Samsung’s weird foldables are my favorite thing from MWC 2025

However, amongst all of the information popping out of MWC, one firm caught my consideration essentially the most: Samsung.

Samsung used this 12 months’s MWC to showcase a handful of wacky folding telephone ideas. They probably aren’t units you’ll be capable of purchase anytime quickly, however they paint an image of what Samsung thinks the foldable future might appear like. And after a collection of tame smartphone releases from the corporate, it’s exactly what I wanted to see.

The first two are the Flex S and Flex G, which you’ll see within the video above. Both are ideas for a tri-fold gadget, although every one has a barely completely different tackle the shape issue.

The Flex S has one outward and one inward folding display, much like the HUAWEI Mate XT. When it’s all folded collectively, it appears to be like like a (largely) regular telephone. But open the opposite screens up, and also you get a large tablet-like canvas. The Flex G has a special strategy to a tri-fold in that its two different show areas each fold in on one another — making it appear like you’re opening a guide when unfolding it.

This isn’t the primary time we’ve seen these two ideas from Samsung, however they really feel extra vital than ever, with frequently mounting rumors that Samsung might launch its first tri-fold foldable telephone sooner or later this 12 months. And given simply how impressed we had been with Huawei’s tri-fold, I can’t assist however get excited to have a look at the Flex S and Flex G and picture what both one might appear like as a completed product.

In addition to the 2 Flex designs, Samsung debuted a brand new foldable idea referred to as the “Asymmetric Flip.” It appears to be like rather a lot like a Galaxy Z Flip, besides that it has two hinges as a substitute of 1.

When open, the Asymmetric Flip appears to be like like a standard slab telephone. But you may then shut each halves to show the telephone right into a pocketable rectangle. What’s attention-grabbing is that this design leaves a small show part seen between the 2 folded parts, which can be utilized to indicate the time, climate, notifications, and many others.

Is this design extra sensible than what we’ve got at the moment with the Galaxy Z Flip 6? Almost actually not. But I truthfully don’t care about that. I like seeing ideas like this as a result of it exhibits that Samsung nonetheless has a drive to see how far it might probably push the foldable boundaries.

The trade shortly settled on two folding kind elements, and that’s why foldable telephones at the moment are dominated by book-style and flip-phone foldables. But there’s a lot untapped potential for what else folding telephones could possibly be, and the one means we modify that’s by beginning with ideas like this. The Asymmetric Flip might by no means flip right into a telephone I can purchase, however it could spark an concept for Samsung’s subsequent massive foldable. That’s why these items matter.

These foldable ideas are additionally thrilling as a result of they provide me hope about Samsung, particularly.

The firm’s previous couple of main smartphone releases, whereas not objectively dangerous, have grow to be more and more secure. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6, whereas each excellent telephones, barely pushed the needle ahead in comparison with their predecessors. That tepidness is much more evident with the Galaxy S25 collection, with these telephones barely passing as correct successors.

Those back-to-back launches of minor modifications and restricted new concepts have made it troublesome to get really enthusiastic about what Samsung is doing, however these ideas show that innovation isn’t useless on the firm. Even in such an early kind, units just like the Flex S, Flex G, and Asymmetric Flip don’t come out of a model that’s given up on new concepts.

I’d like to see a few of that innovation make its means right into a delivery product quickly, and possibly we’ll with the rumored tri-fold. But whether or not that launches this 12 months or subsequent, or Samsung has one other weird foldable idea up its sleeves for subsequent 12 months’s MWC, I’m all for no matter unusual and strange smartphone concepts Samsung is engaged on. Trying new issues is how Samsung obtained to the place it’s at the moment, and I’m completely happy to see that the corporate hasn’t forgotten about that.