- A new Samsung patent has detailed a foldable battery
- We might see it in the rumored Samsung tri-fold in 2025
- It could be adapted for multiple foldable form factors
Putting together a foldable phone is a real engineering challenge – with the complexity ramping up once you add another hinge, as the Huawei Mate XT has done. A newly-found patent suggests the rumored Samsung tri-fold may get even more complicated, with a folding battery to go with its folding display.
This patent was spotted by serial tipster @leaks7 and VeePN, and right up front we should say that patent ideas don’t always necessarily turn into real products – so bear that in mind while we’re discussing this new tech.
What patents do show us is what manufacturing engineering teams are thinking about and exploring. It seems Samsung’s team is busy looking at the feasibility of a battery with multiple hinges, enabling it to fold in the same places as the screen.
This patent actually shows a phone with a display (and battery) that has three hinges – a quad-fold, if you like. However, it seems likely that the same engineering might find its way into the tri-fold phone from Samsung that’s been leaked recently.
Expanding battery space
Samsung’s First Tri-Fold Smartphone Might Have a Single-Cell 𝗙𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗕𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆 🤯More details: https://t.co/we18CR32ID (Patent based) Enjoy! And follow for more content! pic.twitter.com/dXQvIUkCRFNovember 28, 2024
The patent documentation doesn’t really tell us too much more about this innovation, beyond some technical information about maximizing the battery capacity and output while still allowing it to fold to certain angles.
As well as the quad-fold diagram, the patent drawings also include an image of a regular book-style foldable phone – so watch out for folding batteries making their way to phones such as the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 in the future.
A folding battery like the one proposed here would mean more space is available for the phone battery in a folding phone, and that would hopefully translate into better battery life. However, it may add issues with weight and bulk.
We’ll have to wait and see whether Samsung can turn this idea into a reality, but in the meantime – folding battery or not – it seems the Galaxy tri-fold could make its debut sometime next year, with an infolding screen that distinguishes it from Huawei’s phone. Don’t expect it to come cheap, though.