Tecno's Phantom Ultimate G Fold tri-foldable concept folds inwards to protect the display

A year ago, Tecno showed off a prototype tri-foldable phone called the Phantom Ultimate 2 (in case you’re wondering, the original Phantom Ultimate was a rollable concept from 2023). However, the company is now experimenting with a different tri-fold layout that offers better protection for the display.

The Tecno Phantom Ultimate G Fold concept folds inwards, which keeps the vulnerable 9.94” main display completely inside the phone’s body when folded. This is similar to the horizontal bi-folds of today and features a cover display that is used when the phone is folded.

The old Phantom Ultimate 2 concept was more like the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate – it only had one display and folded in such a way that left one third of it exposed in lieu of a cover display.

The Phantom Ultimate G Fold concept changes that. It has a small hinge that forms a small teardrop shape as it folds the right third of the display. Then a larger hinge folds over that and a self-locking mechanism keeps the device closed.

The result is an impressively thin phone when folded, just 11.49mm. Unfolding it drops the thickness to just 3.49mm. For comparison, Huawei’s tri-fold phone (which is a production model, to be fair, not just a prototype) is 12.8mm folded and 3.6-4.8mm unfolded (different segments have different thicknesses).

The extra cover display does add a bit of thickness – the Phantom Ultimate 2 concept was 11mm – but that is a small price to pay for a more durable device.

The G Fold has a battery capacity of “over 5,000mAh”, which is quite impressive, given how thin the individual segments are. We’d like to see an exact number, though, as Huawei managed to go up to 5,600mAh.

The triple camera (lens and sensor details TBA) lives on the middle third of the Tecno Phantom Ultimate G Fold – that puts it on the back of the device when folded. The hinges can be held at various angles, which allows you to aim the camera as if it were on a tripod.

Tecno utilized ultra-high-strength steel (2,000MPa) and a thin-but-strong Titan Fiber plate (measuring just 0.3mm) for the back cover to make this design possible.

Tecno Phantom Ultimate G Fold

Some details are kept under wraps for now, like the size of the cover display, the weight of the phone and so on. The chipset is described as “high-performance”, but we don’t even know its brand.

Not that it matters all that much – again, the Phantom Ultimate G Fold is just a concept device. If you want to see it in person, Tecno will bring it to its booth at MWC 2026. The company is sure to bring more phones (foldable and otherwise) to the congress too - like, say, the sequels to the Phantom V Flip and V Fold.