The World's First Tri-folding Might be Coming Soon

2018 was the first year the world got the chance to experience foldable phones. The Royole FlexPai was made available worldwide, and with it came a lot of questions like "Why get a foldable?" or "What's next?". Well, at least one of those questions might be answered soon, as rumours of a new tri-folding phone have begun to circulate.

Ever since the first folding phone, there have been many variations of the same concept created, from Samsung's Z fold and Z flip series to the OnePlus Open phone, but now there are talks of Huawei launching a new type of foldable, one with two hinges after a photo of Huawei CEO Richard Yu using a prototype was posted on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Based on the photo posted by a user on X, the phone appears to be a 10-inch screen, double-hinged, thick bad boy. There also seems to be a pen by the edge, suggesting the thickness is possibly not wasted, as it can be used as a placeholder for the pen.

If the rumours turn out to be true, AndroidHeadlines says to expect it sometime this year. They also reference sources that say the phone could be shipping with Harmony OS, Huawei's next operating system. This means that the tri-fold masterpiece would be able to run 'PC-level' apps, making it extremely useful for on-the-go operations.

If the phone ends up getting launched before the end of the year, one certain thing is that it will be very expensive, considering the trend of other current foldables in the market like the Galaxy Z Fold 6 (which comes with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM), which launched at twice the price of the Galaxy S series at $1,899.99.

Overall, I believe the tri-fold's launch might turn out better than its predecessors' launch concept, purely because of how useful it might be compared to the rest. It has the feel of a tablet, should be able to run some applications similar to your laptop, and should be able to squeeze back into a normal phone form factor that can just about fit in your pocket. With the rate of innovation in the phone industry, you are always left wondering: what's next?