Samsung’s latest foldables were met with criticism in last week’s poll – the two main points were the price and the hardware. Samsung is not seen as the leader of the foldable market, not in terms of offering cutting edge technology. Both the Galaxy Z Flip6 and the Z Fold6 feel more like iterative improvements over previous models than a new generation, according to commenters.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 is too expensive with a whopping 45% of voters shaking their heads at the price tag. As for the hardware, in our review, we noted that charging is somehow even slower than the already slow charging on the Z Fold5. And that the camera hasn’t changed in three generations.
The new display aspect ratios are nice, as is the IP48 rating, but the competition is advancing quickly. Interestingly, the Z Fold6 is slightly more popular with current owners of foldable phones than first-time buyers.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 is very expensive too, though with only 36% of voters picking that option, it’s less of an issue. Some people are waiting on reviews to decide and ours is coming soon.
The much-awaited camera improvement will be put to the test – can the 50MP main camera make up for the lack of a tele lens – but some things are already clear. E.g. no DeX support continues to undercut the Z Flip6’s potential as a replacement for owners of a vanilla Galaxy S phone.
While the Z Fold6’s rivals are still hiding behind a “coming soon” sign, some of Z Flip6’s competition has already arrived – and the Moto Razr 50 Ultra/razr+ 2024 is cheaper. Unlike its sibling, the Z Flip6 seems to be attracting more first-time buyers than current users of foldable phones.
Pre-orders in India indicate that the Galaxy Z Flip6 and Z Fold6 are more popular than their predecessors (pre-orders are up by 40%). We will see how other markets react to the new foldables too. Samsung’s target is a modest 10% bump in sales over the Z Flip5/Z Fold5 generation and it is betting on the class-leading software support and AI features to get there.