Samsung has just launched the Galaxy Z Fold6 Special Edition, which is the company’s second flagship phone this year. Now, the tech giant has confirmed that it has no plans to launch a cheap Galaxy Z Fold smartphone.
According to a machine-translated report by a South Korean publication SisaJournalSamsung says there are “currently no plans to release an entry-level model with a significantly reduced price.”
This debunks earlier rumors that Samsung was working on a cheaper Galaxy Z Fold, which could sport a cheaper flexible OLED panel bezel and chipset, bringing the effective price down to somewhere around $80 (roughly Rs 67,000).
While Samsung’s latest book-style foldable phone is more than a leap forward and offers great value for money, compared to other Chinese phone manufacturers like OnePlus, the company falls short in terms of hardware. A Samsung executive is reported to have explained that the Galaxy Z Fold series was released to expand the range of options available to users instead of being sold as a premium product.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is Samsung’s sixth book-style foldable phone. (Show image)
Since Huawei launched its new foldable phone earlier this year, a report by Counterpoint Research suggests that the Chinese smartphone maker has managed to stay on top of the global foldable phone market with a 35 percent market share compared to Samsung and Honor’s 23 percent and 12. percent market share in the segment.
In July, Samsung said 9 on 5 Google that most of its foldable customers are from the previous generation and that not many new people are switching to the foldable form factor. When Samsung launched the first generation of the Galaxy Z Fold, it was expected that the price of foldable phones would drop in the coming years. Apparently, that’s not the case as the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Special Edition costs $100 more than the regular version.
To give you a quick update, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Special Edition looks and feels the same as the regular variant, but is a bit lighter and thinner and sports a 200MP primary camera. It will be available from October 25 in South Korea, but it seems that Samsung is not ready to bring it to the global market.