Samsung debuted its first foldable back in the year 2019 with the Galaxy Fold. Now here we take a look and see how this foldable changed over time since its inception. Therefore we going to revive the history of the Galaxy Z series.
By the time of the launch of Samsung foldable Galaxy Z series, it has created a huge fan following all around. With every new generation of devices, the company has made commendable advancements in each one. And with no element of surprise, the foldable now become the best series out of numerous in the market today.
So, here in this article, let’s take a complete tour from the beginning of Samsung’s foldable phones. Also, going through the variations that the company has made to every of its series from starting till date.
Samsung Debuts Its First Foldable Phone, the Galaxy Fold: 2019
The first foldable Galaxy is launched in 2019 by the name Galaxy Fold. Further expanding its premium line along with the long-running Galaxy S series and also the discontinued Galaxy Note series. Also to bring things to notice, the Galaxy Fold wasn’t the first smartphone with a foldable screen. And the same title goes for the Royole FlexPai, made by less famous Chinese company Royole, unveiled in October 2018.
Being Samsungs first foldable, the device had an awful beginning. After its launch in Feb 2019, the Galaxy Z Fold review units faced a wide range of problems. Due to this, the company has been bound to recall all of them. And to look into the issue, Samsung had to postpone the shipping of the Galaxy Folds. Although, within a short span of time, later in July 2019, the company figure out the problem and schedule a new launch date in September 2019.
Talking about technical specs then the first Galaxy Fold had a 7.5-inch inner AMOLED display that can fold in a book-style manner. In addition, it has a secondary 4.6-inch 720p panel on the outside for easy tasks like chatting, browsing, making calls, and catching up with social media updates. However, at that time also, the device is not cheap with an asking price of $1980 respectively.
In regards to the Folding phone, the same offers other flagship grades. And that includes 512GB UFS 3.0 storage, 12GB RAM, Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 855 processor, 15W wired and wireless charging, and a capable camera system. The specs are very much identical to the company’s then-flagship Galaxy S10+.
2020: Major Transitions
After the mess that was happen in 2019 Galaxy Fold launch, the company take this as a lesson. As subsequently doing lot of home work in the background from that point. In 2020, Samsung launched the second generation of Galaxy Fold. And which is the most essential upgrade to the series till date.
With the second gen foldable phone, Samsung also revise the folding naming convention. And origiante as a Galaxy Z series. The second gen foldable named as a Galaxy Z Fold 2.
With the origination of Galaxy Z Fold 2, the company primarily focus on the robustness of the device. The hinge was sturdy and could stand at any angle. At the same, it also refined the design, with substantial improvement made in exterior. The same look more alike Galaxy Note 20 series that launched the same year.
It swapped out the 7.3- and 4.6-inch inner and cover panels on the predecessor with the larger 7.6- and 6.2-inch panels. It comes with lots of upgradations aprt from physical appearance like bumping up the fast charging speeds, beefing up the battery, upgrading the processor, and more.
To be noted, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 wasn’t the only folable from Samsung that got the tag of foldable. Whereas the company also unveiled the clamshell Galaxy Z Flip under the umbrella of Galaxy Z series branding. And this was first Galaxy Z Flip, which comes with 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED display on the inside and a smaller 1.1-inch panel on the outside for keeping up with notifications.
Simialrly with Galaxy Z Fold 2, the same Snapragon 865 5G powered the Z Flip running in tow with 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage.
The main motive behind the Z Flip series was to introduce with a normal size smartphone. And that could fold in half horizontally unlike the conventional Z Fold range. At the same time, company also play with pricing factor which comparatively lower than its big brother. The Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Z Flip launched at $2000 and $1450, respectively.
2021 to 2022: Refinement
Followed by the first generation foundations previous years, Samsungs foldable had fully matured. And the company doesn’t have anything uncommon to reveal at its launch in 2021. It just come up from where it is left by simply refining the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Z Flip’s successors.
Another thing to notice, is that company never come up with Z Flip2. Therefore the successor of Z Flip is the Z Flip 3. This action is taken to reduce the confusion by bringing the version number into line with the Fold.
Talking about Galaxy Z Flip series then the Flip 3 equipped with the dual 12MP camera array by placed them in a vertical module. The 10MP selfie camera and the main 6.7-inch panel stayed intact. While the Samsung bumped the outer one to 1.9-inches respectively. Some other area of improvement were like the exterior also saw slight upgrades. While under the hood, nothing has much changed except the processor, which was upgrade to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888.
Galaxy Z Fold 3, here also, the same refinement theme was mainly maintained. Also there’s not much scope athough with most critical features staying the same or receiving a minor upgrade. The one of the most significant upgrade in Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the addition of stylus support by Samsung, which was a big deal for its Z Fold series.
The next addition in both the foldables was the support for IPX8 water resistance. A first foldable smartphones in the category, although the change is small. But welcome change that Samsung brought with the launch of the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 . The company try to make the range more robust and therefore the duo received a new Armor aluminium frame. The frame corning on the exterior and Gorilla Glass Victus atop the display to help improve drop and scratch resistance.
Refined Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4
In 2022, Samsung unveiled the more refined Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4. Since both the smartphones are quite upgraded to their predecessors. The Z Flip 4 looks more a like a typical slab smartphone at just 0.27 inches thick when unfolded. It is thinner than Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S22 series as well.
While, the Galaxy Fold 4 is more compact and high end, that introduces a higher 1TB storage option, faster charging, and also a slight camera upgrades. On the top of it, runs Google’s big screen-focused Android 12L to improve the software experience.
Is Samsung’s Foldable Phones hold the Future?
As per numbers depicts by Samsung, its more than 70% of its foldable sales came from the clamshell Z Flip series in 2021. It indicates that consumers want to maintain their typical smartphone form factor. And at the same time, still gain the folding experience on top of it. The figure is the huge as over 10 million foldable phones sold in 2021. Therefore to draw a conclusion, its not false to say that Samsung’s Z series has a bright future.
Unlike the beginning series, the foldables are more refined and robust now. It make them capable to gain consumer confidence. Hopefully, the production cost for foldable smartphones will reduce in the future which subsequently help in reduction of the retail price. As with affordable price tag, more consumers can jump on board, and Samsung’s foldable phones will truly start to take off.