The Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold’s best feature won’t be its hardware – here’s why I’m more excited for DeX
After months of rumors, Samsung has officially confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold, its first trifold phone, is on its way to a handful of markets, including the United States.
Naturally, much of the talk around the Galaxy Z Trifold has been about its all-new hardware: the phone comes with a 6.5-inch cover display and a 10-inch inner foldable screen supported by two hinges. Inside its svelte 3.9mm-thick chassis are the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset for Galaxy and 16GB of RAM – in short, it should be an absolute powerhouse.
But while I was concerned about the new hardware in the days following the announcement — particularly the phone’s new hinge mechanism — over time I find myself thinking more about the software possibilities offered by Samsung’s new foldable.
It’s true that I have issues with Samsung’s Android One UI wrapper, but the Korean tech giant offers some great features. And there’s one in particular that I think could make the Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold the leader of an absolute revolution in mobile productivity.
I’m talking about Samsung DeX, the desktop-like experience that Samsung offers for its tablets. Although Apple made headlines this year with iPadOS 26’s new desktop features, Samsung has been leading the way in this area for years with its DeX software environment, which turns its mobile devices into serious multitasking machines. To me, this is a big part of why Samsung Galaxy Tab devices rank among the best Android tablets.
Samsung also allows tablets and some smartphones to use DeX when connected to an external monitor, meaning you can effectively carry a desktop computer in your pocket (provided you have the right adapters). But that still requires choosing between the portability of a smartphone and the large screen of a tablet.
Enter the Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold – Samsung has confirmed that its upcoming 10-inch foldable phone will be the first Samsung phone to support DeX in standalone mode native to Galaxy tablets. Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold users will be able to access DeX with up to four workspaces of five windowed apps each. That’s 20 apps open at the same time, without even needing an external monitor.
If you have a second screen to use, the Galaxy Z Trifold will allow users to use the internal 10-inch screen and an external monitor simultaneously – and as you’d expect, the phone also supports Bluetooth mice and keyboards.
Now, we’re still waiting to get our hands on the Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold, but from a distance it all seems incredibly exciting – the prospect of having desktop-style power that folds into a pocketable (albeit heavy) smartphone is something that would have seemed like an impossible fiction just a decade ago.
My mind goes straight to the possibilities of productivity. For people who spend most of their workday writing, searching the web, sending messages and emails, and moving files (this writer included), the average flagship smartphone offers more than enough power to handle a workday. The limiting factor is the small screen, not the internal power, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold apparently solves the problem.
I imagine the Galaxy Z Trifold’s 10-inch screen as a great place for a notes app or group chat while other windows are sent to the external display – and I can already imagine how satisfying it would be to unplug, fold and pocket the Galaxy Z Trifold at the end of a long day – goodbye, bulky laptop.
And while the idea of hosting meetings on a large screen is certainly quite exciting, there are plenty of other possibilities as well. For example, if apps like Adobe Photoshop beta and LumaFusion support the Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold, they could become a powerhouse for social media and mobile creativity thanks to the on-screen organization and multitasking power of DeX.
That doesn’t mean the Galaxy Z Trifold will be able to do everything. I wouldn’t expect to edit hour-long 4K videos on a mobile chipset, and a 10-inch screen isn’t exactly huge compared to even compact laptops. Additionally, Apple still has the upper hand when it comes to software support provided by third-party developers.
But I’ve spent a lot of time using Samsung tablets – I reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus FE and tried the Galaxy Tab S11 earlier this year – and DeX has always been surprisingly good at multitasking and getting things done on the go. The prospect of having all that power in my pocket is incredibly exciting, and even with the Galaxy Z Trifold sporting an all-new design, I seriously think DeX might end up being its best feature.
Still, we won’t know if the Galaxy Z Trifold lives up to its potential until we test it, and there’s no specific US release date on the horizon yet (we only know that it’ll arrive in “first quarter 2026”). That said, the phone has hit shelves in Korea and a demo unit of the new phone recently appeared in a Dubai mall (via Android Central), so hopefully a US version isn’t too far away.
