Check out the one and only Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G in the flesh
Whether you believe leaks elevate the appeal of an unreleased product or ruin its official announcement event, Samsung doesn't have many secrets left up its sleeve ahead of August 5. The "regular" Galaxy Note 20, which might as well be called the Note 20 Lite, is practically an open book, and the same goes for the significantly more impressive and premium Note 20 Ultra, not to mention the thoroughly detailed Galaxy Watch 3, bean-shaped Buds Live, and iPad Pro-rivaling Galaxy Tab S7 and S7+.
One impending device that did manage to maintain an air of mystery until recently is the sequel to the company's divisive and troubled first foldable handset. But a blurry render finally made its way on the interwebs last week, followed by the first-ever real-world pic of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G late Tuesday night.
This confirms once and for all that the unquestionably attractive but far from perfect design of the original model has been revised and refined in a number of ways to better reflect the exclusivity of an undoubtedly expensive and cutting-edge product. In short, we love what we're seeing here.
A convoluted name and a tiny hole punch
First things first, this freshly leaked photo confirms Samsung's revised branding for the Galaxy Fold follow-up effort, meant to highlight the Z Fold 2's family relation with the lower-cost Z Flip while improving the brand consistency of the company's foldable portfolio. Of course, if Samsung valued consistency so much, we can't help but wonder why the Z Flip was not simply named the Galaxy Flip.
Adding the 5G label at the end of the Galaxy Z Fold 2 moniker further complicates the brand identity of a truly unique product in a fairly unnecessary way, especially considering the fact that a 4G LTE-only model might not be in the pipeline at all.
Then again, who cares what this bad boy is named when its enhanced primary display comes with a trendy (and subtle) hole punch instead of an awkward (and large) notch? If you look closely at the picture on hand today, you'll notice that the screen cutout is positioned pretty much where Ice Universe expected it last month, which initially seemed weird but is gradually growing on us.
Meanwhile, it's hard to tell for sure, but the screen bezels of the Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G also look decently thin. At the very least, they're slightly thinner than what the first-gen Galaxy Fold had going on.
The other side is even cooler
We can't talk about bezels without reminding you that the cover display is widely expected to grow from 4.6 to around 6.2 inches, which means the ghastly borders of the Galaxy Fold 1 will be almost entirely eliminated and replaced with a swanky centered hole punch.
The 12 + 12 + 16MP triple rear-facing camera system of last year's Galaxy Fold will also be upgraded to a 12 + 12 + 64MP setup including an undoubtedly improved main shooter and a much better telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom support.
Circling back to the primary screen, we should point out that its size is tipped to rise from 7.3 to 7.7 inches or so, with 120Hz refresh rate technology reportedly added into the equation as well. Naturally, a hot new Snapdragon 865+ processor is essentially guaranteed to reside under the hood of the Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G, along with 12 gigs of memory and 256 gigs of storage space as standard.
All things considered, including various durability enhancements, you might expect the 5G-enabled Z Fold 2 to be significantly costlier than its 4G-limited forerunner in markets like the US, but at least for the time being, we have no reason to believe that will be the case. Instead, there's a good chance the Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G will be priced at around $2,000 stateside, which is certainly not affordable but also sounds pretty fair.
Things that are NOT allowed: