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Samsung today announces the Galaxy Z Fold 6, its newest large foldable phone. After having a fairly successful market stint with the previous Galaxy Z Fold 5/Z Flip 5, Samsung is certainly hoping to keep this healthy momentum going for another year in a row.
Usually, when you have such a goal, you mustn't make abrupt changes, and that's precisely what the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is: ever-so-slightly changed, a bit faster, much lighter, but also pricier.
First and foremost, let's tackle the most important aspect––the pricing of the phone. No two ways around that, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is getting pricier. The new foldable starts at $1,899 for the 256GB version in the US, which is a modest but notable $100 increase over the usual $1,799 starting price of older Galaxy Z Fold.
In Europe, the phone will also carry a slight premium in comparison with last year and start at EUR1,999 (vs EUR 1,899 for the previous Fold).
Pre-orders for the phone start today, July 10, with official market availability kicking off on July 24.
Galaxy Z Fold 6, 512GB: Save up to $1,200 with trade-ins
Get your Z Fold 6 with 512GB of storage from Samsung, and you can save up to $1,200. To take advantage of that huge price cut, you must provide an eligible trade-in in good condition.
The foldable phone has gone through a slight metamorphosis, which hasn't changed the inherent design language or style, but has made the device slightly more ergonomic and has also shed some notable weight off. Indeed, the Z Fold 6 scores a new, more squarish design: when unfolded, the exterior is 2.7mm wider and 1.4mm shorter, giving you a more evenly spaced desktop.
At the same time, when folded, the phone is now 1mm wider to the sides, which is an improvement over the Galaxy Z Fold 5, but won't make the outer screen as useful and pleasing to use as the wide ones on the Pixel Fold or the OnePlus Open.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is also extremely thin, too: when folded, the phone's just 12.1mm, which is a far-cry from the bulky first Galaxy Z Fold, which was 15.5mm thick.
Thin is in as the Galaxy Z Fold 6 becomes the slimmest Samsung foldable so far (Image by PhoneArena)
Although Samsung hasn't resorted to using titanium (as on the Galaxy S24 Ultra) and the Galaxy Z Fold 6 still relies on the good ol' Armor Aluminum, we're seeing some great weight savings. The new foldable weighs just 239gr, some 14gr less than last year's Galaxy Z Fold 5 and just as much as an iPhone 13 Pro Max. Spectacular!
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While foldable phones rarely get certified for dust resistance as there's just too many ways for particles to enter the structure, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 has accomplished just that. The phone has scored an IP48 certification. This means that the phone is essentially waterproof (for up to 30 minutes in 1.5m of freshwater), but is also protected against particles that are 1mm or larger.
In terms of colors, Samsung has a very decent selection of hues available for its new Fold: Silver Shadow, Pink, and Navy will be freely available to anyone, but Crafted Black and White will be exclusively available through Samsung.com.
Hardware and Specs
Moving on to the hardware of the phone, Samsung isn't keen on moving too many pieces at the same time either. That's why you can find a ton of similarities between the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 5's specs sheets.
Due to the changes in the size of the phone, the displays have adopted a boxier aspect ratios. The inner 7.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen is now a 20.9:18 one, while the slightly larger 6.3-inch cover screen gets a 22.1:9 aspect ratio. As a refresher, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 had displays with 21.6:18 and 23:9 aspect ratios, respectively.
That's one spectacular display to look at (Image by PhoneArena)
Notable differences include the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, which is currently the best chip available to Android flagships. Judging from our positive experience with that same chipset on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 has a winner of a chipset ticking inside of it, with more than decent raw performance, superb graphics-processing, and more-than-adequate energy efficiency, which should lead to decent battery life.
What hasn't changed?
Well, we still get the same 4,400mAh dual-cell battery with 25W wired charging and 15W Fast Wireless charging. Don't expect a charger in the box, or an S Pen for that matter.
The phone still comes with 12GB of memory, as well as in three different storage tiers: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.
The camera setup is also largely the same as the one on the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 4. The triple camera at the rear uses the same 50MP F1.8 wide-angle camera, 12MP ultra-wide, and 10MP telephoto with 3X optical zoom. There's also the familiar 10MP outer selfie camera and the good ol' 4MP under-display inner selfie camera.
Here's a specs comparison between the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 5:
Specs
Galaxy Z Fold 6
Galaxy Z Fold 5
Dimensions
Folded: 68.1 x 153.5 x 12.1mm Unfolded: 132.6 x 153.5 x 5.6mm
Folded: 154.9 x 67.1 x 13.4 mm Unfolded: 154.9 x 129.9 x 6.1 mm
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 comes along with Samsung's now standard seven years of major Android updates and security patches for the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
As a sign of the times, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 also comes with a plethora of AI goodies on board, which aim to better the user experience. Circle to Search, Note Assist, Google Gemini, improved Interpeter, Photo Assist, and Portrait Studio, are just some of the highlights that Samsung talks about.
Note Assist: Provides translation, summaries, and auto-formatting for meeting notes, but also supports transcription, translation, and summarizing of voice recordings;
S Pen with Galaxy AI: The new Sketch to image lets you generate "sophisticated art pieces" while using the stylus
Interpreter: Now features a dual-screen layout for more natural interaction when talking with a person with another language
Google Gemini: Google's new AI assistant is now fully integrated into the Galaxy Z Fold 6
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Peter, an experienced tech enthusiast at PhoneArena, is captivated by all things mobile. His impartial reviews and proficiency in Android systems offer readers valuable insights. Off-duty, he delves into the latest cryptocurrency trends and enjoys sci-fi and video games.
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