JOIN THE RACE

Sign in to save scores, appear on leaderboards and track personal bests.

Home›Mobile PixProofs›Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold vs Xiaomi 17 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold VS Xiaomi 17 Ultra

▸ WHICH ONE HOLDS UP BETTER

Xiaomi 17 Ultra holds up better here: it's rated QUESTION IT, while Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold is BYE THE HYPE.

Verdict🔴 BYE THE HYPE🟡 QUESTION IT
The RealityJerryRigEverything's independent bend test made the Z TriFold the first Samsung foldable ever to fail that structural test outright: bent in the direction opposite its normal fold, the frame buckled and a hinge snapped out of alignment while the screen tore and darkened, per coverage from Android Central, 9to5Google and TechRadar. The same test found the inner display scratches at just Mohs level 2 (vulnerable to fingernails and keys) and recorded the hinges audibly 'crunching and grinding' with sand ingress during a pocket-dirt test. A separate continuous fold/unfold torture test by another reviewer found one hinge creaking after roughly 61,000 cycles and the mechanism losing elasticity around 144,000 cycles -- short of, though not wildly inconsistent with, Samsung's 200,000-cycle rating for normal (not continuous-stress) use. Samsung itself discontinued the TriFold globally just three months after launch, confirmed March 17, 2026 in Korea and April 10 in the US, citing unsustainable production costs, even as restocked units reportedly sold out within minutes.DxOMark's independent lab testing gave the 17 Ultra a combined camera score of 166 (170 photo / 157 video) -- a strong result that beats the Honor Magic 8 Pro, but one that lands the phone 6th overall, behind the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra, the Vivo X300 Pro, and a tie between the Oppo Find X8 Ultra and Apple iPhone 17 Pro, according to DxOMark's own ranking as covered by Gizmochina and Phandroid. Android Central's hands-on review was more enthusiastic, calling the imaging system an upgrade that 'makes the Galaxy S26 Ultra obsolete,' and multiple outlets including PetaPixel, CineD and LeicaRumors independently confirmed the headline claim: this is the first Leica APO-certified lens on any smartphone.
SHORT ANSWER

Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold: Partly true. Samsung's 200,000-fold hinge rating roughly held up in independent torture tests, but the Z TriFold's ultra-thin 3.9mm frame failed a standard structural bend test that no earlier Samsung foldable had failed, and Samsung discontinued the phone worldwide after just three months on sale.

Xiaomi 17 Ultra: Mostly true but oversold. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra genuinely is the first smartphone with a Leica APO-certified telephoto lens, and its camera is excellent, but independent DxOMark testing ranks it 6th overall, behind rivals like the Vivo X300 Pro, not the outright best camera phone the marketing implies.

New to these terms?What is a benchmark, and why do scores mislead?Do more megapixels mean a better phone camera?What is a telephoto lens?