Samsung is slated to unveil the Galaxy Z Fold 6 — along with the Z Flip 6, Galaxy Watch 7 series, and the Galaxy Ring — sometime next month. But ahead of the formal announcement, a flurry of leaks has given us a fairly good idea of the massive design change that the Fold 6 will undergo. The improvements, however, will come with a price hike, as a new leak points out.
Cheap foldable phones are a rare sight, and Samsung has never been one to chase affordability. After all, the Fold has been its premier product for the last half-decade. The Fold 5’s $1,800 sticker price already leaves most buyers teary-eyed, and the Fold 6 threatens to bring on a flood. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 will have a starting price of $1,899, according to seasoned leaker @OnLeaks, and will potentially cost $2,259 for the highest specification. This is very close to the original Galaxy Fold’s high price when it was released in 2019.
Despite the price hike, the storage options remain unchanged from last year. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 will once again have a base 256GB of storage, along with other options with 512GB or 1TB of storage — same as the Z Fold 5. There haven’t been any rumors or leaks about Samsung upgrading the RAM to 16GB, so we suspect it will stick to 12GB like last year. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor is almost certain to power the foldable.
The Z Fold 6 may also come in new colors, including navy blue, silver shadow, and pink. Another reputed leaker, Evan Blass, adds that there will be a yellow shade (which may or may not be similar to the Galaxy S24 Ultra‘s titanium yellow) and an online-exclusive white.
New design and AI features to justify the price hike
Samsung is expected to completely overhaul the Fold 6’s design by fixing the awkwardly sized outer display, thus improving its ergonomics. The Fold 6 is expected to move to a more conventional 20:9 aspect ratio for the outer display and away from the unusual and restrictive narrow 23.5:9 ratio on the Fold 5. In addition, Samsung is expected to adopt the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s flat edges and make the phone significantly thinner and lighter than previous generations.
As per the information provided by OnLeaks and published by tech blog Smartprix, Samsung will likely rely on software traits such as out-of-the-box Galaxy AI features, along with the newer design, to justify the price hike. As with previous launches, we can expect Samsung to offer a free storage upgrade if you preorder the Galaxy Z Fold 6, along with handsome buyback value on older Samsung flagships.
But even with those introductory offers, the $1,900 price tag is far from pleasing and makes us hope for the cheaper Fold 6 that was previously rumored. Simultaneously, some doubt still lingers about the Fold 6 Ultra, which, if it truly exists, could be more expensive than the standard model.
