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Samsung is preparing to announce a Special Edition take on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 this coming October 18, and it is likely to be released on October 24 as its thinnest book-style foldable phone ever.
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The unorthodox decision to announce a third handset with a bendy display this year comes hot on the heels of its market share loss predicated by the Chinese juggernauts that are increasingly coming with better, cheaper foldable phones.
Why is Samsung releasing a Special Edition of the Z Fold?
To counter that trend, Samsung reportedly decided to reimagine its foldable phone concept with a prototype that is just as thin yet more durable than what companies like Honor, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, and others are now offering.
This process, mind you, started last year, when the Galaxy Z Fold 5 was 13.4mm when closed, the OnePlus Open was 11.7mm, and the other direct Samsung competitor in the US released a Pixel Fold was just as fat as the Fold 5. Even then, however, the second or third edition of foldable phones from Chinese brands were already hovering around the 10mm mark when closed and eating Samsung's lunch in the Asian markets.
Faced with phones like the 9.9mm Honor Magic V2, Samsung managed to slim the Z Fold 6 down to 12.1mm, but it knew that won't be enough, so its leadership gave marching order to the mobile engineering team to start work on a much thinner foldable.
Unfortunately, it turned out near impossible for Samsung to add the unique value it wanted to craft, namely a foldable phone as thin as the models coming left and right from the Chinese juggernauts, and at the same time one that is tougher. When Samsung added the required drop, ingress, and water-resistance protection, the phone became way thicker than the competition again, and not the winning proposition it was set out to be.
Z Fold SE still clocks in at more than 10mm thickness. | Image credit – @evleaks
Seeing that the Chinese brands have moved towards even more elegant phones like the Honor Magic V3 that is only 9.2mm thin when closed, nearing the girth of a "regular" phone, Samsung reportedly threw in the towel.
The thinnest foldable Magic V3 vs Z Fold 6. | Image credit – PhoneArena
It intended to release the thinnest foldable phone it managed to craft in August together with the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6, but since it was still clocking in above the 10mm mark that Chinese phones passed last year on the way down, Samsung allegedly shelved those plans for a brief while.
Once the 2024 Fold and Flip models were out, though, and Google released its own "thinnest" Pixel 9 Pro Fold in the world's most visible phone market, Samsung all of a sudden changed its minds and started preparations to actually launch what it has been working on for a while as the Galaxy Fold Special Edition.
The "special" proposition seems to be its 10.6 mm thickness, which Samsung achieved partly by removing the S Pen digitizer layer, and which puts it on par with Google's 2024 foldable endeavor. Samsung probably thought that would be enough, at least in Western markets where a lot of Chinese brands aren't present, as it might focus on the increased durability.
Oh, the irony
The Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition still wouldn't stand a chance against the Chinese foldable phone models, though, which will still be way thinner, cheaper, and with much better specs, introducing periscope zoom cameras, larger batteries, faster charging, and even tri-folding devices like the Mate XT which is under 4mm thin when unfurled.
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Moreover, in order to slim down the Z Fold SE internals, Samsung has apparently resorted to the services of... a Chinese company. According to The Elec, Fastprint will be making the motherboard of Samsung's thinnest foldable phone in its PCB factory in Beijing, as it has experience in making slim system boards for Samsung's flagship phones.
Fastprint can make paper thin circuit boards. | Image credit – Fastpint
In short, the moral of the story is that even with the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, Samsung would still need Chinese components to fight the onslaught of more elegant and powerful Chinese foldable phones.
If that sounds ironic, that's because it is very much a wacky situation, yet the success of the Special Edition of the Z Fold line will likely still hinge on its pricing, rather than the durability of its actual hinge.
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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.
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