Samsung reportedly planning foldables shake-up – its next phone could be a game-changer

Company has a lot more folding phones and possibly a folding tablet in the pipeline, it's claimed

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 review
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
Quick Summary

Samsung is reportedly struggling to attract new customers to its folding phones.

It's reported solution is to double down with more of them – three to four phones and a folding tablet too.

You know where you are with Samsung's folding phones: if you want the most powerful and expensive model you go for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, and if you want the more fun but still quite expensive model then you go for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6.

However, as we said in our review of the latter, Samsung can't afford to rest on its laurels. The competition is getting really good, and it looks like the manufacturer concurs.

According to multiple sources, Samsung is planning to seriously shake up its folding phone portfolio with as many as four new folding phones and a folding tablet too. The reports, which have been handily collated by 9to5Google, say that Samsung wants to "breathe life into its foldable line-up" by expanding the range to appeal to a wider customer base.

Here's what Samsung is reportedly planning.

Samsung: 4 new foldables and a tri-fold tablet

According to ZDNet Korea, Samsung is considering a more affordable Flip and a "tri-fold" version of the Fold, which would presumably be similar to Huawei's impressive Mate XT.

Samsung is also rumoured to be working on a rollable phone or tablet for a launch in 2025. And financial firm Meritz Securities claims that the company is working on "3 to 4" new folding phones and a larger foldable too.

ZDNet says that sales of the current Fold and Flip are disappointing: sales have fallen short of their initial target, 9 to 10 million units, and those targets have been revised downwards to 7 to 8 million. Sales of the Flip, the report says, are "particularly sluggish".

The key issue, it seems, is that the Fold and Flip aren't attracting many new customers: in July Samsung said that "most" foldable sales are from existing foldable owners who are upgrading their devices. By offering a wider range and a wider range of prices, the Korean tech giant clearly hopes to change that.

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Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).