Tecno teases new wafer-thin three-panel foldable phone

Phantom Ultimate G Fold concept
(Image credit: Tecno)

Tecno has teased a new foldable phone with three panels - a tri-fold design to potentially rival Huawei's Mate XT Ultimate Design.

TECNO PHANTOM Ultimate G Fold Concept: the World's Thinnest Tri-Fold with Dual Inward-Folding - YouTube TECNO PHANTOM Ultimate G Fold Concept: the World's Thinnest Tri-Fold with Dual Inward-Folding - YouTube
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The Phantom Ultimate G Fold Concept looks like a development of last year's Phantom Ultimate 2 concept, though were that phone folded in a Z pattern, the Phantom Ultimate G Fold is what Tecno calls 'dual inward folding' - it wraps shut like a book, with the left panel folding in to enclose the right panel.

Phantom Ultimate G Fold concept

(Image credit: Tecno)

This design is similar to that of Samsung's upcoming Galaxy G Fold tri-fold phone, and like any triple-panel foldable, each section has to be super-thin in order for the phone's folded profile to not be inconveniently chunky. Tecno says the Phantom Ultimate G Fold measures 3.49mm thick when unfolded (excluding the camera bump), which would make it fractionally slimmer than the 3.6mm Huawei Mate XT Ultimate, and noticeably thinner than the 4.2mm Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 two-panel foldable.

Phantom Ultimate G Fold concept

(Image credit: Tecno)

And Tecno's design needs to be thin when unfolded, as packed away the three sections still add up to an 11.49mm folded thickness: thinner than the 12.88mm Huawei, yet considerably thicker than the 8-9mm of most two-panel phones. But if you've got spacious enough pockets to store it, you'll be rewarded by a huge 9.49-inch display when the phone is fully unfolded.

Phantom Ultimate G Fold concept

(Image credit: Tecno)

Tecno's teaser video is short on detail, but we can see the phone has a three rear-facing cameras, so presumably a wide, ultra-wide and telephoto line-up. Tecno has also said the phone will pack a battery larger than 5000mAh in capacity, and will run a "high-performance chipset".

Phantom Ultimate G Fold concept

(Image credit: Tecno)

We'll report additional specs if/when they're revealed. Hopefully unlike the 2024 Phantom Ultimate 2 concept, this Tecno tri-fold will eventually make it into production. It's been reported that we might see an official launch at Mobile World Congress 2026.

Ben Andrews

Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys. 

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