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Samsung has more or less mastered the foldable phone at this point, so much so that despite the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 being very similar to its predecessor, it still achieved a 4.5-star score in our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 review. So it’s likely the next model – the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 – will also be a very good phone.
We do, however, hope to see bigger changes on the next Fold, and if you jump to the second half of this article, you’ll find a list of exactly what we want to see.
First though, we’ve collected all the leaks and rumors about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 so far, and you’ll find those below. These include information on the possible release date and price, as well as some rumored specs and features.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The next flagship Samsung foldable
- When is it out? Probably July or August 2024
- How much will it cost? Will likely start at $1,799.99 / £1,749 / AU$2,599
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6: Release date and price
There aren’t any Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 release date rumors yet, but Samsung launches these phones on a yearly cadence, with the last three models all going on sale in August of their respective release years.
Two of them were also announced in August, but the most recent – the Z Fold 5 – was unveiled in late July. So it’s hard to say whether the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will be announced in July or August of 2024, even so, we’d expect one or the other; with it probably going on sale before the end of August.
For reference, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 starts at $1,799.99 / £1,749 / AU$2,599, so it’s likely that the Z Fold 6 will cost at least that much.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6: news and leaks
We first heard a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 leak back in April, long before the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 had even launched. This came from leaker @Tech_Reve, who has a reasonable track record, and claimed that the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will have a “major form factor change.”
They later got more specific, saying that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 will change the aspect ratio of the cover screen. They didn’t say what kind of change, but the Z Fold line so far has sported a very narrow cover screen by comparison to big-name entries like the Oppo Find N2 and Google Pixel Fold, so it would make sense to widen it.
This would provide something shaped more like a normal phone screen, and a second source has now weighed in saying something similar. That doesn’t mean it’s confirmed yet, but it’s looking more likely.
It’s actually a change that Samsung confirmed to TechRadar directly was in trial during the development of the Galaxy Z Fold 5, however, during our time with the design team while in South Korea for the launch of 2023’s Fold, the company told us that the design team stuck with the relatively narrow form factor of its predecessors because they believed it offered the best “usability and grip and portability.”
That said, in the same post that suggests a revised aspect ratio for the Fold 6, it’s claimed that the phone will use the same image sensor as the Z Fold 5. It’s not clear though whether they’re just talking about one camera here (in which case likely the main one) or all of them.
The disappointing aspect of the Fold 6 is that it uses the same image sensor as the Fold 5.The major update of the Fold 6 is the change in the aspect ratio of the external display. https://t.co/RVp454lNbwJune 20, 2023
Since then, we’ve heard more specifically from another source that all the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will be the same as those on the Z Fold 5.
For reference, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 has a 50MP main camera, a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and a 12MP ultra-wide, as well as a 10MP camera on the cover screen and a 4MP under-display camera on the foldable screen. So some or all of those might remain the same on the Z Fold 6.
We’ve also heard that as well as a new aspect ratio for the cover screen, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 might have a larger cover screen than its predecessor. We don’t know how much larger, but for reference the Z Fold 5’s is 6.2 inches.
Finally, Samsung itself has said it’s working on dust-proofing its foldable phones. So that’s a feature that might make it to the Galaxy Z Fold 6, though the company hasn’t committed to that.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6: what we want to see
As good as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is, it’s also quite a conservative upgrade, so we’d like to see the following bigger changes with the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
1. A wider cover screen
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 has a 6.2-inch cover display, so you have access to a smartphone-sized screen when the foldable display is shut. But this is a much narrower screen than you’d find on a typical smartphone, which makes it more awkward to use and not able to display apps as elegantly.
As such, for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 we want a wider cover screen. This shouldn’t be too tricky, given that other foldable phones such as the Google Pixel Fold have achieved this. It may well happen too, as it’s rumored that the aspect ratio of the cover screen will be changing.
2. The same cameras as the S24 Ultra
The Z Fold 5 has the same camera hardware as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, which is disappointing, especially as even back when the Z Fold 4 launched, those weren’t the best cameras on a Samsung phone.
What we’d really like – especially given how expensive the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is sure to be – is for it to have the same rear camera setup as the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, which going by past form is likely to be the best camera phone Samsung will offer in 2024.
For reference, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 200MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, a 10MP telephoto offering 3x optical zoom, and a 10MP periscope offering 10x optical zoom. So we want basically that, with whatever changes or upgrades the S24 Ultra adds to the mix.
3. An S Pen included
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 supports Samsung’s S Pen stylus, but it doesn’t come with one. Instead, you have to buy an S Pen separately.
That’s a shame given how expensive the Z Fold 5 is, and especially since Samsung does chuck a stylus in with the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 line. So we’d like to see Samsung include this with the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
4. Dust resistance
Samsung’s best foldable phones offer water resistance, but no dust resistance, which means there’s a risk of dust and other small particles interfering with the phone’s intricate hinge mechanism.
Dust resistance is a standard feature on high-end non-foldable handsets, so we’d really like it to be a standard feature on foldables too, though it’s understandably harder to achieve on them, given all the moving parts.
Still, Motorola has managed with the Motorola Razr 2023 and Motorola Razr Plus (also known as the Razr 40 Ultra outside of the US), and it’s something Samsung has said it’s working on, so there’s a chance we’ll get this with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6.
5. No more crease
One issue that all foldable phones face to varying degrees is a crease in the screen, that you can both see and feel.
This is a seemingly inevitable side effect of having a screen that folds in half, but we’d like to see Samsung either significantly shrink it or get rid of it altogether for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 if at all possible.
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