Meet the most exciting foldable phone you’ve never heard of

Announced late last year and shown off at this year’s Mobile World Congress, the Nubia Flip 3 is a flip phone-style foldable in the same vein as the Motorola Razr and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip series. 

On the front, it’s got a 6.9-inch AMOLED display. On the other side, there’s a 4-inch OLED cover display and a dual-lens camera setup that pairs up the photographic prowess of a 50MP main lens and a 12MP ultrawide lens. Then, on the inside, the device is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7400X processor, has up to 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, plus a 4,610mAh battery. 

All told, these specs are a pretty close match for the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 7. However, there’s one key area where the Nubia Flip 3 parts ways with the usual foldable smartphone playbook, and that’s the price. When the device launches in Europe later this year, it’s slated to do so at a recommended retail price of €500. That’s well under the typical asking price for a foldable device, even one with a slimmer form factor. Converted into Australian dollars, that price tag works out to be just under $900. 

For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 starts at $1,799 in Australia. Even if you’re comparing to the cheaper Galaxy Z Flip FE — which starts at $1,499 — the Nubia Flip 3 comes out looking like an absolute steal.

Before you grab your credit card, I’ve got some bad news. At the time of writing, the Nubia Flip 3 is currently only available in Japan. As mentioned, it’s also slated to land in Europe later in 2026. However, unless you’re willing to wrangle a unit via a grey market reseller, don’t expect to see the device land on Australian shores anytime soon.

Still, it’s promising to see that foldable smartphones don’t necessarily have to come with an ultra-premium price. Even if Samsung doesn’t release a sub-$1000 version of the Galaxy Z Flip anytime soon, I doubt the Nubia Flip 3 will be the only option for long.

Disclosure: WhistleOut Australia's coverage of Mobile World Congress 2026 is supported by OPPO.

Fergus Halliday

Digital Content Editor

Fergus Halliday is a journalist and digital content editor at WhistleOut Australia. He’s written about technology, telecommunications, gaming and more for over a decade. He got his start writing in high school before interning at magazines like CRN Australia and freelancing for publications like the AU Review, Gizmodo, Kotaku, GamesHub, Press Start, ScreenRant, Superjump, Nestegg, and more.

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