The Infinix Zero concept is the flip-phone of tri-folds

The smartphone market would have you believe that tri-fold devices, whether released or in concept, are supposed to be massive. Some new entrants would have you believe the exact opposite. Infinix’s new Zero Series Mini Tri-fold concept unfolds to be the size of a regular phone.

The beauty of a clamshell foldable like the Galaxy Z Flip series or Motorola Razr+ is how compact it becomes when folded up. At it’s smallest, it’s tiny. When opened up, it becomes a normal phone, more or less.

The Infinix Zero Series Mini Tri-fold (yes, that’s the name) takes that design and adds another hinge, copying what the likes of Huawei and Samsung are doing with tri-folds. In this concept, the phone fully unfolds to the size of a normal phone, and the most compact it gets is the size of a credit card. The device only has one folding screen, and it can be used in three separate phases.

There is no mention of measurements, but it looks like the largest phase is similar to a normal phone. The second looks like something from a mini-smartphone manufacturer, and the third phase is ridiculously tiny.

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Infinix notes that the tri-fold can be used in various ways, like mounting it as a chest cam or attaching it to the handlebars of a bike, though that might be risky for a foldable. One cool use case is in real-time translation, where the top folds outward so the other speaker can see what you’re saying in their language.

As a concept, this is a neat use of folding screens. As a real device, there are some concerns. First off, why? I’m a fan of flip-style foldable, but it seems there are diminishing returns once you get down to a certain size and up to three hinges. At the largest, it also doesn’t;t seem like the user is getting a lot out of having more real estate. One would think more hinges would mean the ability to expand outward with more screen space.

Inifinix leaves its blog post open-ended, with no commitment to developing the device for the public and no timeline for an end product. However, it does give a good glimpse into what tiny tri-folds could look like.