to sell huge volumes of the Z Fold, Z Flip, and Z Trifold in 2026, meaning all this R&D progress could be at least partially for its own sake.
Anyhow, much of the above is based on rumors for now – we’ll have a clearer view of Samsung’s strategy when it reveals the Samsung Galaxy S26 lineup, presumably in early 2026. Until then, keep an eye on our Samsung coverage, and look out for any updates to our list of the best Samsung phones.
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jamie.richards@futurenet.com (Jamie Richards)
