What you need to know
- Samsung is reportedly developing two wide foldables for 2027.
- One model could use an aspect ratio designed for movies and YouTube, addressing a major weakness of today’s squarer Fold displays.
- The company could make as many as six foldable models, including two wide Folds, a regular Fold, Fold Ultra, Flip, and TriFold successor.
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 is barely out the door, but the company may already be preparing to take its wide-screen experiment to the next level. A new report out of South Korea says the company is developing two wide foldables for the Galaxy Z9 generation in 2027, potentially giving buyers more than one way to escape the traditional tall-and-narrow Fold design.
According to ETNews, Samsung has begun development of two wide foldable phones and has shared these plans with suppliers. One of the devices is said to have an aspect ratio specifically for widescreen video, something that could make movies and YouTube content look more natural when the phone is unfolded.
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 features a 4:3 inner screen with a more squarish shape that’s better for multitasking but not as good for most widescreen video.
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There’s also a bit of fun history behind this. Earlier this year, a reference to a “WideFoldModel” in Samsung’s own test software for One UI 9 indicated that the company was working on a horizontally oriented Fold before these latest reports came out. Therefore, this isn’t something that just happened after the Fold 8 launched. Samsung has apparently been prepping the software for a different form factor for months.
The timing of this report makes sense. For example, it was said that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 accounted for about 70% of Galaxy Z8 pre-orders in South Korea alone, with the Z8 series setting a new record of 1.44 million pre-orders, compared to 1.09 million for the previous generation.
But the question will be whether Samsung can differentiate two wide Folds in a meaningful way. The report suggests a potential six-device foldable lineup for 2027, including the regular Fold, Fold Ultra, Flip, TriFold successor, and the two wide models.
None of this is confirmed, and display sizes or aspect ratios could still change in development. More concrete details should emerge closer to Samsung’s next-gen foldable launch. But if Samsung can get the balance right, the future of the Fold could be about making it genuinely better for the stuff people actually watch.
