Samsung has taken the wraps off its newest Galaxy foldable smartphones as competitors within the class intensifies, with Apple broadly anticipated to enter the market in September.
Samsung has dominated the foldable smartphone market since introducing the primary Galaxy Fold, giving the corporate years of expertise refining the class earlier than rivals, together with Apple, arrive with competing merchandise. Reviews counsel Apple’s first foldable iPhone will undertake a wider, book-style design relatively than Samsung’s taller format.
Samsung unveiled three new gadgets on 22 July: the Galaxy Z Fold8 Extremely (a continuation of the present type issue of the Fold sequence), the Galaxy Z Fold8 (a brand new, shorter, book-style type issue) and the Galaxy Z Flip8, alongside a brand new Galaxy Watch Extremely and the Galaxy Watch9.
The flagship Z Fold8 Extremely opens to an 8-inch most important show with a 6.5-inch cowl display screen, measuring 4.1mm thick unfolded (8.9mm closed) and weighing 215g. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip with as much as 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and carries a 200-megapixel most important digital camera alongside 50-megapixel ultra-wide and 10-megapixel 3x telephoto lenses. A 5 000mAh twin battery fees to 67% in about half an hour with a 45W adapter (bought individually), and the system ships with Android 17 and One UI 9, Wi-Fi 7 assist and IP48 water resistance.
The Fold8 is the extra product at this 12 months’s launch, with a shorter design type that’s rumoured to be much like the folding iPhone Apple is anticipated to announce in September.
‘Extra mainstream’
Requested instantly whether or not the resemblance between Samsung’s book-style fold and Apple’s rumoured design was coincidental, Justin Hume, vice chairman of cell expertise at Samsung South Africa, identified that Apple’s foldable has not been launched and stays “rumoured”.
Zahir Cajee, cell expertise chief for product and business at Samsung South Africa, stated the Fold8 Extremely’s design just isn’t in response to a competitor, and that the corporate views the book-style foldable format as turning into “extra mainstream”. Samsung Show is a longtime provider of OLED panels to Apple for its iPhones. Requested in regards to the overlap, Cajee didn’t affirm whether or not that relationship extends to foldable shows.
Samsung stated hinge sturdiness has been improved by a brand new magnet-based hinge mechanism and 22 layers of titanium, together with titanium built-in into the show layer itself, which the corporate stated reduces the visibility of the crease with out eliminating it totally.
Hume predicted that surging reminiscence prices would push system costs up by round 30% throughout the trade quickly, citing Apple’s latest value will increase for its MacBook pocket book computer systems and iPads.
Cajee stated 97-98% of high-end gadgets are purchased on contract in South Africa, with system financing schemes serving to to widen entry to the class.
He stated Samsung’s Knox platform underpins device-financing preparations by permitting companion financiers and networks to lock a tool remotely if repayments are missed, which he stated has helped decrease the danger profile for lenders extending credit score on higher-priced gadgets.
Learn: Samsung sees no respite as reminiscence scarcity set to worsen
Nonetheless, launch pricing for the brand new telephones, which clearly reveals the upward pattern in pricing because of the reminiscence chip scarcity, is as follows: Galaxy Z Flip8 (256GB): R26 999; Galaxy Z Fold8 (256GB): R40 999; Galaxy Z Fold8 (512GB): R45 999; and Galaxy Z Fold8 Extremely: R50 999.
On the gross sales combine, Cajee stated the foldable type issue is anticipated to account for roughly 70-75% of mixed fold-and-flip gross sales in South Africa, with the Z Fold8 Extremely anticipated to make up 60-65% of fold gross sales particularly. — (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
