Tecno unveils the Phantom Ultimate 2 Trifold Concept Phone

There’s yet another trifold phone from a Chinese company in our midst, after we spotted one from Huawei . But this time it’s the Phantom Ultimate 2, a concept phone from Tecno that was unveiled on Tuesday. Tecno says its concept foldable phone “reinvents the big-screen experience in a pocket-sized device.” Unlike book-style foldable phones like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 or Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold, the Phantom Ultimate 2’s cover screen unfolds into a larger 10-inch “display,” which is considerably larger than the 8-inch displays on its book-style counterparts.

Despite the triple screens, however, the Ultimate 2 doesn’t compromise on portability, according to Tecno. The tri-fold concept phone is 11 millimeters thick, which is just a few millimeters thicker than current book-style phones. The Phantom Ultimate 2’s thinness is helped in part by its svelte battery, which measures just 0.25 millimeters. No details were shared on the device’s weight, though Tecno says its foldable concept is designed with hinges that have been tested to 300,000 folds, which is 200,000 folds less than leading book-style phones like the Honor Magic V3.

Tecno is no stranger to foldable phones, having launched its first clamshell phone, the Phantom V Flip 5G, and its book phone, the Phantom V Fold, globally last year, with next-gen models expected to launch in September. Tecno, along with rivals Huawei, OnePlus and Google, are keen to grab a bigger share of the foldable phone market, which is typically dominated by Samsung, which launched its sixth-generation foldable phones in August. While the subcategory currently represents a fraction of the broader foldable phone market, that slice of the pie is growing. According to research firm The International Data CorporationIDC predicts that the total number of foldable phones shipped worldwide will reach 45.7 million units by 2028, representing a compound annual growth rate of 20.3% for the period 2023-2028.

A video released by Tecno illustrates several use cases for the Phantom Ultimate 2. One frame showed an individual multitasking with three different vertically oriented windows, using each of the displays. Another part showed the different ways the Ultimate 2 could be folded, including a mode where it mimicked the experience of a laptop: using the base display flat for typing as a keyboard, while the remaining two displays were stacked on top of each other like a laptop screen. (You can scroll down to the bottom of this article to watch the video.)

Additionally, Tecno says that when folded into “tent mode” (pictured below), it enables face-to-face interactions in multiple languages, with AI handling real-time language translation. The company says the Phantom Ultimate 2 runs on software that delivers a “user experience specifically optimized for the tri-fold design.”

Tri-folding concept phones, on the other hand, aren’t new. Samsung gave us a glimpse of tri-folding display concepts at CES 2022. Before that, TCL showed off a concept in 2020. But none of them have been released or mass-produced for commercial sale. Earlier this month, however, Huawei’s rumored tri-folding phone was spotted in the hands of Richard Yu, the former CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group, leading to speculation that the Chinese company could be the first to market with the world’s first tri-folding phone.

Phone makers are racing to create the thinnest foldable phone possible, with Honor, a former Huawei subsidiary, leading the charge with the Magic V3 — literally just a hair or two ahead of Xiaomi’s Mix Fold 4. The advantages of an ultra-thin, book-style phone mean that a dual-screen phone is effectively as portable as a traditional candybar smartphone. It’s not too hard to see the advantages that slim hardware can have on phones with multi-hinges like the Ultimate 2 — whether it ever comes to market or not.

“Tecno is actively exploring the commercialization of the triple-header smartphone,” the company told CNET. “With further refinement, the concept phone is expected to be available for hands-on experience early next year.”