In brief: Now that the Galaxy S24 series has launched, attention is turning to Samsung's next flagship devices: the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6. According to the latest reports surrounding the former, Samsung is redesigning the Z Fold 6 to be a lot slimmer while increasing the size of its outer and inner screens. Moreover, the company could finally offer a variant of its foldable that's much more affordable.
With foldable devices such as the Honor Magic V2 offering a slimmer design than the Galaxy Z Fold 5 – 9.9mm vs. 13.4mm – a new Samsung patent (via Sammobile) suggests the Korean giant will be going even thinner in its next Z Fold.
The patent also suggests that previous reports of Samsung making the Z Fold 6's cover screen and foldable inner screen wider were accurate. The Z Fold 5 has a 6.2-inch cover display and a 7.6-inch main display. It'll be interesting to see how much larger Samsung makes these screens in its successor.
It appears that Samsung is also redesigning the hinge module in the Z Fold 6 to ensure the thinner, wider design doesn't experience problems when opening and closing; the company wouldn't want a repeat of the nightmare that was the first Fold's (attempted) launch.
While foldable phones continue to see their popularity increase, the high prices that many of these devices carry still puts buyers off.
Samsung refuted rumors last year that it was working on a budget Z Fold device in the $500 to $600 range, but it didn't deny the possibility of an FE (Fan Edition) version. WinFuture reports that Samsung has three new foldables in development, two of which are the standard Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6. The final model could be a cheaper Fold, possibly the Z Fold 6 FE.
FE variants of Samsung phones usually remove some features and downgrade the specs slightly in order to sell them at a lower cost. In the case of the Z Fold 6, the FE version is said to come with the same SoC as the Z Fold 5 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) rather than a newer chip, and lack S-Pen compatibility. There will likely be some other cost-saving measures but it would still be a surprise if Samsung sells this at under $1,000, especially as the Z Fold 5 has a $1,800 starting point.
It's expected that the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 will be announced in July before being released in August. No word on when the potentially cheaper Z Fold 6 variant will arrive.