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• The Samsung tri-fold could be called the Galaxy G Fold
• Samsung teased the phone last month
• We're expecting a launch to happen sometime this year

As well as unveiling the Galaxy S25 phones last month, Samsung also teased a new tri-fold foldable phone (or multi-fold foldable, if you prefer). Now a new leak may have revealed the name Samsung is going to give this upcoming handset.

According to seasoned tipster Yeux1122 (via Android Authority), the new phone is going to be called the Samsung G Fold – which would fit in with the naming series Samsung currently uses for the Galaxy Z Fold 6.

What exactly the 'G' stands for here isn't clear, but it doesn't really matter. The letter 'Z' would actually be more appropriate for a foldable device with two hinges and three panels, but that moniker is of course already taken.

All this comes after we had the launch of the Huawei Mate XT last year. The talk is that Huawei is working on more foldables with this form factor, so it looks as though the tri-fold or multi-fold phone is here to stay.

The story so far

The Huawei Mate XT tri-fold (Image credit: Huawei)

While Samsung has now teased a tri-fold phone, we don't have any more official details – so we're relying on leaks and rumors to figure out what to expect when the Samsung G Fold (if that is its name) finally sees the light of day.

Most signs are pointing to a launch sometime during 2025, quite possibly alongside the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in the middle of the year – in fact we might get as many as four foldables from Samsung in 2025.

Based on published Samsung patents, we know the tri-fold device might come with a foldable battery too, possibly extending the time between charges (and also perhaps adding some bulk to the overall form factor).

A screen size of around 9-10 inches has been predicted, and the Samsung phone could well fold inwards, unlike the Huawei Mate XT – so a second screen would be required on the back of the handset to be used when the handset was closed shut.

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• Research estimates global TV and video streaming industry accounts for 4% of total global emissions
• This is double the aviation industry, four times that of the data center industry
• Nearly 900 million 4K TVs, a big portion of which are large panels, are installed worldwide

The global TV and video streaming industry has become a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, surpassing aviation and data centers, according to a new report released by InterDigital in conjunction with market research firm Futuresource.

The report examines the industry’s carbon footprint from production to consumption, and found the streaming industry now emits twice the carbon emissions of the airline sector and four times that of the data center industry.

This impact is driven by increasing demand for entertainment, video communication services, and the widespread adoption of devices such as 4K TVs and smartphones.

Streaming events impact

TVs generated an estimated 54 million tonnes of CO2 in 2024, which the report says is comparable to the annual emissions of 11.7 million cars. There are now 2.2 billion TVs globally, including 858 million 4K TVs (up 18% since 2022), which consume 1.7 times the energy of standard HD models. Total energy consumption across video devices, including TVs, set-top boxes, and smartphones, reached 357TWh in 2024, although this represents a 7% decline from 2022. Smartphones, however, saw a 27% rise in energy consumption since 2020.

Major events have a huge impact. The 2024 Paris Olympics had an estimated media carbon footprint of 602.8 million tonnes, with 1.25 TWh of electricity consumed for streaming across TVs, mobile devices, and laptops.

Efforts to reduce emissions are advancing, with AI-based brightness adjustment technologies projected to lower TV energy consumption by 15% by 2028. Remote production methods for content creation have also shown promise, cutting emissions by up to six times compared to traditional on-site production.

The report calls for industry-wide collaboration to tackle these challenges, particularly in addressing indirect emissions from supply chains and media production. While energy-efficient devices and renewable energy adoption offer pathways to reduce emissions, further action is clearly needed.

“While everyone is aware of the contributions the airline industry makes to greenhouse gas emissions - accounting for 2% of all global greenhouse emissions per year - what isn’t common knowledge is the impact the TV and video streaming industry has. Which is in fact, double the emissions from the airline industry,” said Lionel Oisel, InterDigital’s Head of Video Labs.

“It is the responsibility of the entire industry to make changes that will improve the sustainability of the TV and video sector,” Oisel added. "While change is being made, more can and should be done. Technologies like PVR have the potential to make significant energy savings, even when applied to special events like the Olympics. If this was applied universally, the benefits could be huge, and a game changer for the industry.”

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I’ve never been a huge fan of ultra-wide cameras, even on some of the best camera phones. Too often, the cameras don’t have a high enough resolution to produce crisp photos when scrutinizing the detail, or there’s too much warping on the edges. I’ve always felt the physical limitation of the small sensors and lenses used in smartphone ultra-wide cameras hold them back from delivering the more impressive shots of main and telephoto cameras.

I’ve also never been a fan of how Samsung’s ultra-wide cameras in its Galaxy S-series, with photos that appear noisy and lacking sharpness, even occasionally looking a bit smudged when peering deeper into a shot.

However, with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, the South Korean tech giant appears to have turned a corner with its ultra-wide cameras. That’s because the S25 Ultra comes with a 50-megapixel rather than the 12MP ultra-wide camera of the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

It’s been a common idea that megapixels don’t mean a great deal when it comes to smartphone cameras, especially those on the best phones. But I’m starting to see a shift in the sands in that there’s only so much smart computational photography can do with 12MP sensors and images. In contrast, more detail sucked in by a higher megapixel sensor effectively means more data to process and, thus, more scope to get a better photo.

With the caveat that others on the TechRadar team and I are continuing to test the Galaxy S25 suite of smartphones, I quickly pitched the ultra-wide camera of the Galaxy S25 Ultra against the 12MP ultra-wide on my iPhone 16 Pro Max; my main phone.

In the photo samples below, you’ll see the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s ultra-wide camera in its default 12MP mode – an annoying default, but I understand it saves on file size – and 50MP shots, alongside 12MP iPhone 16 Pro Max snaps.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max ultra-wide photos Image 1 of 4

Galaxy S25 Ultra 50MP ultra-wide (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 4

iPhone 16 Pro Max 12MP ultra-wide (Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 4

Galaxy S25 Ultra 50MP ultra-wide (Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 4

(Image credit: Future)

At a quick glance, it’s not particularly easy to see huge differences between the shots other than different interpretations of colors; Samsung, as usual, favors punchier colors over the iPhone’s more muted take.

But look closer, and you’ll see finer details in the foreground of the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s 50MP ultra-wide shots vs the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s. Punch into a shot, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra resolves sharper details than its rival.

The same is broadly true when comparing the 12MP ultra-wide versus the 50MP shots on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. You have to go on the hunt for changes, as both shots use the same camera sensors; just the 12MP images are being produced with pixel-binning to make a 50MP snap smaller.

Still, from what I can tell, this process naturally loses some detail on a shot but also removes a degree of dynamic range; in the 12MP shots, shadows and highlights are more uniform, whereas in the 50MP photos, there’s more of a gradient from light to dark.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra 50MP vs 12MP ultra-wide photos Image 1 of 4

Galaxy S25 Ultra 50MP ultra-wide (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 4

Galaxy S25 Ultra 12MP ultra-wide (Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 4

Galaxy S25 Ultra 50MP ultra-wide (Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 4

Galaxy S25 Ultra 12MP ultra-wide (Image credit: Future)

I find this pertinent, as recent conversations about flagship phone cameras have focused on how they tend to produce somewhat flat photos by bringing up the shadows and pulling down bright parts. This can bring out more detail but results in a photo that doesn't look quite true to life and ends up lacking some contrast that can help make a photo pop.

So, my key takeaway for anyone planning to get a Galaxy S25 Ultra is to use the 50MP mode in the ultra-wide camera for the best results.

And I think this is a sign that Apple should look to follow the example set by the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Google Pixel 9 Pro, as well as the Pixel 8 Pro, and adopt a larger pixel count with the ultra-wide camera on the iPhone 17 Pro.

Head to the comment and let me know which ultra-wide photos you prefer, and do check out our full Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review; also, keep TechRadar bookmarked as we’ll have more thoughts and experiences with the Galaxy S25 phones as we keep digging into them.

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This week was wild. DeepSeek came and changed the AI landscape, but it seems like the full impact of its arrival is still yet to be fully understood. Meanwhile Garmin accidentally bricked many of its devices globally thanks to an errant update, and Android XR broke cover in our first hands-on look at the software.

Al that and more of the otehr big tech news stories you might have missed from the week are recapped below so you can catch up with everything then get on with your day.

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7. DeepSeek R1 conquered the AI world

(Image credit: Future)

It’s been a rollercoaster week for the AI industry with the DeepSeek app rocketing to the top of the Apple App Store and beating ChatGPT. DeepSeek is a Chinese startup who claim to have developed their deep reasoning model, R1, for a fraction of the price that US AI companies have invested in their technologies.

It also offers people access to it for free in its chatbot and at a much reduced price as an API compared to OpenAI. The news that a Chinese company can produce an equivalent technology for a fraction of the price caused a complete crash of the share value of US tech companies that are heavily invested in AI. Nvidia came off particularly badly with $600 billion being wiped off their stock value in just one day. Share prices have since recovered, but it doesn’t feel like the AI market will ever be the same again.

• Read more: DeepSeek live – all the latest news

6. But did it cheat to win?

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Questions are already being asked about how DeepSeek managed to produce its AI model so quickly, especially after OpenAI claimed it had evidence of distillation of some of its models. Distillation is a development technique where you piggyback off another model’s learning, but is against the OpenAI terms and conditions of use. To make matters worse for DeepSeek, it appears that when questioned about which AI model is best, DeepSeek will often refer to itself as ChatGPT, which some users think of as a bit of a smoking gun.

OpenAI released a statement on the matter, stating: “We know that groups in the PRC are actively working to use methods, including what’s known as distillation, to try to replicate advanced U.S. AI models. We are aware of and reviewing indications that DeepSeek may have inappropriately distilled our models, and will share information as we know more. We take aggressive, proactive countermeasures to protect our technology and will continue working closely with the U.S. government to protect the most capable models being built here.”

• Read more: DeepSeek just insisted it's ChatGPT, and I think that's all the proof I need

5. Garmin became the Sonos of wearables

Garmin's blue triangle of death (Image credit: Angela MacAusland)

A tough few months of software quirks boiled over into a massive Garmin outage this week that saw users in their thousands completely lose access to their devices. A rogue GPS file accidentally pushed to Garmins saw user devices plunged into a boot loop dubbed the 'Blue Triangle of Death.' Few customers found they could escape, and even those who did encountered further issues with connectivity and synchronisation.

The outage lasted well over 24 hours and we heard from hundreds of customers, owners of devices like the Forerunner and Epix range, as well as more niche devices like Garmin's dive computers, cycling computers, and Approach Golf Range.

Garmin has since fixed the underlying issue, but lots of customers remain stuck in boot loops and without a device. Plenty have even told us they regret their Garmin purchases or plan to depart for companies like Apple. Garmin has a PR disaster on its hands that has vastly overshadowed the launch of the Instinct 3. The company has lots of work to do, or it risks becoming the Sonos of wearables.

• Read more: Garmin outage FIXED: What to do if your device still isn't working

4. Nvidia’s new RTX 5090 came and went

Nvidia RTX 5090 (Image credit: Future)

Nvidia’s new graphics cards are here and… they’re already gone as stock sold out lightning fast across the internet for these highly sought after GPUs. Some will have been bought by legitimate gamers looking to upgrade their rig – and they’re in for a treat with our RTX 5090 review highlighting how it’s a seriously powerful upgrade that approaches complete overkill performance, and our RTX 5080 review telling us it boasts some solid gains too at a more modest (but still not inexpensive) price.

Unfortunately some Nvidia cards also seem to have been picked up by scalpers taking advantage of the limited availability to flip them for a profit on resale sites by listing the GPUs for several times their MSRP. Resale sites have also been flooded with listings that seem to be selling the new GPUs for prices closer to what they should cost, but when you take a closer look you’ll see they’re promising to send you a picture of the graphics card you desire rather than the real thing.

So our advice is to wait for another official drop so you don’t get tricked by a scammer or pay three or four times more for the GPU you’re after – and you can follow our coverage for updates on when and where these drops will happen.

• Read more: Where to buy Nvidia RTX 5090 GPUs in the US and UK

3. Nothing Phone 3 was teased

Nothing Phone 2 (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

Nothing shared a short video of its CEO Carl Pei this week. Normally that wouldn’t be super newsworthy, but as the camera zooms in on his glasses we see the words “Launch 4 March” reflected in the lens. A previous Nothing Phone 3 teaser suggested this would be the announcement date for its next smartphone, but now it’s all but certain.

What’s more interesting is a cut in the middle of the clip that seems to shift from a shot from a wide lens, to one from a telephoto lens – the latter of which is absent from all Nothing phones. We’re taking this as a hint that the Nothing Phone 3 could have a triple-lens camera – with a telephoto camera joining the wide and ultra-wide lens setup found on the Nothing Phone 2.

• Read more: Nothing hints that the Phone 3 could have the camera feature it needed

2. We got our first in-depth look at Android XR

Project Moohan (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Thanks to a hands-on video from Marques Brownlee on his YouTube channel, MKBHD, we got our first look at Android XR and the Project Moohan prototype this week. While many details including price, release, and some specs are still a mystery we did get to see aspects of the headset’s design and software.

It looks a lot like a combination of the Meta Quest Pro and Apple Vision Pro. There’s no over-the-head strap but instead a Meta Quest Pro-like adjustable strap round the back, and the Android XR headset borrows the Quest’s optional light blockers to change between a VR-optimized and MR-optimized design. It also uses an external battery pack like the Vision Pro to help save weight.

As for software, Brownlee’s video predominantly focused on Gemini’s integration – which looks impressive. Though many of the AI features look like they’d be much better suited to a pair of AR glasses – so while we expect Moohan will be impressive, we’re already waiting to see what XR hardware Samsung and Google will launch next.

• Read more: Android XR comes out swinging with our first look at Samsung Project Moohan

1. Our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man swung in

Spider-Man from Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (Image credit: Marvel Animation/Disney Plus)

Our favorite wall-crawling superhero is finally back! The latest adaptation of Peter Parker to enter the fray is in Marvel’s new animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

The show has a unique release schedule, though, as each week two episodes will be released instead of one – the first two of which debuted on Disney Plus this Wednesday (January 29).

TechRadar’s senior entertainment reporter Tom Power has already seen all 10 episodes and says the show’s “a spectacularly fun ride” in his Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man review.

Which is great news for Spidey fans, because two more seasons have been greenlit and the show’s creator already has “big ideas” for where it could go next.

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• Nvidia's fastest GPU is unsurprisingly expensive and power hungry, just like its predecessor
• It is also extremely fast and leaves the RTX 4090 and AMD's fastest GPU, well behind
• Early benchmarks show there's far more potential once drivers and updates are rolled out

Nvidia’s latest flagship GPU, the GeForce RTX 5090, was announced at CES 2025 and has just gone on sale, although Nvidia has warned that it expects to sell out quickly. Built on the Blackwell architecture, the RTX 5090 is a successor to the RTX 4090, and features 32GB of VRAM, increased CUDA core counts, and improved memory bandwidth.

Puget Systems, which previously tested the GeForce RTX 4090, has just benchmarked the RTX 5090 across various creative applications, including Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and DaVinci Resolve and as you might expect, the results were impressive.

In Premiere Pro, Puget Systems found the RTX 5090 was slightly faster than the RTX 4090 by about 9% in terms of overall performance. In Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve Studio, the GPU had a 17% lead over the 4090 and 35% over the 3090 Ti. Puget noted however, that the “5090 was run on a slightly different version of Resolve than the rest of the cards - a review version designed to be fully compatible with the 50-series card and which we expect to be incorporated into the application in the near future.”

Obliterating AMD

(Image credit: Puget Systems)

Adobe After Effects also benefits from the increased power of the RTX 5090.

According to Puget Systems, the GPU recorded a "massive 35% gen-on-gen improvement over the RTX 4090" in 3D rendering tasks, making it a solid choice for motion graphics professionals. Elsewhere, Unreal Engine benchmarks suggest the RTX 5090 leads the RTX 4090 by 17% overall. In rendering applications such as Blender and V-Ray, "the RTX 5090 is a massive 38% faster than the 4090 and three times as fast as the 3090 Ti."

The RTX 5090 outperformed AMD’s fastest consumer GPU, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, across multiple tests, although AMD’s card faced some challenges. In Adobe After Effects, Puget Systems observed that the 7900 XTX "currently struggles with the 'Advanced 3D' renderer, with the 7900 XTX half as fast as even the 2080 Ti." It was a similar story in Unreal Engine where "AMD struggles with ray tracing, seeing a much larger performance drop than Nvidia when enabling the feature."

Despite the solid benchmarks, there are some early software compatibility issues. Puget Systems noted that "at present, the RTX 5090 is not supported in either Redshift (Cinebench) nor Octanebench" and has known performance problems in V-Ray’s CUDA rendering. Nvidia is expected to resolve these issues with future driver updates.

With a launch price of $2,000, the RTX 5090 is obviously positioned as a premium option for users who need the highest level of performance. As Puget Systems concludes, "if you need the most powerful consumer GPU ever made, this is it."

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