, a respectable sixth edition of its venerable Fold and Flip line of handsets with bendy displays and a hinge.
What the humble upgrades basically mean, however, is that even before the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is announced, it may already be playing second fiddle in the foldable book-style phones niche. How come?
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 won’t excel in specs and design
Samsung won’t or just can’t
While at first glance this is progress, these dimensions still mean a 12.1mm thickness and 240g weight. Those numbers denote a Galaxy Z Fold 6 that will be far from the thinnest, lightest and most powerful foldable phone even now, and it will have to tide Samsung over for a year until the next edition.
Given that prospective foldable phone users are mostly worried about their size and heft, as well as mediocre cameras, the Z Fold 6 will hardly do anything to excel in those areas and attract those sitting on the fence of the undecided.
Chinese foldables still rule the land
And it’s hard to catch up
Ever since the OG Galaxy Fold hinge fiasco that forced Huawei to go back to the drawing board to upgrade its first foldable phone, the Mate X, it slowly became clear that the Chinese phone makers can one-up Samsung at its own game.
The new Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 may become the thinnest foldable
In addition, only the Z Flip 6 is expected to come with a more elaborate hinge mechanism and ironed out crease, while Samsung is reportedly content with the crease depth and phone thickness it achieved by moving to a teardrop hinge shape with the Z Fold 5.
In contrast, the crease of phones like the OnePlus Open or Oppo Find N3 is barely noticeable thanks to an elaborate hinge mechanism that is certified to hold for the life cycle of the phone.
This elaborate hinge keeps the Find N3 crease near invisible
