It’s not just iPhone sideloading, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and the Vision Pro dominating the current tech landscape. There’s increased talk about foldables.
Honor just unveiled the international version of the incredibly thin Magic V2. MWC 2024 might always bring over brand-new foldable devices later this month. Some believe foldables might hurt iPhone 16 sales this year. On top of that, we’ve started to see the first rumors detailing the Galaxy Z Fold 6, and they’re exciting for a bunch of reasons.
First, Samsung might give its next Fold a big design makeover. We might look at a thinner profile than ever and a wider external display for the Galaxy Z Fold 6. If that’s not enough, rumors say Samsung wants to make a cheaper Galaxy Z Fold 6 version this year. And we might have the first evidence to support it.
A report from Korea a few days ago said that Samsung is feeling the pressure of competitors in China. The Fold and Flip are hardly the kings of the market in the country. Foldables from Honor and Huawei dominated the foldable business last year. That’s why Samsung is working on a more affordable version of the Fold.
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Also, some of those devices were launched outside of China in early 2023. This put extra pressure on Samsung to deliver more meaningful innovations for its foldable handsets.
Samsung’s Flip 5 and Fold 5 are clearly responses to developments from Chinese foldable phone vendors. The former features a larger external display to match Oppo and Motorola, while the Fold 5 folds without a crease, which is a first for the handset. There is no gap, just like on the Chinese Fold-type devices. But the Galaxy Z Fold remains thicker than the competition.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 folded. Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR
The report didn’t offer a price tag for the cheaper Galaxy Z Fold 6 version. And it did highlight a big issue with such a device. It would potentially cannibalize sales of the premium Fold 6 version.
As a reminder, Samsung’s Fold devices typically start at around $1,799 before any type of deal is accounted for. But, every year, Samsung is going out of its way to make the newest Fold as affordable as possible via a combination of preorder savings and trade-in deals.
While the report from Korea did not provide solid evidence that a mid-range Galaxy Z Fold 6 is in the works, proof has started to emerge. According to WinFuture, Samsung has three Galaxy foldables in development right now. That’s according to documentation related to smartphone components that Samsung might be importing for prototyping the next-gen Flip and Fold.
Samsung is using three product codenames for the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Fold 6, compared to just two for their predecessors. We have B6, Q6, and Q6A, compared to B5 and Q6.
The B6 probably stands for the Flip 6, while the Q6 and Q6A might be monikers for the regular Fold 6 and a cheaper Fold 6 version. The use of the letter “A” hints this might be a more affordable device. The Galaxy A series includes Samsung’s entry-level and mid-range non-foldable phones.
This finding proves that Samsung is at least testing internally what appears to be a third, cheaper Galaxy Z foldable device. It’s still not enough to guarantee that Samsung will manufacture the device.
Samsung will unveil the Flip 6 and Fold 6 this summer, so it still has time to decide the fate of this cheaper Q6A variant. But I’m certainly curious to see what a cheaper Fold-type device from Samsung would look like and how much it’ll cost.
If the more affordable Fold 6 is indeed hitting stores this year, we’ll probably see it leak in full in the coming months, well before the Unpacked event where Samsung will unveil it.
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