Samsung’s upcoming foldable Unpacked event (whenever Samsung decides on a schedule) will be an interesting one. While foldables are starting to get popular in the premium segment Samsung’s now facing competition from brands like Huawei, Oppo, and OnePlus in the global market. As per recent leaks, Samsung may be well-prepared this year by adding another tier to its book-style foldables lineup. The Korean manufacturer is said to be preparing the launch of two foldables, one of which will also include an ‘Ultra’ moniker this year. On the other hand, there’s also news of an affordable foldable, but little is known about it, apart from the rumours that Samsung is working on such a lower-priced model. Now, there’s more information about this cheaper book-style foldable model, and it allegedly comes from industry sources and the supply chain.
According to a Korean publication called Sisa Journal, Samsung is expected to launch its affordable foldable in 2024 itself. This is keeping in mind that an earlier report hinted that Samsung could push the launch of its affordable foldable to a later date and only launch the standard Galaxy Z Fold 6 along with the expected Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra model at its usual mid-year Unpacked event.
Furthermore, the report states that Samsung will have to lower the specifications of this affordable foldable with a watered-down applications processor, display and battery. However, the source citing supply chain and industry sources claims that the cheaper foldable’s camera specifications will remain similar to existing foldable models, which currently includes just the Galaxy Z Fold 5. In short, Samsung’s cheaper foldable will cut down on raw performance, but still pack a bunch of capable (or premium) cameras.
The new affordable model is expected to have a dual camera module, parts of which will be borrowed from existing foldables devices. The report also claims that the supply chain will also remain intact (or as before) for Samsung’s 6th generation of foldable devices. However, the industry expects the volumes of production to be increased given that the affordable model is expected to sell in higher numbers than the premium models.
As for its price, industry sources claim that the phone will cost around $800 (roughly Rs. 66,000 before taxes), which is a lot lower than what most of us expected a budget book-style foldable to cost in 2024. This is less than half of what the cheapest Galaxy Fold 5 variant is priced at in India.
The push for an affordable foldable indeed makes plenty of sense given that Huawei too has recently launched several models designed to compete with Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5, which is still a lot chubbier in comparison to newer devices like the OnePlus Open that was launched in global markets like India late last year.
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