The Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold is already sold out - here's what that tells us about the upcoming Galaxy S26 launch
And it didn't even have an opening trade-in deal, either
· TechRadarNews By Alex Whitelock published 3 February 2026
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There have been two notable developments in the world of Samsung in the past few days. Firstly, the brand unleashed the eye-wateringly pricey Galaxy Z TriFold without seemingly much fanfare. Secondly, said device quickly sold out - in a few hours, in fact.
That's pretty unusual for Samsung devices - especially because there wasn't any of the typical trade-in deals that you usually see on these devices. It seems that a lot of people were happy to lay down $2,899 right off the bat for the Galaxy Z TriFold without even having to hand over an old device to get a discount.
If you're wondering how this might affect the upcoming Galaxy S26 series, then I'm almost certain that we won't see a re-run of the TriFold's launch. As someone who's covered these Samsung launches for over five years now, I can tell you that the TriFold's launch was quite a unique, even low-key event.
The Galaxy Z TriFold was an unusual launch
The TriFold launch played out like a soft-launch, or even a beta-run
One of the telltale signs that Samsung was planning something a little different with the TriFold's launch is that the brand didn't run its usual reservation campaign for the device.
It's one of Samsung's signature moves to run an email registration campaign in the run-up to a launch to drum up hype for the new model. It usually teases a few features here or there without revealing any concrete details. Of course, everyone knows what models are going to be released - like Apple, Samsung always keeps to its usual release schedule.
The TriFold was kind of unusual in that Samsung announced the device, gave press hands-on time, and even told us the price before launch. The device wasn't even put up for preorder this time - although I believe a select few potential customers received early access via the Samsung App.
The whole TriFold launch has played out like a soft-launch, or even a beta-run, in my opinion. I can't imagine the brand sold a lot of these devices at the heady sum of $2,899, so it was probably a fairly limited run to prove the TriFold concept has legs.
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