Englewood Cliffs, NJ — Samsung is considering releasing its upcoming “tri-fold” smartphone in the United States, a first for US smartphones and Samsung as it seeks to recharge the market for what was once a-cutting-edge product but is now a staple of everyday life.

Samsung is still weighing which markets to launch the device in when it arrives later this year, but a United States release is part of those discussions, a person familiar with the company’s plans told CNN. That’s crucial because Samsung has previously restricted new product lines to certain markets such as South Korea or China, like the Galaxy Z Fold 6 SE, which it released in those countries last year. Chinese tech giant Huawei already offers a tri-folding phone, but the company doesn’t sell its products in the United States.

The release would come as Samsung, Apple and other device makers are experimenting with new designs to wow consumers – an increasingly challenging feat as people hold onto their phones for longer than before and analysts question whether new AI devices will one day supplant the smartphone.

Apple is launching the iPhone Air on Friday, the first major redesign of its most important product in nearly a decade, and reportedly plans to introduce its first foldable phone as early as 2026, according to Bloomberg. Samsung launched the seventh generation of its foldable phones over the summer and is preparing a new version of its slimmer Galaxy S Edge smartphone for next year.

Apple and Samsung collectively account for roughly 35% of phones shipped globally, according to the International Data Corporation — and as the two leading smartphone makers, they are seen as bellwethers for the industry.

“I think what we’re seeing is a bit more of a return to life before (the smartphone),” when older cell phones had different forms and people wanted a variety of options, Drew Blackard, senior vice president of mobile product management for Samsung Electronics America, told CNN in a joint interview with Minseok Kang, Samsung’s global head of smartphone product planning.

The upcoming tri-fold device, which folds in two places to provide a larger screen than its current foldable phones, will be the most radical change to Samsung’s smartphone lineup since it launched its first foldable phone in 2019.

The company has said little about the device other than that it plans to launch it by the end of the year. Samsung declined to comment on the specifics around market availability and launch timing for the the tri-fold. But Minseok Kang, Samsung’s global head of smartphone product planning, said the 2025 launch timeline is still on track in an interview with CNN.

Apple's new iPhone Air is on display at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California, on September 9. 

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Kang sees the current Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold series, which saw a 25% increase in preorders compared to the previous generation, as steps toward a tri-fold phone that could offer a “much larger screen than before,” he said. The company’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 has an eight-inch screen when unfolded, making it slightly smaller than an iPad Mini and significantly smaller than a standard iPad or iPad Air.

The executives declined to provide specific details about the tri-fold screen size, but Blackard said: “We don’t want to offer the exact same experience in a slightly different form factor.”

Samsung has shown concepts of devices that fold into thirds instead of in half at trade shows such as the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. One concept, called the Flex G, opens like a brochure, while the Flex S prototype folds inward and outward, creating an “S” shape and providing the equivalent of three screens in one device.

Samsung has yet to release a product based on those prototypes, but its first tri-fold will be a bet that consumers are willing to splurge to fit an even larger screen in their pockets.

“I think… the exciting part is getting it out into the wild and then ultimately seeing what different users are attracted to,” Blackard said.

Samsung’s tri-folding phone could be expensive and niche like its Galaxy Z Fold, which only recently began gaining traction. But it could help the company differentiate itself from the competition and lure shoppers away from other phone brands. Blackard said that on a percentage basis, the company’s foldable phones attract twice as many non-Samsung phone owners compared to its standard flagship phones.

For next year’s Galaxy S lineup, Samsung plans to release a sequel to the Galaxy S25 Edge, which now faces new competition from the iPhone Air. Although it’s not confirmed, Kang suggested Samsung is likely to begin selling the S25 Edge’s successor in the first quarter of next year alongside the Galaxy S26 lineup instead of in the spring. A person familiar with Samsung’s plans said the company’s design philosophy around making devices slimmer will apply to future product launches, including its flagship Galaxy S series.

But whether thinner designs are enough to boost sales remains to be seen. Blackard and Kang wouldn’t comment on sales of the Galaxy S25 Edge, but Korean news outlet The Elec reported in June that the model’s sales were falling short of expectations.

The Samsung booth during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 10. 

Ian Maule/AFP/Getty Images

The focus on slimness has fueled speculation about the emergence of phones with no charging ports, a design choice that Apple reportedly considered for the iPhone Air, according to Bloomberg. Eliminating the charging port would mean solely relying on wireless chargers, but it could make phones substantially thinner.

Samsung has floated the idea of a port-free phone internally, according to Kang.

“There’s no technical limitation,” said Blackard when asked about whether Samsung has considered a phone without charging ports.

But Samsung hasn’t developed a phone without a charging port and doesn’t currently have plans to do so. While most smartphones support cable-free charging, wireless chargers aren’t widely available in public spaces for when consumers might need to power up their phones in a pinch, Blackard said.

Kang compared it to another extreme idea Samsung had a decade ago: a smartphone with a transparent screen.

“Definitely, (it) was on the table internally at Samsung,” Kang said.

But similar to the port-less phone idea, the compromises of a transparent phone would have outweighed the benefits. For example, Kang said it would have been difficult to make the entire device transparent because of the battery and charging port.

“When we consider new devices, the first topic which we are currently thinking about is what kind of benefit we can deliver,” Kang said.

For now, that benefit, in Samsung’s view, will come in the form of slim and foldable phones — even though sales of such devices only make up a sliver of the broader smartphone market, according to market research data. Foldable phone shipments are expected to reach 45.7 million units by 2028, The International Data Corporation reports, while an estimated 1.2 billion smartphones were shipped worldwide in 2024.

“For a decade, we’ve been looking at phones that looked somewhat like this bar-type smartphone,” said Blackard. “And I think for the first time, you’re seeing innovation come to the market that is making consumers think differently about what their traditional needs are from a mobile device.”