OPPO built tri-fold foldable prototypes but skipped launch amid costs and risk. How Samsung and Huawei shape the niche and what OPPO may do next in foldables.
© Samsung
The foldable-phone market is gearing up for a new phase, but not every major manufacturer is rushing into the tri-fold race. While Samsung is preparing a broader rollout of the Galaxy Z TriFold and Huawei has already marked the trend with the Mate XT, it has emerged that OPPO also experimented with three-panel devices—only to decide against releasing them.
OPPO product manager Zhou Yibao shared on Weibo that the company had developed several tri-fold prototypes, which he still keeps in his desk drawer. After internal discussions, OPPO chose to halt further work on these devices and not push them to a commercial launch.
The company hasn’t officially explained the reasoning, yet the broader market context is hard to ignore. This remains a highly niche and costly category, with development and manufacturing demanding substantial investment. Rumors suggest even Samsung is taking a loss on the Galaxy Z TriFold, priced around $2,400—making ventures like this financially risky for most brands. Against that backdrop, OPPO’s pause looks pragmatic.
Even so, the very existence of prototypes shows OPPO’s interest in the form factor hasn’t faded. If technology becomes cheaper and demand more predictable, the company could revisit the tri-fold idea. For now, OPPO is content to wait and watch whether three-panel foldables can break out of the niche and prove economically sound.