Samsung’s cheaper Galaxy Foldable will cost much less and use cameras from existing models: report

Samsung’s upcoming foldable Unpacked event (whenever Samsung decides what schedule) will be interesting. While foldables are starting to become popular in premium segment Samsung is now facing competition from brands like Huawei, Oppo and OnePlus in the global market. According to recent leaks, Samsung may be well prepared this year by adding another level to its lineup of book-style foldables. The Korean manufacturer is rumored to be preparing the launch of two foldable devices, one of which will also sport an “Ultra” moniker this year. On the other hand, there is also news of an affordable foldable phone, but little is known about it other than rumors that Samsung is working on such a lower-priced model. More information is now available on this cheaper, book-style folding model, and it’s said to come from industry and supply chain sources.

According to a Korean publication called Sisa Journal, Samsung is expected to launch its affordable foldable in 2024. This is considering that an earlier report hinted that Samsung may delay the launch of its affordable foldable phone to a later date and release just the standard Galaxy Z Fold 6 alongside the expected Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra model at the usual mid-year Unpacked event.

The report also states that Samsung will have to downgrade the specs of this affordable foldable phone with a watered down app processor, display and battery. However, the source, citing supply chain and industry sources, claims that the cheaper foldable’s camera specs will remain similar to existing foldable models, which currently only include the Galaxy Z Fold 5. In short, the cheaper foldable a Samsung device will reduce 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 foldable devices. The report also claims that the supply chain will also remain intact (or as before) for Samsung’s 6th generation foldable devices. However, the industry expects production volumes to be increased given that the affordable model is expected to sell in higher volumes than the premium models.

As for its price, industry sources say the phone will cost around $800 (roughly Rs. 66,000 before taxes), which is much lower than what most of us expected a budget book-style foldable to cost in 2024. That’s less than half the price of the cheapest Galaxy Fold 5 variant in India.

The pursuit of an affordable foldable device does make a lot of sense, given that Huawei has also recently released several models designed to compete with Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5, which is still much thicker than newer devices like the OnePlus Open, which was released globally in markets like India late last year.